Pre-Draft Visits, Combine Medical Recheck Cancelled, Pro Days Likely Next
The NFL is responding to evolving concerns over COVID-19 by eliminating as much travel as possible, particularly air travel. With that, the NFL has cancelled pre-draft visits. Each team normally has 30 pre-draft visits where they can bring prospects into their facility for interviews. The NFL Scouting Combine has cancelled their medical recheck, which updates teams on the status of players recovering from injuries or medical procedures. Pro days at colleges are likely next.
According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports is reporting the news of the combine medical rechecks. He's also reporting that pro days may be cancelled as of March 20th. A number of teams have already basically announced they won't be traveling to pro days to protect their scouts and team personnel from being exposed to COVID-19.
This presents a unique dynamic for teams. The medical recheck is perhaps the biggest news because there are players that are recovering from injuries and this provides up to date information for all 32 teams. Players like Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama, who is recovering from a hip injury, have been closely monitored, because depending on the evaluation of doctors, their team may or may not select them.
Likewise, pro days are notable because some players were planning to hold them late in the process, including Tagovailoa, Isaiah Simmons of Clemson and Prince Tega Wanogho of Auburn to show teams they were healthy and perform before teams made their final evaluations. Teams may find way creative ways to come up with the information they need, but this could have a significant impact on the way teams draft.
This could also prove costly for smaller school prospects. Everything goes back to the film, but particularly with players who played against lesser competition, it can be difficult to properly contextualize what they can do when being projected to the NFL. Being in person, seeing them up close and obviously timing them and working them out can make teams feel far more confident in those players, drafting them high.
The NFL has not made any announcements about the timing of the NFL Draft changing at this point. The one announcement they did make is that the league year will begin March 18th, so for the time being, the calendar is proceeding as scheduled.
It will be interesting to see how players with medical questions and smaller school players are selected in the draft. There are two different completely different dynamics in play and each team could handle each issue differently. On one hand, they are potentially relying on medical projections. On the other, teams are deciding how much they believe in their area scouts who have might be pushing some smaller school players.
Particularly for the Cleveland Browns, who have a new regime in place, they have to decide how much they trust their scouts that have been in place for years in many cases. And if this limits data for a particularly data conscious team like the Browns, how they plan to navigate the process with less of it at their disposal will be interesting. This situation seemingly works to the advantage of teams that have experienced the least change.
