Combine 'Exclusive'
A peek behind the curtain at the NFL Scouting Combine was less than revelatory.
Combine 'Exclusive'
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
Sunday afternoon, your Eagletarian was allowed the rare privilege of penetrating the NFL Scouting Combine’s inner sanctum.
For some reason, the league doesn’t routinely allow the public and the media to witness the combine drills live. It shows the drills from eleventy-seven different camera angles on the NFL Network, but watch them with your own, unfiltered eyes? Not no way, not no how!
The past few years, though, the Pro Football Writers of America (we’re like the Justice League, only with better uniforms) has gotten the NFL to agree to let small, closely guided groups filter unobtrusively into an unoccupied stadium box to watch a few hours of workouts on Sunday. So it was that I grasped my notepad, hoisted my binoculars and took my place on this brave, historic mission, just before lunchtime yesterday.
We traipsed through the freshly carpeted halls of still-new Lucas Oil Stadium on the luxury box level. We assumed many of the luxury boxes we passed were filled with team personnel, through there were no helpful signs. It was nice of the Eagles to leave the door to their suite open, through which we spied – gasp – Marty Mornhinweg dipping into a bowl of potato chips. Marty responded wanly to our exuberant, glad-to-see-you wave. He seemed to be considering the possibility of having security Taser us. But we quickly caught up with our group, and his opportunity passed.
As for the drills themselves, they were disappointing, as an entertainment vehicle. The first thing we saw was the quarterback group running the 40. Many of the quarterbacks looked about as comfortable settling into a sprinter’s stance as your Eagletarian would have. And the 40 had about as much to do with the performance of their jobs as it does with mine. Yes, you want a QB who can sidestep the rush, who can buy himself a little time. But not being able to do that hasn’t kept, say, Kurt Warner from winning football games. We quickly surmised that among this group, the only thing that might happen that could affect someone’s draft status would be if he broke his leg and had to be put down. That didn’t happen.
Then the wideouts ran. They looked more like real sprinters – in fact, some of them were way too much like real sprinters, taking forever to settle into their stances, stretching this way and that, flexing and preening, false-starting.
We had been assigned the task of a pool report on Penn State wideout Jordan Norwood. On Friday, Norwood, 5-11, 179, had told reporters he wished he were 10 pounds heavier and five-hundredths of a second faster. After watching him run a 4.57, we were thinking maybe he’d like to amend that to, say, 15 or 20 hundredths of a second faster.
Norwood, who seemed like a really nice kid, probably shouldn’t be spending a whole lot of anticipated signing bonus money. He had a tough time in the “gauntlet” drill, the only really interesting part of the session, in which receivers run across the field like shooting range targets, hauling in footballs thrown at them from all angles and quickly jettisoning them before the next pass arrives. Watching this was like watching fast-forwarded L.J. Smith highlights, escept these guys were intentionally putting the ball on the ground.
We came away from our peek behind the curtain convinced that Ohio State’s Brian Robiskie is a very impressive receiver -- hands, body control, getting in and out of breaks. Which probably ensures the Eagles won’t draft him. And that Alabama quarterback, John Parker Wilson? His name is longer than his throws.
It was well past lunchtime when we were led back through the corridors to the media area, and we couldn’t even find Marty to try to bum a few potato chips.
Ya gotta laugh at NFL coaches. They are so protected, paranoid and verrryyy self absorbed. I get the impression they think their life work is critical to saving mankind. It's an absolute pain in the ass to be polite/pleasant to the public and the press. I mean when you consider the "free" publicity they get from the press and the fact that their celebrity is based on fans' love of the GAME and not them, you'd think they could at least smile and be pleasant. It's February for God's sake. How crucial is it to record the QB's running a 40??? These guys make me laugh. There are many people doing REAL work (not fun and games) but these self absorbed egos have no clue.— stoneman- I could see the Eagles taking a WR in the 3rd or 4th where Robiskie was thought to be picked. But yesterday's performance will knock him up to the top to mid 2nd round. Too bad, he was a guy I liked...— ricky11211
DONALD BROWN WAS IMPRESSIVE YESTERDAY....EAGLES SHOULD LOOK INTO HIM...AS FAR AS TIGHT END....PETTIGREW CAUSE OF BLOCKING MAY BE THE WAY TO GO...— teenwolf
Comment removed.- Is it me or does this cat Philly10 like the kid out of Florida? Everytime I read comments it's like deja vu all over again.— rockinrob
Yeah rockinrob, he's mentioned it a time or two or three or..... Ain't happenin' though. Right now I think TE first, then RB. WR isn't near the top of my wish list.— tpizza- Typing in caps will never help you prove a point. . .— sprew
- Err....Les? Do you think that half of the posters that come on this site will even know who the Justice League is? Why talk about the draft at all? The Eagles will either trade the picks or pick somebody who won't pan out in the long run. Keep dreaming Philly fans.
- PHILLY10 is either Harvin's agent or has a serious crush on the guy. We already have Percy Harvin our team. He wears #10.— BigDawg13
- Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom...— PA Native
- Comment removed.
- On Norwood - forget combines and practices...they guy gets OPEN and can CATCH when it counts...period. I will take that any day over someone who can practice well. And, he seems to hold up physically.— psuwelsh
- Who remembers Greg "Trash" Garrity, from PSU? He could barely outrun your grandma, but if you needed 7 yards he'd get open 7 1/2 yards downfield and catch any ball he could get a finger on.— Warhound
- As much as I'd like to see the Eagles pick a game changing Fitzgerald clone in Rd1, I doubt Andy will have the courage. I'd love to see him load up on skill players -- WR, RB, TE -- with the first 3 picks, but I see 2 of the first 3 picks going to the line. I won't be surprised if Andy trades in 2-3 picks to move up to get his OT. Harvin might become a pro Bowl WR, but I don't like him on this team. Not even a little bit. And I'm not sold on Kolb; maybe we take a late flyer on an undervalued strong-armed QB to develop while D-Mac plays out his next contract here.— Homer65
- We have a Garrity now. He's Avant. Turned out to be a nice move-the-chains 3rd down possession WR who easily finds the zone creases and rarely ever drops the ball. I like Baskett too if they ever commit to the fade. D-Jax and Avant, a stud draft WR and Baskett make for a nice WR corps. I'd say goodbye to Reggie and Lewis, maybe keep Curtis.— Homer65
