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Oh yeah, the combine is happening

These stopwatches mean millions of dollars to players at the NFL Combine (Photo: Ben Liebenberg/NFL.com)

You’ll have to forgive us for our recent lapse in NFL coverage … we were swept up in Winter Olympic fever for the past few weeks, and kind of forgot that the NFL Scouting Combine started last week.  And yeah, we actually had something better to do than watch a bunch of grown men run around in their skivvies.  So sue us.

Otherwise known as the “underwear Olympics”, the Combine is the annual meat market where NFL teams poke and prod at the latest round of prospects like so much cattle, sizing up their chances of success at the next level. It’s where Wonderlics, route trees and body lean become the talk of the day.  A place where a mediocre player can rise from obscurity with a 4.3 40-yard dash time, and where an all-American LB can tumble down the draft charts because he’s a few inches too short.

As you might be able to surmise from our tone, we don’t put as much stock in the combine as some others.  I mean, it’s a useful tool to get an up-close look at these athletes, who teams are about to invest millions of dollars in … but it should really only be one piece of the larger puzzle.  How someone performs on an indoor track in a sterilized environment should not be viewed as a direct reflection of how they will perform on Sunday.  Sure, there are some physical tools that you simply can’t teach, and certain teams (ie., the Raiders) are always going to take a chance on gifted athletes, whether they can actually play football or not.  But if a kid is ranked in your top 10 at the end of the college season, after being a playmaker his entire career, there’s simply no way a slow 3-cone drill time should drop him off of your board.

DTs Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma (left) and Ndomukong Suh of Nebraska are 2 of the top prospects in this year's draft (Photo: Ben Liebenberg/NFL.com)

I’ve watched a few hours of the combine over the past 2 days, and I guess I’ll have to leave it to the Kipers and Mayocks of the world, who make their living off of this event. And don’t get me wrong, you can definitely gain some affirmation on your feelings about a player one way or another from these workouts – and especially the interviews.  I just feel that often, too much value is placed on these measurements over actual gameday performance.

And with that, I leave you with a few Combine-related links:

• Tim Tebow’s 2010 Combine performance set to Iron Maiden [Deadspin]
• NFL Network’s Rich Eisen prepares to run the 40-yard dash [NFL.com]
• *UPDATE* Clemson RB CJ Spiller’s blazing 40-yard dash of 4.27 seconds … actually clocked in at 4.37 seconds.  Whoops.

AFTER THE JUMP, WATCH RICH EISEN RUN THE 40-YARD DASH … IN A SUIT

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