Philly Front Office

The NFL Scouting Combine has already started, but the real fun begins tomorrow, February 26th and runs through March 2nd. Is it a little weird that these young athletes are measured and tested to see who is the biggest, strongest, and fastest, in order for our teams to take turns selecting them? Yeah, a little bit, but it is also great to see the competition. As someone who absolutely loves track and field and physical contests (not fighting though) in general, this is the closest thing I get in the NFL.¹ Here is everything you need to know.

NFL Salary Cap 101

Schedule

Normal fans might see the highlights or track the results after the fact, but for the sickos, check out NFL Network and/or NFL+ beginning at 3pm on Thursday. One group gets most of its workouts done on their first day followed by the bench press the next day:

• Thursday, February 26th from 3p-8p
  • Defensive Line and Linebackers – measurements, 40-yard dash, broad jump, vertical leap, 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle
• Friday, February 27th from 3p-8p
  • Defensive Line and Linebackers – Bench Press
  • Defensive Backs and Tight Ends – measurements, 40-yard dash, broad jump, vertical leap, 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle
• Saturday, February 28th from 1p-8p
  • Defensive Backs and Tight Ends – Bench Press
  • Quarterbacks, Wide Receivers, Running Backs – measurements, 40-yard dash, broad jump, vertical leap, 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle
• Sunday, March 1st from 1p-5p
  • Quarterbacks, Wide Receivers, Running Backs – Bench Press
  • Offensive Line – measurements, 40-yard dash, broad jump, vertical leap, 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle
• Monday, March 2nd from ?? to ??
  • Offensive Line – Bench Press

What to Look For

As a disclaimer, there is nothing to firmly equate combine performance to on field performance, but you can still learn a few things. I think it was Fran Duffy who gave a good philosophy of how to view combine results. I am paraphrasing from memory here, but essentially you come in to the combine with a baseline expectation and go from there. If a guy who is fast runs fast at the combine, that’s good but not news. He would have to do exceptionally well to change his stock. However, if someone who is supposed to be fast does not put up a great time, that’s a red flag. Remember Jalen Reagor? He jumped out of the gym, but his 40 time was only a 4.47 when 4.3s was expected. In the pros, he never showed elite speed. Basically, the Eagles ignored the combine and were burned. In the same spirit, if someone who is slow overperforms by running well, that is going to open eyes and improve stock.

For fun, here are the two likely contenders for fastest:

WR Brenen Thompson of Mississippi State: Thompson is expected to run in the mid-4.2s. If he does not, his stock is going to plummet. Outside of speed, he does not have much to fall back on because he is small, 5’9″ and 170 pounds.

WR Chris Hilton of LSU: If anyone knocks off Thompson, it will likely be Hilton. The difference between the two is likely to be 3 inches and 20 pounds though. However, Hilton had almost zero production in college.

2019 NFL Draft: The Last of the Bad Drafts

What Do the Eagles Look For?

As Eagles fans, something to watch is overperformance in non-traditional humans. What do I mean? The Eagles look for guys who are all around athletes for their positions, but who are also either larger or smaller than others. Jordan Davis is huge, but he is also incredibly athletic for being so huge. Check out his spider chart. On the other end of this is plenty of examples, but the most relatable is Jason Kelce. He was small for a center but crushed all the athletic drills (spider chart). Unfortunately, this goes both ways. Take 2019 1st round pick Andre Dillard for example. He crushed the combine but was MIA in the NFL.² Eagles drafts are littered with these types, for better and for worse.

There are two websites that do a ton of tracking of all the combine info. Mockdraftable keeps a tab on all the measurements and gives us the spider charts we hold so dear. RAS uses the numbers and the players size to come up with a relative athletic score with 10 being the highest, but 9s and above being considered elite. The Eagles have taken a ton of 9s in recent years (since 2019) who have showed out on the field including Davis (10), Milton Williams (9.96), Cooper DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell, Cam Jurgens, Moro Ojomo, Nolan Smith, Jalyx Hunt, and Jalen Hurts. Of course, Casey Toohill, Sydney Brown, Johnny Wilson, Will Shipley, K’Von Wallace, Zech McPhearson, and Trevor Keegan scored over 9 as well.

Howie Roseman and the NFL Draft

Keep Your Eyes On…

Offensive Linemen running drills. The Eagles are likely in the market for their Lane Johnson replacement who happened to have one of the best combines ever: DAMN. Good luck replacing that! Still, the Eagles prefer athleticism from their linemen over size, so the drills will be a good tell as to their top pick.

Fast WRs. The Eagles do not need to take a WR in the first 2 days of the draft. After that though, expect a fast WR. If someone like Thompson, Hilton, or some other flawed but fast WR is available on Day 3, the Eagles will have an eye on them.

Athletic DTs. Milton Williams, Jordan Davis, Moro Ojomo, and Ty Robinson have all tested off the charts in recent years and the Eagles are always looking to add to their DT stable. This year could be time for the next Ojomo after Ty Robinson spent last year in the doghouse.

The EDGE. The Eagles need pass rush help. Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt are the only guarantees for this year’s team. Both are smaller, but strong and fast. There’s your prototype.

One Last Thing

Did you really think I would go a whole combine article without mentioning Mike Mamula? Mamula was the first “workout warrior” who specifically trained for the combine and blew away the competition. His production was good in school, but he scored a perfect 10 RAS thanks to absurd testing. The Eagles ended up trading up with Tampa to draft him #7 and he is known as an all-time draft bust. His production wasn’t actually that bad, but Tampa ended up drafting Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks with the picks we gave up. That certainly didn’t help Mamula’s legacy.

Eagles at Bucs: That Time Mike Mamula Won Tampa a Super Bowl

All info courtesy of Mockdraftable, RAS, and the Austin American-Statesman which was the only outlet that I found that had CORRECT schedules for the combine. Even NFL.com was either wrong or incomplete.

1. That is until they realize that the NFL Pro Bowl (and NBA All-Star Game) should just be running, jumping, and strength contests. Wouldn’t that be awesome? ↩︎
2. Speaking of the 2019 Draft, I cannot reconcile the team going for Dillard in Round 1 then passing on DK Metcalf for JJ Arcega-Whiteside in Round 2. ↩︎