NFL Scouting Combine: For Titans, NFL Rivals, Data Collection Is Much More than a 40 Time
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon, new coach Brian Callahan, and Titans staff join their National Football League colleagues in Indianapolis this week for the NFL Scouting Combine: an annual rite of passage to judge incoming college football talent and start plotting a strategy for April's NFL Draft.
From modest beginnings in Tampa 40-plus years ago, the Scouting Combine has become a very big deal. Three hundred-plus college football athletes run, jump, catch, lift weights, and answer questions in front of talent evaluators for all 32 NFL teams. A national television audience will bear witness to some of the spectacle.
How did we get here?
According to NFL.com, National Football Scouting Inc. (NFS) organized the first National Invitational Camp in Tampa in 1982. The goal was to bring together the "top college draft picks to one location to get medical information for its 16 member clubs."
The NFS camp and two others were merged in 1985. Again from NFL.com: "Centralizing the camps allowed teams to conduct more thorough evaluations of draft prospects. In addition to considering a player’s medical history, clubs were able to spend more time on physical and psychological testing, giving the personnel departments a more holistic impression of the player before the draft." The Combine moved to Indianapolis in 1987.
Today, the Combine is a bucket list entry for NFL fans. At the Combine Experience, the public can take photos with the Colts' Super Bowl XLI Vince Lombardi Trophy, view all 57 Super Bowl rings, and enter to win tickets for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans and the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit on April 25-27.
Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian, who attended every Combine from 1985 to 2019, said the Combine first and foremost is about sharing player information. Writing for the33rdteam.com in 2023, Polian said, "The fact that the combine has morphed into a TV show, press extravaganza, trade show and agent convention is totally beside the point. None of it sells a ticket or wins a game. If all the extraneous things ended tomorrow, the combine would still be, at its core, about physical examinations."
What is a tenth of a second worth?
The 40-yard dash, a test of pure straight-line speed, has become the marquee event of the Combine. A tenth of a second up or down can move the needle on a player's evaluation and possibly affect his draft position.
Former Titans running back Chris Johnson set the 2008 Combine abuzz with a then-record 40 at 4.24 seconds.
Tennessee took Johnson with the 24th pick in the first round of the draft.
He gave the Titans six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons — including 2,006 rushing yards in his second year — made the Pro Bowl three times and All-Pro once.
Another physical test often used as a benchmark for predicted success or failure is the 225-pound bench press. How many repetitions can a player perform until they fail? It measures both their overall strength and endurance.
Offensive tackle Orlando Brown failed quickly at the 2018 Combine — or slowly given his 40 time of 5.85 seconds. He benched 225 pounds only 14 times (when twice as many would be average). He fell to the third round of the draft. And it all meant nothing. Brown was a Pro Bowler four consecutive years and won a Super Bowl this year with the Chiefs.
Poked, prodded, and questioned
The Combine invited 321 athletes this year, and each player will spend approximately four days in Indianapolis.
Before the public workouts, which are divided by positions and run Thursday through Sunday, athletes participate every night in interviews with teams. This part of the process is not visible to the public or media, but to many teams it is more important than the drills.
Medical testing includes injury evaluation, drug screening, functional movement screening, and a urine test.
After medical exams and in-person interviews, players will begin with the 40-yard dash and then move on to a series of agility drills — the 20-yard shuttle, the 3-cone drill, and the 60-yard shuttle — and a vertical jump and a standing long jump.
After those exercises, position-specific drills are run by various position coaches representing NFL clubs.
Bill Polian said the physical examinations are "the overriding reason for the combine. This physical is extensive. It is similar and, for similar reasons, is akin to that given to candidates for service in fire, police, and military organizations. While it provides the club with essential data on potential employees, it also provides players with a complete assessment of their health and their ability to withstand the rigors of pro football, the likes of which they have never had. Every year, we discover players with severe or life-threatening medical conditions that have gone unnoticed throughout their college careers. This is not a burden but an obvious benefit to the players."
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