The Joke that is the NFL Combine
The NFL Combine, AKA the Underwear Olympics, drives me absolutely crazy year after year. Scouts and media personnel try to legitimize or bury a given prospect based on how many times he can bench press two and a quarter or how fast he can run 40 yards unimpeded. Confirmation bias clouds the entire event. If a prospect who looks good on tape tests well then he is validated as a player. If a solid college player tests poorly, the entirety of his collegiate career is brought into question. It just seems to me that there is too much credence put on these "tests" and not enough placed upon a player's entire body of work.
After running a 4.22 second forty-yard dash someone is going to take Washington wide receiver John Ross early. He's a "speedster", they'll say. Do you know who else was a speedster at the Combine? Darrius Hayward-Bey, Dri Archer, Jacoby Ford, and the list goes on.....and on. Speed is great, but do you know what is better? Good hands, a good route tree, a high football IQ. Using a first-round pick on a receiver solely because he is a speedster is like electing where to go to college based on the school's cafeteria. It should play a role, but by no means the biggest role. John Ross might turn out to be a terrific NFL player, but drafting him simply because he is fast would be a colossal mistake, and a mistake that NFL teams make quite too often.
