COMBINE CONFIDENTIAL
By Howard Balzer, Special Contributor To All Access Football
INDIANAPOLIS – The Scouting Combine brought to all of us by NOBULL is now over and teams now plan for a myriad number of Pro Days figuring out what it all means.
While NFL executives and coaches will stress that the workouts matter (is that NOBULL or TOTALBULL for a show the league wants as many eyeballs on as possible?), the reality is they all say what’s most important at Indianapolis are the personal interviews and medical information.
That’s why it was jarring when quarterback Caleb Williams declined to be tested, saying, “I’ll be doing the medical stuff. Just not here in Indy. I’ll be doing them at the team interviews. Not 32 teams can draft me. There is only one of me. So the teams that I go to for my visit, those teams will have the medical and that’s it.”
That prompted many analysts to salute Williams’ “courage” and declare him a “trailblazer.”
They sadly miss the point while avoiding history and reality.
The origins of the Combine began because players were forced to undergo physicals by multiple teams in their pre-draft travels. To alleviate that, the plan was hatched to do it once at the Combine with the results distributed to all the teams.
The flaw in Williams’ plan is that team visits don’t begin until late March or early April. He might regret his decision when he’s poked and prodded along with X-rays and possible MRIs by the fourth or fifth team within a couple of weeks.
Most important is that teams interested in Williams won’t have the results until much later.
Will the Bears be comfortable trading Justin Fields early in the league year not having that important medical information? Then, there’s the teams considering a trade to first overall potentially being gunshy of dealing numerous valuable assets without the medicals.
How worried will teams be about an apparently entitled player who says all the right things, but also brings with him some problematic family baggage and sobbed in his mom’s lap in the stands after a late-season loss rather than join his teammates in the locker room.
Despite the red flags that NFL executives admit are present, odds are, the talented Williams will be the first overall pick anyway, while the team selecting him will be fervently hoping he doesn’t join a long list of NFL washouts at the position that couldn’t handle the lofty expectations of being a high draft choice.
About those intangibles ...
Seahawks general manager John Schnieder was adamant when discussing the most important aspect of the Combine.
“It’s really more the person than the football part,” he said. “Obviously when we’re interviewing players, there’s certain things that can stand out. Our philosophy is that we don’t have all the answers. Even when they come in the building, we’re still learning these guys, so we’re trying to figure out how to build the questions upon questions to dig further into the person and understand the person, so that when they come into the building, we’re able to help them out as much as we possibly can; football, personal character, nutrition, the whole nine.”
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said, “I think the best parts of the Combine are those interactions with the players. The on-field stuff is easy to see. Now it's on high-def TV; you can see movement. But getting to know the ball player, what he's about, what's his why, what are the things that drive him. If there was something that had jammed him up in the past, who would be coming with them, if they moved to the city. Just knowing their family backgrounds and it's very complex for a player coming out today and they've been exposed to NIL deals from college.
“They've been exposed to transfer portals and so I think the player who's coming out today, they have probably a deeper story in some aspects than others do. And I think it makes those connections even more important to find out. Why'd you stay when everybody said to go or you weren't the starter? And I think those are examples of resilience and finding ways or conversely a player that had to go to another place to find their opportunity. There's just more stories and more depth to it. So I think that to me is where it is. The evaluations with Adam (general manager Adam Peters) and his guys on the physical traits of the players; that's going to stay consistent no matter where we're at. But finding who the person is inside the helmet, inside the rib cage; that starts in moments like now.”
Lions general manager Brad Holmes was asked how emphasizing intangibles had evolved since becoming the club’s general manager in 2021.
“If anything, it’s taught us to make sure you put even more focus in on them,” he said. “Not saying that we ever ignored intangibles, but maybe if you said, ‘Well, he has this X amount of talent, ability, and say that the intangibles aren’t on steroids, but just needs a little bit of work.’ And you learn some lessons along the way. But I still am a firm believer that is the true separator of success at this level.
“I can name countless examples back from when I was with the Rams and countless examples even now within these three years that we’ve been building, but we look at our top players that have been really core foundational players and they have the intangibles that we’re looking for, so it’s not a surprise they’ve had the success they’ve had.”
Does age matter?
Thanks to the COVID pandemic, numerous college players took advantage of being granted a sixth year of eligibility and the effect is still being felt. That resulted in numerous older players in the draft.
Asked about the age of players, Bills general manager Brandon Beane said, “It's funny, some guys that are 21, it's like you're talking to a 25-year-old. And then some guys that are 24, it's like talking to my 18-year-old son. So, it's just some guys come in very mature beyond their years. And some when you get them in, you're going, we got some work to do. And that's where I think Mark Carrier (Bills player engagement director), and our player engagement staff do a great job of just understanding what they're walking in with, and where we need to get them to with life skills.
“So, I don't have a preference of 21 versus 25. My preference is that they're pros, they're working hard, they got good habits in the building, but they also have good habits off the field, they're knowing what veterans to follow. And that's where we kind of lean. When we get these rookies in, these are the guys in your position group you should keep an eye on. And if there's a guy that we think is not, you know, don't follow this guy.”
The truth about Jim ... maybe
The persistent narrative about Jim Harbaugh is that he’s a coach that usually wears out his welcome after a few years.
Harbaugh, now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, didn’t speak at the Combine, but those that know him did and were asked about it.
Brother John, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, was asked why the perception of rubbing people the wrong way exists.
He said, “I kind of dispute that I guess, but I’ve known him my whole life. I think there’s a lot of narratives out there about a lot of people. They kind of pick up steam and everybody says that’s how somebody is and then you’ll meet a person and they’ll be completely different than that. I don’t know who said that and [where] some of this stuff comes from; nobody really cares. I know he doesn’t care. You get to know him; I think you’ll like him a lot.”
Also asked about that perception was Chargers new general manager Joe Hortiz, who previously was the Ravens director of player personnel.
He said, "I don't know that because I know him, and I've gotten to know him. I don't know how you can be in a room with Jim and feel rubbed the wrong way. He cares, he's a great person and he's competitive. He wants to win ball games. It's all about getting better and being the best. I love him. It's been a blast.
“I'm talking about the enthusiasm that he has brought to the building. Every day, I come in in the morning, coming into his office, you feel his energy. Our players feel it, our coaching staff feels it. When he walks into the draft room when we're in meetings, the scouts feel it. It's exciting, it certainly is."
Dawn of a new day in New England
The departure of Bill Belichick has resulted in a sea change for the Patriots in virtually everything they do and the way they do it.
Director of scouting Eliot Wolf along with senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith are leading the charge. Wolf explained to reporters at the Combine how the grading system for player evaluations will be different.
“It's a little bit more similar to what we did in Green Bay,” Wolf said. “The previous Patriot system was more, this is what the role is, and this is more kind of value-based. So I think it makes it a lot easier for scouts to rate guys and put them in a stack of like, this guy's the best, this guy's the worst and everything in between falls into place rather than sort of more nuanced approaches.
“It accounts value better and it also makes it easier for the scouts in the fall as well as in the spring to determine where guys would get drafted. It's a little bit less about the grading scale and more about the process that we put in place. This process is a lot more collaborative. We hear from the scouts more, we're going to be able to determine together what's the best thing for the team.”
Wolf said the change has been accepted by his mostly holdover personnel staff.
He said, “It's actually been really encouraging. The scouts have been really open to it, and they're trying. Some guys have been here for 20 years with the old system. So, it's a lot less about the grading scale and more about the process of determining who are the best players for the Patriots.”
One-year anniversary
According to Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans, it was last year in Indianapolis when he targeted C.J. Stroud as the quarterback he wanted.
Asked about Stroud’s calm demeanor and when he noticed it, Ryans said, “It started right here at the Combine when we were evaluating young players. You'd see C.J. come into our room in formal interviews and just see he had that calmness about him in the room. I can tell instantly if a guy has what it takes. I saw that in C.J. when I first sat down and he began to speak to us about his background and his college experience. Then you see his teammates and how they spoke about C.J.
“I remember being here last year, and every Ohio State teammate that sat in our room, they spoke highly of C.J. and the type of leader he was and what he meant to them and the things that he did to those guys to help them. You can't hide. Your true character always will show, and it showed that C.J. was a really great guy, raised the right way, and he was the same guy throughout the entire year. He didn't change. That's a true testament to his upbringing, his family, his parents and the way they raised him.”
Of course, had the Panthers selected Stroud instead of Bryce Young, the 2023 season might have been very different. To that end, Texans general manager Nick Cesario had a unique answer to a question about whether his evaluation process was impacted by Young’s struggles with Carolina in his rookie season.
“I would just caution people this time of year to not pay too much attention to narratives that are out there about players or what teams are doing,” Cesario said. “I would just say going back to last year, there was quite a bit of misinformation out there about what happened or what the Texans were going to do. Really the only people that knew what the Texans were going to do were Coach Ryans and myself.
“All I'm saying is we made the decisions that we feel are best for the Texans, and I'd say I'd be careful not to read into too many narratives about what a team is or is not going to do. This is – and I've said this – this is silly season, unfortunately. It makes for a lot of fun, makes for a lot of dialogue. Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not. We just try to focus on ourselves and try to make the right decisions for our team.”
Meanwhile, it will be up to first-year Panthers head coach Dave Canales to figure out how to get the most out of Young.
Asked his thoughts on that, Canales said, “I take it back to Brian Schottenheimer when he came to Seattle and he launched me on a project. He said the things he did for Andrew Luck, for Philip Rivers, for Drew Brees, is before he had a chance to meet with them the first time; he had a detailed plan about how to improve the things necessary to play quarterback at a high level and he showed me the report. He showed me the cut-ups that kind of went with it all and then he challenged me. You will earn another level of respect with Russell (Wilson) by approaching it from a detailed standpoint. So we're really working on that.
“I really respect Bryce and the road that has taken him to here and I wanna be able to present something to him that's tangible, that's specific and says, 'Hey, here's some things that we can really dive into and improve on. Here's things that you're doing great.' So we'll have a great plan when he comes back to us in a couple of months.”