Day 2 Combine Reaction

[CleveSteve]

OK, I may have gone a little overboard here. It's kind of long, but if you're interested, here's the link. Let me know what you think, if you agree/disagree!

http://cornerblitz.com/2013/Combine/QBWRRB.aspx

[mjt328]

No offense, but I've never understood the fascination with the combine.
In my opinion, there is nothing you can find out from the combine - that you can't find out BETTER from good film study.

Did scouts really need a 40 yard dash to determine that Tavon Austin is fast?

People watch Tyler Bray in a controlled setting, and suddenly their mouths are drooling. He's climbing up draft boards. Any moron watching a Tennesee game can tell you that Bray most likely has the strongest arm out of all the 2013 prospects. Big deal. He's also probably got the worst accuracy. And now, some team will overdraft him. Probably us.

[Night Train]

Good Stuff.

Not a fan of the QB's but WR's Patterson (Tenn), Woods (USC), Hopkins (Clemson) & Patton (LA Tech) look to be major talents at WR.

[stuckincincy]

No offense, but I've never understood the fascination with the combine.
In my opinion, there is nothing you can find out from the combine - that you can't find out BETTER from good film study.

Did scouts really need a 40 yard dash to determine that Tavon Austin is fast?

People watch Tyler Bray in a controlled setting, and suddenly their mouths are drooling. He's climbing up draft boards. Any moron watching a Tennesee game can tell you that Bray most likely has the strongest arm out of all the 2013 prospects. Big deal. He's also probably got the worst accuracy. And now, some team will overdraft him. Probably us.

Doc: NFL Combine shows league takes itself way too seriously
by Paul Daughtery, Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb 24, 2013

"Like lots of things the NFL does, the Combine has gone from measured and reasonable to spectacular and ridiculous. What used to be a way to get all prospective draftees in one large room with a bunch of medical doctors has metastasized into yet another marketing tool. Who’d have thought that watching men in shorts dodge plastic cones would make for boffo television?"...

"Back in the days before Madden – the video game, not the coach – the league figured rightly that making its prospective players go from team to team for physical exams was inefficient. It decided to gather everyone at one site and let a corps of doctors do their work. That was 25 years ago."...

"The league is considering pushing back the Combine a month or more, so as to lengthen the NFL’s marketable calendar year, which already runs from the draft in April to the Super Bowl in early February. Plans are in the works for regional Combines, leading up to the spectacle currently occurring in Indianapolis. It doesn’t take leap of marketing imagination to see the definition of “regional’’ expanding."...

Full article:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...-too-seriously

[CleveSteve]

No offense, but I've never understood the fascination with the combine.
In my opinion, there is nothing you can find out from the combine - that you can't find out BETTER from good film study.

Did scouts really need a 40 yard dash to determine that Tavon Austin is fast?

People watch Tyler Bray in a controlled setting, and suddenly their mouths are drooling. He's climbing up draft boards. Any moron watching a Tennesee game can tell you that Bray most likely has the strongest arm out of all the 2013 prospects. Big deal. He's also probably got the worst accuracy. And now, some team will overdraft him. Probably us.

None taken. Absolutely the games are better talent evaluations. There are things the combine are useful for, though.

• Teams schemes in college can mask deficiencies that can be exposed at the combine. Not to mention level of competition, quality of teammates, etc. Movement skills, throwing ability... this shows people doing the same activity in the same setting. Not really a safe way to do that with pads on.
• Positional projection... Armonty Bryant looked good in the linebacker positional drills but he's never played that in a game. 3-4 teams that want to know if they should consider him want to see how he moves laterally, catches the ball, etc, and he did both things very well.

Drafting people strictly on a combine performance is a bad idea, but I think it helps frame the game performance properly.

To use the cliche... it's just another piece of the puzzle.

[justasportsfan]

means nothing but I'll post this here.

Enjoy!