PA Season Ticket Holder
02-19-2003, 09:09 PM
INDIANAPOLIS (Feb. 18, 2003) -- Maybe it no longer is the one-stop-shopping experience it was originally meant to be.
Maybe it doesn't provide a definitive answer to every critical question that NFL teams have about every player they view as a potential pick in April's draft.
But the annual National Football Scouting Combine that began here today continues to have an important place in the overall process of evaluating college football talent.
If it didn't, it wouldn't still rank as one of the few must-attend offseason events for every general manager, coach, and scout in the league. Being here is mandatory, because this is where more than 300 of the nation's top NFL prospects -- which represent the lifeblood of all 32 clubs -- have been invited to spend the next several days.
True, GMs, coaches, and scouts will once again complain about the higher-rated players who, on the advice of their agents, refuse to run the 40-yard dash or participate in the several agility and strength drills conducted for their assessment in the RCA Dome. Representatives of the upper-tier prospects tend to believe that their clients are better served displaying their physical skills during smaller, more personalized workout sessions scheduled over the next few months at their respective college campuses. That, of course, means team talent evaluators will have to travel around the country to watch them, which was exactly what the Combine was supposed to have eliminated when it began many years ago.
MORE (http://nfl.com/insider/story/6197027)
Maybe it doesn't provide a definitive answer to every critical question that NFL teams have about every player they view as a potential pick in April's draft.
But the annual National Football Scouting Combine that began here today continues to have an important place in the overall process of evaluating college football talent.
If it didn't, it wouldn't still rank as one of the few must-attend offseason events for every general manager, coach, and scout in the league. Being here is mandatory, because this is where more than 300 of the nation's top NFL prospects -- which represent the lifeblood of all 32 clubs -- have been invited to spend the next several days.
True, GMs, coaches, and scouts will once again complain about the higher-rated players who, on the advice of their agents, refuse to run the 40-yard dash or participate in the several agility and strength drills conducted for their assessment in the RCA Dome. Representatives of the upper-tier prospects tend to believe that their clients are better served displaying their physical skills during smaller, more personalized workout sessions scheduled over the next few months at their respective college campuses. That, of course, means team talent evaluators will have to travel around the country to watch them, which was exactly what the Combine was supposed to have eliminated when it began many years ago.
MORE (http://nfl.com/insider/story/6197027)