Combine thread... - 02/25/10 06:43 AM
So it's the NFL Combine time.. here's a coupla to get you started..
webbage
LeCharles Bentley on the NFL Combine: It's often 'more show than substance'
By Special to The Plain Dealer
February 23, 2010, 6:15PM
Terry Gilliam / Associated PressLeCharles Bentley (in white jersey) was a dominating center during an impressive collegiate career at Ohio State. But when he attended the NFL Combine before the 2002 draft, he learned how little performance seemed to matter. "There aren’t any opportunities during a game to bench press 225 pounds as many times as possible or run a 40-yard dash without a helmet," he says. "All of the game film that has been studied suddenly becomes irrelevant because a guy ran a great 40."Editor’s note: LeCharles Bentley grew up playing football — for St. Ignatius High School, Ohio State, the New Orleans Saints and even briefly for the Browns. But his pro career actually started with the NFL Scouting Combine. Here he takes a look at how the combine works and what it was like to go through the process of trying to impress teams.
LeCharles Bentley
Special to The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Annually the NFL holds its job fair -- referred to as the Combine -- that often ends up being more show than substance.
For a week, Indianapolis explodes with top NFL brass, all seeking to leave no stone unturned while prying for information on every potential hire. Former college football players undergo a vetting process that would turn any partisan sect green with envy. The NFL expends such massive amounts of money, time and resources on evaluations that logic is often cast to the wayside for sake of "numbers."
Tracy Boulian / The Plain DealerWhat a 21-year-old isn’t equipped for," writes LeCharles Bentley, "is the harsh reality of transitioning from coddled collegiate athlete to highly expendable product with an expiration date."
NFL SCOUTING COMBINE
Who: More than 300 players eligible for the 2010 NFL Draft. Every NFL team is represented by its full scouting and coaching staffs. All NFL general managers and some team presidents attend.
Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis.
When: Wednesday through March 2.
What happens: Players are divided into groups by position. Each group stays four days. Day 1 consists of registration, orientation and medical exams. Day 2 is measurements, exams, media interviews and psychology testing. Day 3 is meetings with NFL players association, more tests and some workouts. Day 4 is final workouts. Players have interviews with teams every day.
TV: Portions of the interviews and workouts will be shown on the NFL Network.
— Tony GrossiIt should go without saying that the NFL is an exclusive club that is intended for the best football players our world has to offer. The primary objective of all NFL teams' scouting departments is to pillage every collegiate roster for the most impressive players, then extend combine invitations to all 300 of them.
Yes, of the 15,000 plus college football players, 300 are invited to Indianapolis.
Scouts from every team study endless hours of film and log thousands of travel hours in order to evaluate talent. Each one of the 300 players who earn an invite does so because of his accomplishments on the field. Somewhere along the path, the logic and rationale that went into determining who receives combine invites goes out the window during the week in Indianapolis.
Having been a player that earned an invitation, I know how exciting the Combine experience can be. First, it's an honor to be selected as one of the 300 best college football players in the country and it's not one to be taken lightly.
Players can spend months preparing for a two-day interview and agents will spend thousands of dollars preparing their client. There is a lot put into combine preparation because so much can come out of it. Every player will be evaluated through the NFL's battery of testing procedures, many of which have absolutely zero bearing on the athletes' ability to play the game of football.
There aren't any opportunities during a game to bench press 225 pounds as many times as possible or run a 40-yard dash without a helmet. What ensues are general managers and coaches falling in love with a guy who could potentially be a workout warrior. All of the game film that has been studied suddenly becomes irrelevant because a guy ran a great 40.
Every coach in the league believes he is the best, or he wouldn't be coaching in the NFL. This fact leads them to believe they can coach any wide receiver who is 6-6 and runs a 4.3 40 to be the next Randy Moss.
The NFL is a business of attrition and is not designed to be a developmental league. Some may refute this by pointing to practice squads, but the term "practice squad" is fancy for "irrelevant body." When a player signs an NFL contract, he is immediately in a battle with time, and unfortunately time -- through age or lack of performance -- always wins out. This is why it is vital for every team to know who they are drafting and more importantly, why. Far too often, team officials leave Indianapolis with a rose-colored view of potential draft picks.
The Combine's real value is the mental component. All teams that draft the best recognize this. This doesn't apply to the Raiders as much as it does the Colts, Ravens and Patriots.
Sure, the testing is strenuous but athletes are built for that. What a 21-year-old isn't equipped for is the harsh reality of transitioning from coddled collegiate athlete to highly expendable product with an expiration date. Amateur athletes are thrust into a world of seasoned men whose livelihoods are contingent upon the performance of these young men.
On a personal note, I spent six hours in an MRI tube to have a sprained ankle that I suffered in high school photographed, then was told I was expected back at the RCA Dome to run my 40. I passed on that opportunity and opted to spend the next 10 hours being interrogated by three teams. What makes this so profound is that neither team drafted me. This was either because I was an awful interview or the person they really wanted to speak with was being interrogated by a team that didn't draft him either.
The Combine is as much a part of the NFL fabric as the Super Bowl and it will be forever. It's the first phase of initiation into the club of the National Football League.
Many teams will travel to the Combine seeking the best football players and will fall in love with the best athletes. As fans, all we can do is enjoy the ride and hope our team gets it right.
** Ya wanna see what a Wonderlic test is like?
Linkage
webbage
LeCharles Bentley on the NFL Combine: It's often 'more show than substance'
By Special to The Plain Dealer
February 23, 2010, 6:15PM
Terry Gilliam / Associated PressLeCharles Bentley (in white jersey) was a dominating center during an impressive collegiate career at Ohio State. But when he attended the NFL Combine before the 2002 draft, he learned how little performance seemed to matter. "There aren’t any opportunities during a game to bench press 225 pounds as many times as possible or run a 40-yard dash without a helmet," he says. "All of the game film that has been studied suddenly becomes irrelevant because a guy ran a great 40."Editor’s note: LeCharles Bentley grew up playing football — for St. Ignatius High School, Ohio State, the New Orleans Saints and even briefly for the Browns. But his pro career actually started with the NFL Scouting Combine. Here he takes a look at how the combine works and what it was like to go through the process of trying to impress teams.
LeCharles Bentley
Special to The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Annually the NFL holds its job fair -- referred to as the Combine -- that often ends up being more show than substance.
For a week, Indianapolis explodes with top NFL brass, all seeking to leave no stone unturned while prying for information on every potential hire. Former college football players undergo a vetting process that would turn any partisan sect green with envy. The NFL expends such massive amounts of money, time and resources on evaluations that logic is often cast to the wayside for sake of "numbers."
Tracy Boulian / The Plain DealerWhat a 21-year-old isn’t equipped for," writes LeCharles Bentley, "is the harsh reality of transitioning from coddled collegiate athlete to highly expendable product with an expiration date."
NFL SCOUTING COMBINE
Who: More than 300 players eligible for the 2010 NFL Draft. Every NFL team is represented by its full scouting and coaching staffs. All NFL general managers and some team presidents attend.
Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis.
When: Wednesday through March 2.
What happens: Players are divided into groups by position. Each group stays four days. Day 1 consists of registration, orientation and medical exams. Day 2 is measurements, exams, media interviews and psychology testing. Day 3 is meetings with NFL players association, more tests and some workouts. Day 4 is final workouts. Players have interviews with teams every day.
TV: Portions of the interviews and workouts will be shown on the NFL Network.
— Tony GrossiIt should go without saying that the NFL is an exclusive club that is intended for the best football players our world has to offer. The primary objective of all NFL teams' scouting departments is to pillage every collegiate roster for the most impressive players, then extend combine invitations to all 300 of them.
Yes, of the 15,000 plus college football players, 300 are invited to Indianapolis.
Scouts from every team study endless hours of film and log thousands of travel hours in order to evaluate talent. Each one of the 300 players who earn an invite does so because of his accomplishments on the field. Somewhere along the path, the logic and rationale that went into determining who receives combine invites goes out the window during the week in Indianapolis.
Having been a player that earned an invitation, I know how exciting the Combine experience can be. First, it's an honor to be selected as one of the 300 best college football players in the country and it's not one to be taken lightly.
Players can spend months preparing for a two-day interview and agents will spend thousands of dollars preparing their client. There is a lot put into combine preparation because so much can come out of it. Every player will be evaluated through the NFL's battery of testing procedures, many of which have absolutely zero bearing on the athletes' ability to play the game of football.
There aren't any opportunities during a game to bench press 225 pounds as many times as possible or run a 40-yard dash without a helmet. What ensues are general managers and coaches falling in love with a guy who could potentially be a workout warrior. All of the game film that has been studied suddenly becomes irrelevant because a guy ran a great 40.
Every coach in the league believes he is the best, or he wouldn't be coaching in the NFL. This fact leads them to believe they can coach any wide receiver who is 6-6 and runs a 4.3 40 to be the next Randy Moss.
The NFL is a business of attrition and is not designed to be a developmental league. Some may refute this by pointing to practice squads, but the term "practice squad" is fancy for "irrelevant body." When a player signs an NFL contract, he is immediately in a battle with time, and unfortunately time -- through age or lack of performance -- always wins out. This is why it is vital for every team to know who they are drafting and more importantly, why. Far too often, team officials leave Indianapolis with a rose-colored view of potential draft picks.
The Combine's real value is the mental component. All teams that draft the best recognize this. This doesn't apply to the Raiders as much as it does the Colts, Ravens and Patriots.
Sure, the testing is strenuous but athletes are built for that. What a 21-year-old isn't equipped for is the harsh reality of transitioning from coddled collegiate athlete to highly expendable product with an expiration date. Amateur athletes are thrust into a world of seasoned men whose livelihoods are contingent upon the performance of these young men.
On a personal note, I spent six hours in an MRI tube to have a sprained ankle that I suffered in high school photographed, then was told I was expected back at the RCA Dome to run my 40. I passed on that opportunity and opted to spend the next 10 hours being interrogated by three teams. What makes this so profound is that neither team drafted me. This was either because I was an awful interview or the person they really wanted to speak with was being interrogated by a team that didn't draft him either.
The Combine is as much a part of the NFL fabric as the Super Bowl and it will be forever. It's the first phase of initiation into the club of the National Football League.
Many teams will travel to the Combine seeking the best football players and will fall in love with the best athletes. As fans, all we can do is enjoy the ride and hope our team gets it right.
** Ya wanna see what a Wonderlic test is like?
Linkage
The one that really threw me off was the letters that come next one. Where it go's A,D,J,A,A,A.......so on and so forth.
3 of those INT's came as a freshman. 
