NFL Combine
2/26/25
7 min read
Inside the NFL Combine: What Really Matters for GMs
One of the things I find fascinating about Combine week is the most important activities for GMs and other team execs are not the workouts and on-field testing the public sees in about 20 hours of TV coverage.
On my many trips as a GM and team president to Indianapolis for Combine week, I was focused on my behind the scenes discussions with agents as we headed towards free agency just a couple weeks ahead along with the player interviews in the evenings and conferring with our medical staff on the results of player physicals that are such as key part of the Combine.
Of course I would watch the on-field workouts but I knew we could view tape of these activities after the Combine and the players would repeat the same drills at their Pro Days and sometimes at our team facility on pre-draft visits.
Post Senior Bowl and prior to the Combine, we spent a week fine-tuning our draft board which would happen again after the Combine and following March Pro Days before final rankings were in place the week of the draft. It’s a tedious but critical process to separate the college players and get the input of area scouts, player personnel staff, the coaching staff and medical people so we could effectively rank the college players.
I would emphasize to our staff that we needed to understand the physicals and player interviews were the most important elements of the Combine and not fall in love with workout warriors. I’d stress a player’s on-field play in games was much more important in the evaluation process than their on-field testing. The intelligence test players take this week is of some value but again it was one piece of a huge evaluation puzzle as I knew many players who did not score well but had the football smarts to succeed in the NFL
Combine week was packed full throughout the day and into the evenings when we would hold quick staff meetings or group dinners (I miss the famous spicy shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo) to review the day’s activities before player interview sessions. As much as the college all-star games such as the Senior Bowl signaled the start of the next season, the Combine was a bigger event since it involved so many more players.
We’d hear early in the week which highly ranked players would not work out at the Combine (including highly touted QB Shedeur Sanders this week). Even though it has become commonplace for the top players, it’s a source of mild irritation for the team execs, coaches and scouts in attendance.
These players want to wait until their Pro Days to do the drills and run the 40-yard dash. Even now in my work with an NFL agent firm, I feel a player-- regardless of how high they’re ranked-- should take as many opportunities as possible to work out for teams which certainly includes the Combine. What if the weather is lousy or they’re sick for their Pro Day? It’s best not to put all your eggs in one basket.
I paid close attention to the player interviews since the Combine usually was my first opportunity to talk with draft-eligible players. They’re almost always well trained in advance on interview techniques but it’s still a decent gauge of a player’s personality and football smarts when they’re asked to diagram a play or a coverage.
For me, the Combine also was a great opportunity to talk with my peers, league office execs and media people (in much greater abundance at the Combine than 20 years ago) while walking around Indianapolis, sitting in the seats during workouts at Lucas Oil Stadium and stopping for lunch or coffee during the day. I enjoyed the interaction with other team execs at the Combine and at league meetings compared to the more tense gamedays when we would have a quick pregame chat.
During this pre-free agency period that included Combine week, I anxiously awaited word from the league office on the final salary cap amount for the season ahead (currently estimated between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, a $22-26 million increase over last year which is a much bigger increase than I ever received).
The compensatory picks for the upcoming draft also were usually announced during Combine week so we would then know if we had extra picks and in which round after if we had lost key free agents the year before.
In my role as chief contract negotiator during my Vikings GM years and working alongside our GM on key contracts at the Titans, my conversations in Indy with agents were a priority. I had my list of our teams’ free agents who I wanted to re-sign, possibly put the franchise or transition tag on or just see what the agent indicated as to potential outside interest and the player’s desire to stay with us. These were legal discussions to have with your own players before their contracts expire with the start of the new league year (March 12 this year).
Then there’s the hit list of other teams’ free agents we had interest in from our January and February internal meetings. While it’s technically tampering to negotiate on new players until the start of the “legal tampering period” on March 10, every team and agent is talking about potential market value of potential free agents and expressing interest.
It’s just one of those accepted realities that rarely results in a team being nailed for tampering unless someone accidentally spills the beans as Kirk Cousins did last year (with Atlanta losing a fifth-round pick and fined $250,000 after Cousins said in a press conference at his signing that he had contact with the team prior to the official start of free agency which was deemed improper).
A more recent development surrounding the Combine has been the absence of some head coaches in recent years including the Rams’ Sean McVay and the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan. They claim they can get more work done on free agency planning and their playbooks at their offices (and view Combine tape later on the college players including their team interviews).
I think a big part of it is they want to avoid the convention atmosphere with hundreds of coaches hitting them up for jobs when they see them in Indianapolis.
So as you watch the players during the Combine telecasts, just know that teams certainly want to know a player’s speed (with 10-yard sprints more meaningful than 40 yards for the linemen), how high they can jump and how strong they are with the bench press reps.
Also know it’s an inexact science. I would always tell our scouts and coaches that our Vikings Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter ran in the 4.5-4.6 range but he had terrific hands and was one of the league’s best route runners. It was virtually the same story with WR GOAT Jerry Rice. And my favorite story is of Hall of Fame defensive tackle John Randle who I signed for $5,000 as an undrafted player in 1990 because most teams thought he was too small to play in the NFL.
Meanwhile, under the radar is the extensive contract free-for-all among team execs and agents, setting the stage for free agency just around the corner.
