The NFL Scouting Combine begins this week in Indianapolis. Wasn't the NFL just there? The first few days are mostly check-ins and weigh-ins, interviews and medical checks. The actual workouts start Saturday with the offensive linemen and tight ends. Some good does come out of the combine but it's mostly a ridiculous meat market. Of course, I still watch and follow it. I look at it as an entertaining part of the draft process. I just see little direct translation to football ability. Teams often get too wrapped up with the performances. Nothing beats actual performance on the football field. These performances over three or four years of college are the best indication of football ability and instincts. I've never understood the importance placed on numbers generated at the Combine. They only thing that reliably comes out of these numbers is the dreaded "workout warriors." The football players that "look like Tarzan but play like Jane." Teams fall over themselves to get these players. Often drafting them ridiculously early. Always forgetting that these workouts have absolutely nothing to do with wins on a football field. The players train specifically for these physical tests. It's like taking a test and already having the questions. Some "workout warriors" happen to also be fantastic football players. They time well. They lift well. They move well. They measure well. They also happen to dominate on the football field. Those are the ones remembered for their play on the football field. The workout numbers never mattered much. The ones that did little to nothing on the football field are the ones that get saddled with the "workout warrior" label. The teams that drafted them are considered fools. The players are considered deceitful. Everybody else claims to have known it all along. Here's a few of those "warriors" from years past:
Mike Mamula, DE, Boston College: He's often considered the first "workout warrior". Whenever a football fans think of the term they think of Mamula. A player with a 3rd draft grade was drafted 7th overall by the Philadelhia Eagles in 1995 when he ran like a linebacker and lifted like an offensive lineman. He was an average player, at best, in the league.
Vernon Gholston, DE/LB, Ohio St.: His amazing 2008 workout combined with his "one-year wonder" in college made him the 6th pick in the Draft by the New York Jets. Gholston had 14.5 sacks in his lone stellar year at Ohio State. He's still looking for his first sack in the NFL.
Matt Jones, WR, Arkansas: Jones was a versatile college quarterback that went nuts at the 2004 Scouting Combine. At 6'6" and 237 lbs, he ran a 4.37 40-yard dash. Had a 39.5" vertical leap and 10'10" broad jump. Players that size are not supposed to move like that. The Jacksonville Jaguars grabbed him in the first round. He's done nothing for them.
Adam Archuleta, S, Arizona St.: I always felt that teams hoped that Archuleta would be the next Pat Tillman. Both played a similar safety/linebacker hybrid at Arizona St. Archuleta was more physical freak where Tillman was more football player. Archuleta, a huge safety at 225lbs, ran a 4.42 40, 39" vertical leap and benched 225lbs 31 times. The Rams drafted him 20th overall and saw little.
Darius Hayward-Bey, WR, Maryland: It's way too early to write off Hayward-Bey but the Oakland Raiders made him the first receiver selected in the 2009 NFL Draft solely on his speed. He ran a 4.3 40 at the Combine. Receivers really need to catch the ball to be effective. It doesn't matter how fast you get there if you don't have ball with you. Hayward-Bey might be stuck in the "workout warrior" corner more because Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin, Kenny Britt and Hakeem Nicks were drafted after him. While the first receiver selected is still trying to establish himself those selected after are four of the top young receivers in the league.
The NFL Scouting Combine serves a great purpose in the draft process. It just shouldn't be as important as some make it. It should supplement the solid football work these kids have put out there in college. If teams do their work completely the "workout warriors" will no longer be considered draft busts as well.
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