Pinkney Among Those with most to Prove at NFL Combine According to PFF

Pro Football Focus (PFF) is one of the leading analytics sites on the NFL and college football. This week the site produced a list of the Top-10 prospects with the most to prove in the coming NFL Draft Combine.

Former Commodore Jared Pinkney made that list as he, and others must show NFL teams that they are either better than, have overcome their deficiencies or that the teams have simply made a mistake in their player evaluations.

Pinkney's performance during Senior Bowl week in Mobile, Ala. helped ease some of the questions, but made others worse depending on which scout you speak with. There are multiple things the 6'5" 254-pound tight end must continue to improve upon and show when he takes the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis before every NFL Team's scouts, general managers, and coaches.

Here's the evaluation of Pinkney from PFF.

“His Senior Bowl made matters far worse, dropping his PFF big board rank from 43rd to out of the top 100. Pinkney lowered his 81.9 receiving grade from 2018 to 53.4 in 2019. He had poor production all-around by generating just 0.87 yards per route run, which was dead last among qualifying tight ends. Pinkney’s combine performance will impact his NFL future arguably more than anyone else in attendance.”

"Getting open was the biggest issue for Pinkney in 2019. As a tight end in the NFL, he’ll be asked to catch a lot more balls considering offenses like to open it up more with scoring rising throughout the league. We’ve seen all-star tight ends like Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Zach Ertz dominate defenses but they are able to get wide open on their route running. That will be the biggest examination of Pinkney at the combine."

For those who have never experienced it, the Combine is a hectic and stressful situation for players, and even coaches and media in attendance as the players are put through physical examinations, interviews with both teams and media and then their on-field testing which is done before everyone present and on live television.

While the physical portions are the most important, teams are also watching how players handle the off-field parts to determine how they respond in stressful situations.

This is the last and biggest test for every single player invited to attend, and its perhaps biggest of all for Pinkney as the difference between a mid-round selection, and a late first-round pick as he was projected last season is financially huge.