Stretching the Field: Breaking the Combine
by Luke Paul Chandler
With the Combine upon us, Luke Paul Chandler looks at his plan to replace the glitz and glamor of the Combine.
By Luke Paul Chandler
The 2008 NFL Combine starts today. The Combine used to be a time for scouts and general managers to poke and prod draft prospects to get accurate measurements, and get a way to find out just how strong and fast a player is. As the Combine has grown nationally, it has become more show and a spectacle for agents to bring out prospects like prized dogs at the Westminster Dog Show.
Now most prospects come to Indianapolis to mingle with prospective teams rather than show off their physical skills. A hot move to pull is to come to the Combine, and not work out, or only do a sample of the work. Typically, players who refuse to work out are giving themselves a free pass till they can work out in a more controlled environment in their pro day. As the NFL continues this trend, it shows how much the system needs to be fixed. Why should a player be invited if they know they are not going to be participating? If the Combine could be fixed, now is the time to do it.
Step 1 - Come to play
While turning the NFL Combine into a glorified meet and greet may work for some players and agents, it’s not the true purpose of the event. In the age of information, it’s not hard to find out something about a player that a few emails or mouse clicks can’t do. If a player wants to come to Indianapolis and not workout, they serve no purpose for being there. A team can fly in players to visit in the roughly two months from the Combine to the actual Draft that they want to meet with, so why waste doing that at the Combine? Also, the medical examinations done can be done easily on team visits.
Step 2 - Once there, do it all
The next process of prospects coming and then picking and choosing what events they want to participate in is silly. Some players will avoid the 40-yard dash, for example, because they haven’t had proper time to train for it, so they postpone till their pro day. If you’re going to come to showcase your talents, do it all, or do nothing.
Step 3 - This isn’t a Wonderland
The NFL’s use of the Wonderlic test has many supporters, but it needs to go. The test, which only takes 20 minutes to administer, is supposed to be a quick way to ascertain a player’s intelligence, and ability to think quickly under pressure. If taken seriously, the test is a solid indicator of a player’s intelligence level, which can directly correlate to their ability digest a playbook, or scan a defense. The problem is that many players blow it off.
The NFL would likely do better to change up this would be to administer something that tests a player’s digit/character span, or short-term memory capacity. It would be quicker to give this test, and it could also give the teams a fair idea of a player’s ability to remember a play call. Since most people can remember a character span of seven, plus or minus two, it would give a fair assessment.
Step 4 - Shrink
Another step that could be helpful would be the introduction of a quick personality test. In many ways, this could give teams insight into the type of person they would be analyzing. It would give insight into their thought processes, possibly identifying triggers for what motivates them. In an NFL where there is a crackdown on violence and off-field illegal activity, this could help team’s identify red flag players.
Step 5 - Give me 10 instead of 40
The illustrious 40-yard-dash will never go away. It’s become the sexy, flashy aspect of the Combine that everyone gets sucked into. It makes and breaks draft status in under 5 seconds. There will be more on the 40 in a bit, but for now the bigger problem is why teams are not looking at the 10-yard split in the 40.
Very few plays in a given game require a player to run more than 40 yards, so why the obsession with it? Fast times usually equal faster, more athletic players, but it hardly shows much. If Glenn Dorsey ever runs down a play 40 yards downfield, his heart may explode (no offense to Mr. Dorsey). If team’s started to extract the 10-yard split from the 40, it could show them more about a player’s burst and initial quickness then a 40. If a player can run a sub 4.3 40-yard dash, but his first 10 yards takes him 1.7 seconds, it shows that he can burn, but he’s slow off the snap.
Step 6 - Won’t give up on the 40? Grab a ball.
The 40-yard dash has turned into a sprinter’s competition. Players are trained on the technique by track coaches and Olympians, and provide misleading time. At the Combine, the players will run in spandex and sprinters outfits, which is ironic considering the incredibly low amount of game time they will ever spend outside of their gear. So why not have them grab a ball and put on some gear?
If a player had to run his 40-yard dash with a ball tucked into his arm, it would give a more realistic view of how fast they play in a game situation. Only using one arm to pump and gain momentum is more believable then watching players do their best Carl Lewis impression. The flip to that would be having them run the 40 in full pads. If this was done, it would show how truly rare 4.3 speed is on the field in full pads.
Step 7 - Don’t go to the bar
The myth that has started to surround the 225 bench press is rivaling that of the 40-yard dash. Case in point would be last year where quarterback Brady Quinn out-lifted many defensive linemen on the 225. The case could be made he is stronger than said lineman, but in reality it’s not the truth. The 225-pound bench press can be faked and trained up, just like the 40-yard dash.
Putting up 30 plus reps of 225 pounds is impressive, but not quite a sign of overall upper body strength. That weight is not very high for NFL players to workout with, and is usually a warm-up weight. Plus, the players who do the best in the event usually have a rhythm built up for it, and it’s a sign of endurance than overall strength. At 225 pounds, most players became winded rather than fatigued in the muscle groups being used to bench press. This is why you’ll see players like Quinn, who have superb endurance, thrive in this event.
A better sign of strength would be to have the players perform reps of squats, or clean and jerks. Both are power-lifting type of exercises, and require more overall body strength to pull off. They are a bit more intense, and would be very effective in garnering the strength of the linemen.
Step 8 - Believe in the Trinity
The most important event in the Combine is the three-cone drill, which is rarely talked about by mainstream media or draft experts. An explanation of the three-cone drill can be found <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_cone_drill“>here.</a> What the three-cone drill measures is a player’s ability to cut and change directions, all while moving in a fluid direction. This drill is especially important for linebackers, defensive backs and receivers. If a player can “cut on a dime” so to speak, it means they can change their direction and break on the ball quickly. Going back to the 40-yard dash, so much is made of a player’s speed in that drill, but it’s more likely that a player would be cutting a moving on a play than sprinting 40 yards downfield.
All in all, changes to the Combine such as these would put teams in a position to be able to get more information about a player than the current system. With the Combine becoming more Hollywood and filled with glitz, the more teams get away from finding out the true core of the players that they are about to make multi-millionaire dollar investments in. Shoring up some of the flash ends of the Combine for more substance is better for the NFL.
Comments, questions, concerns can be sent to Luke@newerascouting.com.