Combine changes may be coming, but eliminating 40 seems unlikely

The annual NFL Scouting Combine is being held this week, with players, coaches, scouts and media ascending on Indianapolis beginning Tuesday.

Prospects are put through long days that include medical evaluations, interviews and physical testing. The testing is the only part the public can see, as players do position-specific drill, but all players do drills like the standing broad jump, vertical jump, bench press, 3-cone drill, shuttle run and 40-yard dash.

But USA Today’s Tom Pelissero is reporting that changes may be coming to those tests.

The president of National Football Scouting Inc., which runs the combine, told Pelissero that the company is creating a committee of league executives, scouts, coaches, athletic trainers, team physicians and others to review all aspects of the event, beginning this week.

“Our first focus is to look at what we do currently and making sure that that’s relevant,” Jeff Foster said. “And if it is, great, we’ll continue to do it, because historical comparison is really important to the evaluation process. But if we believe that there’s something that’s not relevant, then what can we replace it with that will help us evaluate the players?”

Foster added that the NFL’s operations department will also be involved in the review process, making checks through the draft and beyond; evolving technology and understanding of sports science could be part of any changes made for future combines.

(Interesting there’s no mention of current or recently-retired players being part of this committee. Wouldn’t they have a good idea of what drills actually show football ability? Maybe?)

The combine has added several off-field tests in recent years, including a functional movement screen, baseline neurological testing and a psychological test called the Player Assessment Tool that’s given in addition to the Wonderlic test, but the on-field tests have been the same for decades.

While there have long been questions about how helpful the bench press, vertical leap and 40 are in the evaluation process, it seems highly unlikely the 40 will be going anywhere. It’s the marquee event, the combine’s version of the 100 meters at the Summer Olympics. NFL Network sends numerous personalities and analysts to Indianapolis to critque prospect performances, and last year the network saw record viewership numbers – over 500,000 televisions were tuned into the quarterback workouts, nearly double the viewers from a year before.

Granted, there was a lot of interest in that workout, with Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, eventually taken 1-2 in the draft. But it aired live during the middle of the day on a Saturday. That means a half-million people put other things in their lives off to watch players throw to receivers they didn’t know, with no defenders on the field.

And since any mention of the 40 at the combine seems incomplete without video of a player doing the 40, here’s Tom Brady running perhaps the most awkward 40 of all time, and proving that the 40 tells us nothing when it comes to future success as a quarterback.