The most overrated event on the NFL calendar begins this week. It's called the NFL Scouting Combine, and it takes place in Indianapolis.
When I consider that I spent about 20 weeks of my life at what's not so affectionately called the Underwear Olympics, I cringe.
During my time as an NFL team president, I also cringed when I saw the travel bills generated when we sent a contingent of 35 or so team employees to Indy. General manager, player personnel director, 10 scouts, 18 coaches, three trainers and three team doctors. Not to mention the league's costs of bringing in more than 300 draft-eligible players for an average of four days each.
Talk about overkill.
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The Combine is so over-hyped, especially in recent years as NFL Network began to carry wall-to-wall coverage of on-field workouts from Friday through Monday. The promos say, "Watch the Combine coverage to see who will separate themselves from the rest of the draft class."
That's hardly the case, unless a previously undiagnosed injury is uncovered during the extensive physicals and causes a player to be downgraded.
Announcers hyperventilating over 40-yard dashes by linemen who rarely run more than 10 yards. Three-cone drills and shuttle runs — yawn.
And let's see how many reps the wide receivers can manage on the bench press, as if that's as important as what kind of route-runners they are and how well they catch the football.
Same for quarterbacks throwing to receivers with no pass rushers or defensive backs in coverage. How tough is that?
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I generally feel the Combine is a boring, tedious, expensive exercise. For the coaches, it is in effect a convention with their peers. GMs are more interested in talking potential contracts for free agents with the many agents in town. Those agents are there to support their rookies, but they're just as focused on NFL free agency, which this year begins March 13.
The highlight of the week for me was going to dinner with our scouts at St. Elmo Steak House and laughing as everyone sampled their famous super hot and spicy shrimp cocktail.
Only two elements are truly important at the Combine — the in-depth physicals and the player interviews. The physicals are the first opportunities for teams to obtain accurate medical data on players as opposed to the filtered reports uncovered from their college trainers and coaches. For example, teams will find out whether a player is 6-5, as his college media guide suggests, or actually 6-3.
The interview sessions are valuable to an extent, as teams get to know players better. But, again, there's overkill. Players will be visited at their Pro Days, and then again when many of them are brought in to team facilities during the weeks leading up to the draft (another colossal waste of time and money).
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Most Combine players are well schooled on interview techniques and potential difficult questions. I know this very well because I do consulting work for an NFL agent group. I am responsible for training our rookies-to-be on interviewing and intelligence testing.
For example, in 2017, I was in Orlando a week before the Combine working with five members of the rookie class, including a sure first-rounder, who were doing their draft training and prep work at Tom Shaw's Performance Enhancement Center. I gave our players 20-point tip sheets on things such as clothing to wear, eye contact, posture, speaking loudly and confidently and avoiding phrases such as "you know" and "like."
I grilled them on anticipated questions; on football, family and anything in their past that teams might bring up. I spent two to three hours with each player, taping the interviews with all kinds of questions (similar to what I heard in these interviews during my GM years). Then we reviewed the tapes, and I gave feedback on their answers and body language.
We also have our players take several sample Wonderlic intelligence tests so they get a feel for the types of questions and the time element (50 question test that must be completed in 12 minutes).
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NFL teams know this on- and off-field training work is taking place. While it's obvious which players have been coached up in these areas, the astute GMs, coaches and scouts still can get a fairly good read on players’ personalities during their 15-minute interview sessions at the Combine. Top players can expect to meet with virtually every team, so it can become a mental endurance test, too.
In pre-draft meetings with our scouts and coaches, I would always emphasize the necessity of focusing on how players performed on the field in games during their college careers as opposed to putting too much stock in Combine and Pro Day performances. Instincts and football savvy don't always show up in drills.
While it's nice that a player can run a 4.3 40-yard dash, I would talk about players such as Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Cris Carter, who were 4.5 guys but ran impeccable routes and had great hands. Anthony Carter was a receiver for us with the Vikings who was timed around 4.5, but when he caught a slant in stride, it sure looked like he was running 4.3.
There are the horror stories of Combine workout warriors such as Mike Mamula, a defensive end who was a very good college player. He tested off the charts at the Combine in 1995, as he was one of first players to train extensively for every drill.
The Eagles traded away three high draft picks to move up to seventh overall and select Mamula. He became a decent NFL player over his six-year career, but he never made the Pro Bowl, was often injured and never played up to the hype.
At least Mamula had big production during his college career at Boston College — 29 sacks over his last two seasons. That wasn’t the case with wide receiver Stephen Hill, who caught just 49 passes during his Georgia Tech career but ran 4.3 at the 2012 Combine. The Jets traded three picks to move up in the second round and select Hill, who caught 45 passes before being released after two seasons.
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So if you are unfortunate enough to actually tune in for Combine coverage, don't get caught up in the hype.
Remember it's just a small piece of a big evaluation puzzle. The biggest piece is how a player actually plays in real games.
Jeff Diamond is a former president of the Titans and former vice president/general manager of the Vikings. He was selected NFL Executive of the Year in 1998. Diamond is currently a business and sports consultant who also does broadcast and online media work. He makes speaking appearances to corporate/civic groups and college classes on negotiation and sports business/sports management. He is the former chairman and CEO of The Ingram Group. Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffdiamondNFL.
