Questions linger about continued relevance of combine drills
March 3, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Players running around in underwear. That’s the quintessential snapshot of the NFL scouting combine, or the entire pre-draft period for that matter. The sprinting, jumping and shuffling in high-performance, form-fitting workout threads, though, is only a piece of this complex evaluation puzzle. For all the attention on 40-yard dash times, bench-press repetitions and vertical leaps – fueled by an around-the-clock broadcast on the league’s own cable network – questions linger about the continued relevance of these activities during an era when mathematic and scientific advancement have taken player appraisal to places that never seemed possible before. Don’t