Draft Insiders' Digest Premier NFL Draft and Free Agency Publication
Calling All Workout Warriors
The NFL Combine '06 began this week with the Olympic phase of college football scouting at the annual event in Indianapolis. Players have worked diligently preparing for this week long event knowing that a strong performance here can enhance their NFL Draft status significantly. These workouts have misled NFL talent evaluators with speed usually the factor that scouts become mesmerized with when they make their final reports. This year will be no different. Watch for prime time players like TE Vernon Davis, LB Thomas Howard, CB Tye Hill and Charles Gordon, WR Sinorice Moss, Devin Hester and Jeremy Bloom (a ’06 Olympic sky performer who finished 6th) to put up incredible numbers especially in the speed events. The two unknown performers to watch closely this week are USC Trojan cornerback John Walker and Monmouth University wideout Miles Austin. That’s right Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, not Illinois. Both players are fine athletes who are capable of impressive workouts that propel them up their positional charts. Walker started at corner for the Trojans in ’05 until an arm injury ended his season. He is a 6’+ corner at 200 lbs. and a fine raw all around athlete. Austin is big physical wideout at 6’2� 220 lbs. who we interviewed in November and watched 9 game tapes from the past two seasons. He has fine hands and dominated the Division 1AA level at times and could be one of the huge surprises in Indy. He is capable of a 40� vertical leap and running in the low 4.4 times for the forty. Those numbers could propel at least into the middle rounds for April. Whether any of these players’ workout numbers translates to the playing field remains to be seen, but expect them to be the focus of the news during the busy week at the RCA Dome.
The NFL Combine '06 will be televised for the second time by the NFL Network channel through week. Over 330 college players and over 600 NFL front office personnel will attend the six-day event. Players will go through extensive testing, athletically, intellectually and psychologically by the 32 staffs of each NFL club. Extensive front office personnel including GMs, Directors of scouting, coaches, scouts and medical personnel will represent each NFL team. Each club will be limited to 15 minute interviews with a maximum of 62 players (increased from 60 three years ago with new underclassmen) over the six-day event. NFL Draft ’06 prospects will be put through a series of tests both physical and mental in the biggest sports job market in the business. Once again, numerous prospects are expected to avoid the workout, opting for the friendly confines of their school's track on a pro day in March or April. Players like Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Vince Young and D’Brickashaw Ferguson have already stated they will not workout and wait for their school’s pro day. The NFL Combine gives players a chance to impress pro scouts on a level playing field vs all competitors. The surface at the RCA Dome has proven faster than expected in recent years after a reputation of being a notoriously slow surface thru the ‘90s. The surface had been rated one of the two worst in the NFL before being replaced after the NFL Combine ’05 workouts last winter. Many of the prospects that opt out of the sprints will be offensive skill position players who will run later in the spring. Most fear a poor time will push them down significantly at their positional rankings. The individual workouts can give a player an unfair advantage over players who run at Indy with much faster home turf. Tracks at Tennessee, Ohio St., Syracuse, Florida St. among others are lightning quick with many 4.4 times. NFL scouts cannot make all of these workouts and the delays can backfire on the players with a smaller audience of scouts to showcase their talents. With workouts extended right up to the NFL Draft, the information process forces clubs to prepared for not only more travel, but also factoring the new data into their value board. Times have been one of the most debatable measuring sticks in the evaluation process. Many clubs have allowed times to affect a players final ranking dramatically and can be totally mislead by the speed if it does not verify performance on the football field during their career. Two former NFL players Jerry Rice and Marcus Allen were performers who did not burn up the running tracks during workouts, but neither player was caught from behind often as pro stars. Both were two of the best pro scorers among other qualities in NFL history. Times can work both ways though, with clubs running away from poor numbers like three years ago when wideout Antwan Boldin ran a disappointing 4.72 forty. He went on to set numerous records as a rookie receiver in ’03 after being selected by the Cardinals who did not shy away from him off the workout when they selected him surprisingly in the 2nd round.
An in-depth NFL Combine Report '06 is FREE for Full time subscribers in late March, in addition to the in-depth Scouting Reports in the ’06 NFL Draft Yearbook on each player at the event. The Complete List of all NFL Combine ’06 invitees is also FREE for Full Subscribers. The NFL Combine finished invite version is out in late February Online at the Members section.