NFL Combine Begins Today

For Stat Geeks everywhere, Christmas has come early. The NFL Combine which begins today, marks the beginning of the 2010-2011 football season. Over the next few days in Indianapolis hundreds of scouts will descend upon the Big Oil Drum to watch players perform a variety of different drills and workouts. The NFL typically invites around 300 prospects to participate. However, just getting an invite doesn't guarantee getting drafted and not getting an invite isn't the end of the world. A lot of Pro-Bowlers in the league never went to the combine or even got drafted.

The combine does however provide players a chance to either solidify or vastly improve their draft status. Having a dominate performance at the combine can boost players who really belong in the middle rounds to the 2nd or even 1st rounds purely based on workout numbers. On the other hand it can really hurt a player if they don't perform well. Many of the iffy prospects like Tebow wait until their pro-day to work out for scouts because the environment is more controlled and player friendly. I feel like a lot of the combine stuff like the 40 yd dash is hype and most of the stuff isn't that important in determining who can be a good NFL player. Although, it certainly does provide a starting point for teams though in their evaluation process. In the end, the combine is really the most beneficial for mid-round prospect who, with a good workout can boost their stock and earn themselves a few extra mill. Even if they end up sucking in the pro's, you can't hate the dude for making bank by impressing some scouts by running fast as fuck.