I love the combine, but it's soooo OVERRATED

[shatch62]

I, like most of us here love football so much I can watch anything that is connected to it. Watching the combine is great fun. Who runs, jumps and reacts the fastest. Which player you never really heard of pulls a Chris Johnson and makes himself a ton of money by running a god-like 40 time. The problem is that for every Johnson there are a dozen guys that put up freaky numbers at the combine that CAN'T REALLY PLAY FOOTBALL. This year it is USC S Taylor Mays. Mays is a FREAK but he also has been describes as an "athlete that lacks balance, and has a tough time getting into his drops and with being asked to play fast." He also "plays too high at times or that he didn’t have the most impressive on-the-field workout in Indy." Still he is 230 pounds and runs the 40 in the 4.4s so someone will draft him super high and he is gonna be the same guy that can's play up to his speed. These scouts kill me. Would you rather have a defender that is .2 of a second slower but is so smart and instinctive that he makes up for it when the game is going? Tedy Bruschi (pre Stroke) was never the biggest or fastest but he was ALWAYS in the right place to make the play because he was a FOOTBALL player. While I would love the Pats to get a physical freak on D, I only want him if he can play the game.

 

[signbabybrady]

I don't know enough about Mays to comment.

But what springs to mind for me is this guy Jason Paul Pierre or pierre Paul

No we as fans can find someone like say Clay Matthews and salvate over his football skils and ignore the numbers (too small for our system) or we can find someone like Jason who would seem to be the perfect fit for the OLB in our system but who has virtually no football experience. Seems to me like either one has the potential for failure. The idea would be to combine the football accumen with the numbers 40 times heigth weight and such but then you are talking top ten players.


From my standpoint I can not truly discern who would be more successful this team the football guy or the numbers guy and if I could I would be trying to put it to work.

So what I look for out of the combine is simple. Combine all the hearsay and some of the draftees that I actually know something about with what I can see which is basically body type.

Does this guy look like he would fit the prototypes of the position for out team. Basically does the DE convert or OLB look like Willie Mac or does this CB have that small quick look that say Butler has (who IMO seems to be the prototype of what they explain they want for the position).

The other benefit of the combine is just getting to know these guys. I am going to study every last thing I can on the guys we end up drafting but there are 31 other teams and this is where I start to build my knowledge of these guys who will be entering the league.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I hate the Combine for the simple reason that it's a cruel tease for football fans. NFL Network has a captive audience and misuses their power with a television product entirely focused on the circus surrounding the players - with Rich Eisen & Co. in sequined center ring clown & pony shows.

I can't begin to express my total frustration with "coverage" that ignores the prospect's position drills to show us coaches seated in the stands, prospects doing track drills, flashbacks to whichever star player they are overexposing, and camera shots which make no sense whatsoever. Most of the "discussion" is well paid mediots involved in good natured wrangling, any effort to inform the viewer is quickly headed off and re-channeled into mindless "chatter."

Mr. Kraft, as one of NFL Network's owners, you should be ashamed.

NFL Network could be a glorious face of the NFL, unfortunately it's a view of the other end. Coverage of the prospects at the Combine should be left in the hand of interns with strict instructions:
-- don't talk,
-- keep the camera on the position drills,
-- limit track & field shots to dead time between positions drills,
-- provide the name, school, and Combine number of each prospect as they run the drill,
-- avoid close-ups (it's not a beauty pageant it's a meat market),
-- don't talk (play classical music, smooth jazz, classic rock, or better yet let us here the coaches cussing and yelling).

Leave the clown & pony act for the evening recap shows.

 

[Snake Eyes]

No we as fans can find someone like say Clay Matthews and salvate over his football skils and ignore the numbers (too small for our system)

First off, Matthews is 6'3.

Next, why is being 6'4 so vital to being a successful OLB for the Patriots but being 6'2 or 6'2 means you're inadequate? I know Lawrence Taylor and Willie McGinest fit the mold but is that why they were effective or would they have still been very good players even if they were an inch or two shorter?

Finally, if one's "system" is that difficult to get players for than maybe it's not such a good system.

 

[DaBruinz]

First off, Matthews is 6'3.

Next, why is being 6'4 so vital to being a successful OLB for the Patriots but being 6'2 or 6'2 means you're inadequate? I know Lawrence Taylor and Willie McGinest fit the mold but is that why they were effective or would they have still been very good players even if they were an inch or two shorter?

Finally, if one's "system" is that difficult to get players for than maybe it's not such a good system.

It's a system that won 3 SBs.. Yet, according to you, it's "not such a good system."

Matthews may be 6'3, but he was 240. Not the 260-275 that the Pats look for at OLB. Also, Matthews had issues stopping the run.

 

[Snake Eyes]

It's a system that won 3 SBs.. Yet, according to you, it's "not such a good system."

Matthews may be 6'3, but he was 240. Not the 260-275 that the Pats look for at OLB. Also, Matthews had issues stopping the run.

If it won't work now, or if it will work less effectively than another system is it still a good system? It seems to be the BB defense has a nasty habit of melting down lately, even going back to the 06 AFC, would you still insist on sticking with it even though it's been failing?

Would the system collapse if a 6'2 or 6'3 guy played in it instead of the supposedly optimal 6'4? I think if they were a good football player they would do just fine.

Matthews might have weighed only 240 but does that mean he cannot add more weight and strength? Players his size or smaller have done fine against the run, if he has the initial quickness the other deficiencies can be addressed with training.