Competition

Ah, the Scouting Combine. It's hard to believe that the NFL Scouting Combine was done in secrecy for decades. Now it's televised, covered, reported, dissected, put back together, and packaged. NFL Network shows it round-the-clock. It's a very strange job interview for the football players. The potential employees are introduced to possible employers in their skivvies. Very strange. The Scouting Combine is also a competition. Typically, high-level athletes thrive on competition. The best against the best brings out the best. They seek out competition. Not so at the Scouting Combine. Especially among the quarterbacks. I don't understand why any college football player would choose not to compete against their peers. I blame the agents. I'd like to think that if the choice was their's alone, that the players would choose to compete. Too often, the top quarterbacks choose not to throw. Among the top quarterbacks this year, only University of Central Florida's Blake Bortles is throwing. Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater isn't throwing or running the 40. Worry not. Bridgewater is jumping in Indianapolis. Good for him. The agents always stress that their clients are throwing at the respective Pro Days. They want to control the throwing environment for their client. They want the location to be familiar. They want the receivers to be familiar. Too bad the clients aren't allowed to take those familiar conditions with them to the NFL. The agents that instruct their clients not to throw and the quarterbacks that choose not to throw conveniently ignore that the NFL people are looking at the mechanics, the footwork, the release, the timing, the accuracy, etc. of the quarterbacks. It doesn't matter what the receivers do at the other end of the throw. I don't believe the agent's thinking that throwing at the Scouting Combine can only hurt their client. I think that not throwing hurts the player more than it helps. It shows a reluctance to compete. That reluctance has become the norm for the quarterbacks at the top of the draft boards. It's a damn shame.

Most of the quarterbacks that are afraid to throw at the Scouting Combine are quick to say that they are throwing at their Pro Day. As if that makes it all okay. They rarely say any more on the topic. This year, Fresno St.'s Derek Carr said a little more. He explained his thinking on not throwing. Few have ever done even that. Carr said that he's spent the nearly two months since the end of his college football career concentrating on the running and jumping drills. He's concentrating on some of the things that often ignores as a quarterback. It actually makes some sense. At Fresno St., Carr threw the football as much, or more, than any quarterback in the nation. He's giving his arm some rest while he focuses on something that could use some work. After he's through in Indianapolis, he'll go back to working on his moneymaker, his arm. He'll be getting the arm loose in preparation for his Pro Day. At least Carr didn't dodge the issue like so many of the other quarterbacks.

I simply don't understand football players backing away from some competition. It's perhaps the only time that these guys will be tangling one-on-one with their peers in drills. Who's the fastest, the strongest, jumps the highest, farthest? Johnny Maziel wants to be the first pick in the draft. So does Teddy Bridgewater. Prove it. Compete on the same field. Throw the football. It may not be the perfect test as to which is the best quarterback entering the draft, performance on the football field always is, but it's the competition. These guys have competed all of their lives. Why stop now?