The Combine and why it matters...

[Icege]

3 hours ago, thebigcat said:

Another underwear warrior who was a massive Panthers bust

 

 

You forgot this colossal bust as well:

 

[micnificent28]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Ah, now we cherry pick a few guys from thousands and act as if it proves some sort of point. The bottom line is is that NFL GMs make a lot of money to do this professionally and there are still a ton of mistakes made ever single year (and an All-Pro going in the mid-late rounds is a mistake by everyone who passed on hin repeatedly). It's because there's virtually an endless number of variables at play. It isn't as simple as looking at college production and looking at workout results. If it was it'd be easy. There would never be any busts or steals.

This is as close to an explanation to the use of the combine as could be explained. It’s not one or the other but a combination of the two. Plenty of stories of busts and misses on either side of the debate. People love to point out the combine warriors who flop but seem to forget the guys who were good on the field and productive in college, but bust in the league like say Tim Couch. 

You don’t have to be one or the other but, a savvy coach can look at the combine data and identify traits that could lead to success like say jerick mckinnon who flew under the radar.

[mc52beast]

The Combine is basically to keep you interested in football all freaking year. You can say what you want about Goodell and his band of clowns but they do a good job of keeping our attention.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

The Combine is basically to keep you interested in football all freaking year. You can say what you want about Goodell and his band of clowns but they do a good job of keeping our attention.

The NFL absolutely does a GREAT job of staying in the sports news cycle year round. The other major sports league drafts get hardly any attention in comparison. The only time I remember any real talk about the NHL draft is when Crosby and Ovechkin were coming out. No one pays any attention to the MLB draft because virtually everyone has to do their time in the minors first. No one pays any attention to the NBA draft outside of the first handful of picks and even then, there's only big time hype around the draft when there's a big time prospect coming out. This year's will get a pretty good pop because of ESPN's lovechild Zion Williamson.

But, the NFL draft is big time every single year no matter what.

[micnificent28]

10 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

The Combine is basically to keep you interested in football all freaking year. You can say what you want about Goodell and his band of clowns but they do a good job of keeping our attention.

The combine started in 1982, long before Goddell and before it was televised. It has been used to identify plenty of sleeper prospects that normally would had been glossed over. 

[LinvilleGorge]

I know the NBA has their own version of a combine. It just gets absolutely zero attention. Not sure about the other major orgs, but I'd honestly be surprised if they don't.

[micnificent28]

22 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I know the NBA has their own version of a combine. It just gets absolutely zero attention. Not sure about the other major orgs, but I'd honestly be surprised if they don't.

I follow the NBA combine as well. I’m not sure it works as well as the NFLs version. I know they do like the vertical which shows explosiveness in both cases nfl and nba. But I believe ball handling and dribbling are critical to nba success in all positions but center. How do they measure that? 

In the case of the NBA where it is always 5 on 5 and one person can carry a team(lebron) the tape is your best bet. 

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, micnificent28 said:

I follow the NBA combine as well. I’m not sure it works as well as the NFLs version. I know they do like the vertical which shows explosiveness in both cases nfl and nba. But I believe ball handling and dribbling are critical to nba success in all positions but center. How do they measure that? 

In the case of the NBA where it is always 5 on 5 and one person can carry a team(lebron) the tape is your best bet. 

Combines are primarily to gauge raw athleticism.

[micnificent28]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Combines are primarily to gauge raw athleticism.

True... but I’m willing to bet if you go look at say the top players at each position(except maybe qb) you will find raw athleticism or dominate combine numbers at the root of the player, especially skilled positions.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, micnificent28 said:

True... but I’m willing to bet if you go look at say the top players at each position(except maybe qb) you will find raw athleticism or dominate combine numbers at the root of the player, especially skilled positions.

Some cases yes, some cases no. Plenty of examples of great (even all-time great) skill position players who really weren't anything special as pure athletes go compared to other NFL talent.

[Shotgun]

2 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Some cases yes, some cases no. Plenty of examples of great (even all-time great) skill position players who really weren't anything special as pure athletes go compared to other NFL talent.

Yep, Jerry Rice comes to mind.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, Shotgun said:

Yep, Jerry Rice comes to mind.

Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Emmett Smith, Le'Veon Bell, Terrell Owens was a 4.6+ guy too.

You can make a legit argument that Rice, TO, and Fitzgerald are the top three WRs of all-time. 

[micnificent28]

1 minute ago, Shotgun said:

Yep, Jerry Rice comes to mind.

Also Todd Gurley, Odell Beckham Jr, Arron Donald,Gronk,George Kittle flew under the radar because he didn’t have the production but his combine was off the charts.  I mean you can pretend it has no bearing on anything but you really look deeper more times than not the numbers are there.

 

[micnificent28]

8 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Emmett Smith, Le'Veon Bell, Terrell Owens was a 4.6+ guy too.

You can make a legit argument that Rice, TO, and Fitzgerald are the top three WRs of all-time. 

Didn’t have time to go through all these guys combines and in come cases the info wasn’t available but in Bells case, the place that makes him special and where he wins... that sudden stop and start patience ability of his. His 3 cone or stop and  start 6.75, would have been number one in this years class of running backs at the combine. The numbers are usually there.