The Death Throes of the Combine?
A number of high-profile players will not be working out at the NFL's Scouting Combine this week in Indianapolis, headlined by potential No. 1 overall pick Evan Neal of Alabama.
Neal, perhaps the top offensive tackle in the draft, could be the second consecutive top overall selection by the Jacksonville Jaguars in an effort to protect 2021 top pick, quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Others bowing out include LSU cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr. and Ole Miss QB Matt Corral.
Neal will interview with teams at the combine but few will have the opportunity to draft the former Alabama star. He will wait to work out on-field until the Crimson Tide's Pro Day on March 30.
Stingley and Corral are pushing things back as well to their pro days due to injuries.
A top option outside the numbers on defense, Stingley would be of interest to the Eagles if he somehow falls to No. 15, which is unlikely but somewhat plausible because the NFL legacy is coming off Lisfranc surgery, something that is always serious. LSU's pro day is scheduled for April 6.
LSU's Deek Stingley (7) is coming off Lisfanc surgery and won't participate in field drills at the NFL Combine.
USA Today
Corral opted out of throwing at the combine due to a high-ankle sprain he suffered in the Sugar Bowl. The potential first-rounder started throwing again a few weeks ago but will hold off from showing his progress until Ole Miss' pro day on March 23.
More prospects will surely be begging off in the coming hours as well.
After taking a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of the combine was already up for debate when the NFL sent out a memo to the 324 draft prospects invited, informing them that they were going to be restricted to a “bubble” during their stay in Indianapolis.
Many of the top agents balked, pointing out that the league had essentially declared COVID-19 over late last season and it was hypocritical to put the prospects who don't have union protection yet under such draconian protocols.
Ultimately, the league blamed National Football Scouting, which runs the combine, and reversed course after hundreds of prospects threatened a boycott that would have derailed an important offseason television vehicle.
From a personnel perspective, the major purpose of the combine has always been the independent medical evaluations with the actual workouts being far more important and overblown to the cottage industry of draftniks that have popped up.
The NFL Network’s lead draft analyst, former Eagles scout Daniel Jeremiah, believes the combine does still have some value to teams beyond the medical exams, however.
“I think it’s still valuable from the standpoint of watching these guys all move around on the field together,” Jeremiah said. “When you’ve got four corners that you’ve got the same grade on and they’re all out there at the same time doing the same drills, it helps you to be able to separate them and evaluate them in terms of how they move."
More and more, though, that evaluation is going to be down the draft board and not with the top selections who have the cachet to wait to work out in a more comfortable environment at their respective pro days.
The Super Bowl champion Los Angles Rams announced on Sunday that coach Sean McVay and GM Les Snead will not even be attending the combine, something McVay, perhaps the most highly-regarded coach in the league not named Bill Belichick these days, hinted at back in 2020 when he spent one day in Indy and kept most of his scouting staff home believing more work would get done from there.
"I think some people would say, 'Well, you see everything on tape so you don’t need to have the combine. You have all this technology,'" Jeremiah said. "That’s true, but you know what? If you watch a corner and he never plays press, I want to see how he moves when he gets up in there. I want to see how he pedals. Or you may have a 230-pound defensive end that you’ve got to write up as an off-the-ball linebacker.
"I sure as heck would like to see him do some linebacker drills. It helps with context.”
The Rams' first selection in the 2022 draft is not scheduled until the end of the third round after making high-profile trades for quarterback Matthew Stafford and edge rusher Von Miller last year, a path that was validated by the Lombardi Trophy.
Snead, meanwhile, celebrated the championship with a T-shirt that read "F@#$ them picks."
The combine will remain in some form moving forward, almost surely moved out of Indianapolis, as it slowly morphs into even more of a television vehicle and less of an evaluation tool.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
