Scouting Combine might not happen

[LinvilleGorge]

I guess it wouldn't be surprising, especially if COVID numbers keep skyrocketing but it seems like social distancing measures would be fairly easy with a few tweaks. These are all individual drills that we're talking about. Maybe make group sizes smaller and some of the linemen drills would have to be revamped or dropped as those are really the only drills where two prospects are required to be in close proximity.

Seems like the Senior Bowl is a much bigger risk than the Combine.

[LinvilleGorge]

12 minutes ago, top dawg said:

This will hurt the guys from small schools that haven't really been scouted, but won't hurt the guys that people already know about. 

"Tape > stats!" --@Verge

Fans put way more importance on the Combine than NFL people do, analytics or not! I'm fairly certain that individual interviews and private workouts are more coveted by scouts and coaches.

Hell, for me more than anything it gives me something football related during an otherwise period of football drought. Gimme my fix dammit!!!

[stbugs]

You can do an NBA season in a bubble and have 32 teams play weekly with travel but you can’t test combine participants a couple times before going into a bubble and keep testing for a week? I’d cancel pro days and make the combine bubble participant list a bit larger. If you test positive you don’t attend. Seems like one event in one place would be far safer and easier to control than pro days at every college with scouts/coaches going to many. 

[stbugs]

35 minutes ago, top dawg said:

This will hurt the guys from small schools that haven't really been scouted, but won't hurt the guys that people already know about. 

"Tape > stats!" --@Verge

Fans put way more importance on the Combine than NFL people do, analytics or not! I'm fairly certain that individual interviews and private workouts are more coveted by scouts and coaches.

For guys like Chinn and Little, it definitely did matter and “should” have mattered. Most people think the combine is just about numbers. I watch the drills too and like many of us said after the 2019 combine drills, Burns looked special and Little looked like dog poo.

People keep saying the combine doesn’t matter but it absolutely impacts or should impact many prospects.

Honestly, this year especially, the combine means a lot more. How many teams and players didn’t play or didn’t play much at all? Non power 5 teams didn’t play any power 5 games. Remember Moton’s game against OSU being a big positive? That didn’t happen this year for MAC teams.

[t96]

2 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

My admitted first thought:

"Just when we finally get a new GM..."

I think Rhule recently being in the college ranks will give us a leg up though if the combine is indeed cancelled.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, t96 said:

I think Rhule recently being in the college ranks will give us a leg up though if the combine is indeed cancelled.

There's also this...

What happens with Joe Brady could throw a wrench in that though.

[top dawg]

15 minutes ago, stbugs said:

For guys like Chinn and Little, it definitely did matter and “should” have mattered. Most people think the combine is just about numbers. I watch the drills too and like many of us said after the 2019 combine drills, Burns looked special and Little looked like dog poo.

People keep saying the combine doesn’t matter but it absolutely impacts or should impact many prospects.

Honestly, this year especially, the combine means a lot more. How many teams and players didn’t play or didn’t play much at all? Non power 5 teams didn’t play any power 5 games. Remember Moton’s game against OSU being a big positive? That didn’t happen this year for MAC teams.

Speculating much! You don't know how much weight Rhule and others put on the NFL Combine! The fact is that Rhule was impressed with Chinn mostly by Chinn's play at the Senior Bowl! His play with the big boys helped Rhule realize that Chinn could play with anyone and that his size, talent and speed don't come along every day!

Little is not even worth discussing! He was falling even before the Combine, but Hurney picked him up anyway.

[stbugs]

4 minutes ago, top dawg said:

Speculating much! You don't know how much weight Rhule and others put on the NFL Combine! The fact is that Rhule was impressed with Chinn mostly by Chinn's play at the Senior Bowl! His play with the big boys helped Rhule realize that Chinn could play with anyone and that his size, talent and speed don't come along every day!

Little is not even worth discussing! He was falling even before the Combine, but Hurney picked him up anyway.

Not speculating at all. Chinn’s combine numbers certified that he was an elite athlete and got him into the 2nd after having a solid Senior Bowl. Also, you are wrong about Little falling before the combine. Why would he have fallen before the combine? That makes no sense since his college career had him in many first round mocks. It was the combine that started his free fall. You can try and change history but it was just like how the combine dropped Orlando Brown to a third round pick. Brown turned it around even though the combine dropped him two rounds. Little did not and we decided to ignore the red flags. Honestly, Brown’s red flags were more the numbers and Little’s were the drills and I’d think the drills are more important to show you’ve got the ability to make the movements a good OL will need to make to make the block or adjust to a stunt that makes pivot the other way.

No idea if you’ve ever watched the combine or not, but the drills are pretty fun to watch and while guys can improve you could easily see how fluid/athletic Burns was and on the opposite side of the spectrum Little was. When people say the combine doesn’t matter, I usually assume they just look at the numbers afterwards and may not even know what drills the players go through.

[Soul Rebel]

This would royally suck.

If they figured out how to handle the draft via virtual means, surely they can figure this out.

Trey Lance, smaller school guys and prospects that opted out will suffer big time. Not saying the combine is a guarantee by any stretch, but it has certainly propelled and lowered enough players over the years, that its absence would be an issue, IMO.

[45catfan]

4 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

 

This would be tragic, especially for us that really, really enjoy the pre-draft process.  Might as well cancel all the pre-draft bowl games too.   I can't see much of a difference.   This is ridiculous....

[kass]

Why can't the rich dudes that own NFL flex their muscles and go buy a few doses of the vaccines... 

I thought football was just as important as "religion" and seeing how the Corona pandemic plays out in the US, it's not like people care about grandpa anyway.

[45catfan]

17 minutes ago, Soul Rebel said:

This would royally suck.

If they figured out how to handle the draft via virtual means, surely they can figure this out.

Trey Lance, smaller school guys and prospects that opted out will suffer big time. Not saying the combine is a guarantee by any stretch, but it has certainly propelled and lowered enough players over the years, that its absence would be an issue, IMO.

Yep, I doubt we drafted Jeremy Chinn without his combine workout.  He was on my radar already, but when his skill set was up to and even surpassed nearly all this FBS cohorts during the combine, that's when his stock was solidified as a top prospect, from tiny Southern Illinois or not.

[top dawg]

38 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Not speculating at all. Chinn’s combine numbers certified that he was an elite athlete and got him into the 2nd after having a solid Senior Bowl. Also, you are wrong about Little falling before the combine. Why would he have fallen before the combine? That makes no sense since his college career had him in many first round mocks. It was the combine that started his free fall. You can try and change history but it was just like how the combine dropped Orlando Brown to a third round pick. Brown turned it around even though the combine dropped him two rounds. Little did not and we decided to ignore the red flags. Honestly, Brown’s red flags were more the numbers and Little’s were the drills and I’d think the drills are more important to show you’ve got the ability to make the movements a good OL will need to make to make the block or adjust to a stunt that makes pivot the other way.

No idea if you’ve ever watched the combine or not, but the drills are pretty fun to watch and while guys can improve you could easily see how fluid/athletic Burns was and on the opposite side of the spectrum Little was. When people say the combine doesn’t matter, I usually assume they just look at the numbers afterwards and may not even know what drills the players go through.

Little wasn't a day one prospect on many draft boards! Many questioned his abilities, and that was pre-Combine. That being said, you're right that his Combine performance didn't help him at all!

Chinn absolutely was on our radar pre-Combine, and the Senior Bowl was a key component to why we drafted him.

The Combine has its purposes, but you don't seem to want to put it in perspective. It's largely for the fans. That's why the NFL pushes it. It makes for good tv for football fans! I watch it when I can, but for the receivers mainly! 

You really need to read this article. Perhaps it will help you keep the Combine in perspective!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.turfshowtimes.com/platform/amp/2020/2/27/21153941/2020-nfl-scouting-combine-draft-its-a-lie

[Mr. Scot]

This reminds me: I forget who but I remember a while back some big local muckety muck was hinting around that Charlotte might host an NFL draft sometime soon.

Wonder how realistic a possibility that is at this point.