Trevor Pryce played in the N.F.L. from 1997 to 2010.
This week, the top prospects in college football will face their toughest test yet: the N.F.L. scouting combine. And if they thought staring down Alabama's offensive or defensive lines was scary, just wait until they are locked in a room with Baltimore Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome and he brings up that thing they did with those people they should not have been hanging out with at that place they should have avoided.
The combine is all about teams and players finding common ground, determining whether they can work together. Well, it's about that and ratings for the NFL Network, which broadcasts the proceedings, though not the players' team interviews, and has found ways to turn scouting a new cornerback into a cutthroat version of "American Idol."
We watch the combine because we hope that the prospect on our screen might be the guy who takes our team to the promised land. We watch it because we want football, any football, even the kind where there really isn't all that much football being played. And we watch, quite frankly, because it's going to be on for 24 hours a day until the 40-yard dash times of every overweight lineman is broken down and the image of them rumbling around Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is forever burned into our subconscious. Even after all of that, what did we learn about these prospects? I say not much.
Have you ever gone to a job interview knowing exactly what questions were going to be asked? The players at the combine know all the drills, all the people running them and how they are going to perform before they even check into their hotels the night before. It is not really a fair assessment of what kind of N.F.L. players they could become. A staggering number of draft picks with combine results that were off the charts — a low time in the 40 and a high number of bench-press repetitions — looked like players created for a Madden video game when they weighed in. Then there was Tom Brady. Just look at a photo of him from the combine to see how little all of those measurements mean.
So I'd like to propose a few minor changes to the combine.
Football is a game of action and reaction, so let's see how they react when the offensive linemen are told that instead of running a 40-yard dash, they are going to run a 400-meter race. I think then we'd learn everything we need to know about Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel. For those of you saying nobody on a football field runs 400 meters, go ask your favorite player when was the last time he ran a 40. Hint: it was at the combine.
More than knowing how fast Joeckel is, I need to know that when he's tired and needs to push himself, he can and will. And there's no better place to learn that than on the last turn on the 400. Ask anybody who has run one competitively about the bear that seems to jump on your back. Ask them about the lactic acid buildup that turns your legs into soup. And ask them about that feeling you get if you are running that distance without being in shape, mentally or physically.
Let's see how the receivers react when they are told that instead of using the bench press to measure their strength, they are going to do some Greco-Roman wrestling against a couple of Olympians. This would be a telltale sign of not only how strong they are, but what kind of competitors they are. Are they scared? Will they attack? Can they handle being slammed, or do they act like divas? Think of the difference between Anquan Boldin and Randy Moss in the Super Bowl, and you will understand why this drill would be a must see for teams looking to draft a wideout. They already know the receivers can catch, but are they really as tough as advertised? If, say, California's Keenan Allen did not have his forearm broken by the Olympian, then he probably is.
Many believe that the N.B.A. has the greatest athletes in the world. There is a reason college basketball players turned tight ends like Tony Gonzalez, Jimmy Graham and Antonio Gates dominate in the N.F.L. So let's put the linebackers on the court and see what their man-to-man defensive skills are like. Want to know how good Georgia's Alec Ogletree is going to be in the N.F.L.? If he can stop the Nets' Joe Johnson from dropping 45 points on him, he'll probably play at a Pro Bowl level.
As it now stands, the combine is an outdated and antiquated event that has basically gone unchanged for 30 years, while the game of football has evolved in a thousand ways. It's the lowest common denominator, which is fine if you want an average player. But if the quarterback you want your team to draft can play soccer at a high level, or the defensive end the Oakland Raiders like won a gold medal throwing the discus at the Junior Olympics, as did Southern Methodist's Margus Hunt, I have a hunch that is a better barometer for how they will do on a professional football field.
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