2023 Combine Thread
- Thread starter boozeman
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And I would put him and LG and never think about his "flex" again. No shame in that, I think he would be a day one starter at LG.
That's a lot of faith for a dude from a small school.
NoDak
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Chocolate Lab
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Keeping Zeke would be stupid, but I don't see what watching a bunch of guys run 40s has to do with it.
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I mean drills are fun too. I may be able to name 20 backs in the draft I'd rather have than Zeke. 40 times be damned. I bet he couldn't crack a 4.75 now.
Foobio
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These guys make shit decisions like this year after year and this dude thinks they’re going to suddenly get smart.
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RB is a young man's game. Young fresh legs are almost always best.
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I see a lot of Zeke in him. Young Zeke when we drafted him, not Zeke today. I think he goes between 10 and 20.
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Same here. I actually commented on one you posted because I thought it had gotten deleted.
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Help us Elon!
Plan9Misfit
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Say hello to our 3rd round pick.
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Crazy to think they were both so similar in size. I actually had it in my head that Washington was significantly bigger. I guess that size is just rare for TE's these days.
Foobio
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UF’s Anthony Richardson proves NFL Scouting Combine is convention of fools | Commentary
By Mike Bianchi
Orlando Sentinel
•
Mar 11, 2023 at 6:31 pm
There are some critics who want to do away with the NFL Scouting Combine because they believe it demeans players and turns them into human cattle.
This may be true, but I believe the NFL Scouting Combine should be banned for another reason:
Because it deteriorates the brain of NFL general managers and turns them into human idiots.
In proving my theory, I would like to present Exhibit A:
Anthony Richardson of the Florida Gators — an amazing athlete and a fine young man.
Just not a very good college quarterback.
But being a below-average college passer doesn’t matter because Richardson showed up at the made-for-TV Combine a few days ago and measured 6-foot-4, 244 pounds and then ran a blazing 4.43 40-yard dash (fifth-fastest among quarterbacks in Combine history) while setting the Combine QB records for the vertical jump (40 feet, 5 inches) and the standing broad jump (10 feet, 9 inches.).
Suddenly, Richardson began skyrocketing up draft boards before multiple NFL analysts and pundits started telling us that quarterback-craving teams would need to move up to draft him because he had morphed into the top 10 and might even be the No. 1 overall pick.
One simple question: Why did it take the NFL Scouting Combine for people to come to the conclusion that Anthony Richardson is big and fast with a really strong arm? Did we not already know this by watching his athletic freakishness on display during his one spectacularly erratic season as UF’s starter?
Presumably, geeky NFL analytics experts need actual numbers attached to a prospect before they can determine the prospect’s worth. Longtime NFL writer Greg Auman of FoxSports.com compared NFL scouts to the guy who knows he’s in debt, but then his credit-card bill shows up and the guy says to himself, “Wow, that’s a big number. I’m REALLY in debt.”
The same goes for Richardson. NFL scouts obviously knew he was big and fast, but apparently they just didn’t know he was THIS big and THIS fast. And as long as we’re comparing Richardson to credit-card debt, let me just say this: I believe any GM that drafts A.R. in the top 10 will end up paying off this debt with his job.
Richardson’s ascension proves that the NFL Scouting Combine and college pro days are nothing more than a convention of fools, many of whom will erase a player’s collegiate body of work based upon one press of a stopwatch button.
Who will ever forget the case of former UCF wide receiver Breshad Perriman after he ran an amazing 4.22 40 at UCF’s pro day in 2014 and suddenly jumped from the 17th-best receiver on ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s big board into the first round? Perriman ended up indeed being drafted 26th overall in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens and started four games in three years before being cut.
Of course, the biggest case of Combine idiocy is Tom Brady, who fell into the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft after he ran the 40 in a snail-like 5.28 seconds and posted an awful 24½-inch vertical jump.
Which brings us back to Richardson. If his performance a few days ago had come in the Olympic Decathlon Combine, I would say he should definitely be the No. 1 overall pick, but it didn’t. It came in the NFL Scouting Combine. It’s no secret that running and jumping at the Combine has little bearing on whether you will become a great NFL quarterback. Just look down the all-time list of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks and you’ll see that very few of them ran really fast or jumped really high.
Being a great NFL quarterback is about accuracy, anticipation, seeing the field, processing information and reading defenses quickly and making split-second decisions. Yes, being athletic helps with escapability (see Patrick Mahomes and a young Aaron Rodgers), but it’s certainly not a quarterback’s most important trait.
Because of Richardson’s athleticism, some draft analysts are comparing him to Cam Newton and Jalen Hurts. This, too, is ludicrous and ignores what the three players did in college.
During his final year, Newton had one of the greatest seasons in college football history. He ran for 1,473 yards, threw for 2,854 yards, completed 66 percent of his passes and almost singlehandedly led the Auburn Tigers to an undefeated season and a national championship. During Hurts’ final season at Oklahoma, he ran for 1,298 yards, threw for 3,851 yards, completed 70 percent of his passes and led Oklahoma into the College Football Playoff.
My point is, Newton and Hurts were great college quarterbacks whereas Richardson was not. He completed only 54 percent of his passes last season and only had the 77th-best passer rating in the nation, 11th in the SEC. Granted, the Gators were not very good last season and finished with a losing record, but Richardson’s erraticism is one of the major reasons for that.
This is not to say Anthony Richardson cannot go on to become a great quarterback in the NFL, but the team that drafts him will need to have both patience and time.
Unfortunately, these two attributes are in very short supply in sports — and in society — today.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
By Mike Bianchi
Orlando Sentinel
•
Mar 11, 2023 at 6:31 pm
There are some critics who want to do away with the NFL Scouting Combine because they believe it demeans players and turns them into human cattle.
This may be true, but I believe the NFL Scouting Combine should be banned for another reason:
Because it deteriorates the brain of NFL general managers and turns them into human idiots.
In proving my theory, I would like to present Exhibit A:
Anthony Richardson of the Florida Gators — an amazing athlete and a fine young man.
Just not a very good college quarterback.
But being a below-average college passer doesn’t matter because Richardson showed up at the made-for-TV Combine a few days ago and measured 6-foot-4, 244 pounds and then ran a blazing 4.43 40-yard dash (fifth-fastest among quarterbacks in Combine history) while setting the Combine QB records for the vertical jump (40 feet, 5 inches) and the standing broad jump (10 feet, 9 inches.).
Suddenly, Richardson began skyrocketing up draft boards before multiple NFL analysts and pundits started telling us that quarterback-craving teams would need to move up to draft him because he had morphed into the top 10 and might even be the No. 1 overall pick.
One simple question: Why did it take the NFL Scouting Combine for people to come to the conclusion that Anthony Richardson is big and fast with a really strong arm? Did we not already know this by watching his athletic freakishness on display during his one spectacularly erratic season as UF’s starter?
Presumably, geeky NFL analytics experts need actual numbers attached to a prospect before they can determine the prospect’s worth. Longtime NFL writer Greg Auman of FoxSports.com compared NFL scouts to the guy who knows he’s in debt, but then his credit-card bill shows up and the guy says to himself, “Wow, that’s a big number. I’m REALLY in debt.”
The same goes for Richardson. NFL scouts obviously knew he was big and fast, but apparently they just didn’t know he was THIS big and THIS fast. And as long as we’re comparing Richardson to credit-card debt, let me just say this: I believe any GM that drafts A.R. in the top 10 will end up paying off this debt with his job.
Richardson’s ascension proves that the NFL Scouting Combine and college pro days are nothing more than a convention of fools, many of whom will erase a player’s collegiate body of work based upon one press of a stopwatch button.
Who will ever forget the case of former UCF wide receiver Breshad Perriman after he ran an amazing 4.22 40 at UCF’s pro day in 2014 and suddenly jumped from the 17th-best receiver on ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s big board into the first round? Perriman ended up indeed being drafted 26th overall in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens and started four games in three years before being cut.
Of course, the biggest case of Combine idiocy is Tom Brady, who fell into the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft after he ran the 40 in a snail-like 5.28 seconds and posted an awful 24½-inch vertical jump.
Which brings us back to Richardson. If his performance a few days ago had come in the Olympic Decathlon Combine, I would say he should definitely be the No. 1 overall pick, but it didn’t. It came in the NFL Scouting Combine. It’s no secret that running and jumping at the Combine has little bearing on whether you will become a great NFL quarterback. Just look down the all-time list of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks and you’ll see that very few of them ran really fast or jumped really high.
Being a great NFL quarterback is about accuracy, anticipation, seeing the field, processing information and reading defenses quickly and making split-second decisions. Yes, being athletic helps with escapability (see Patrick Mahomes and a young Aaron Rodgers), but it’s certainly not a quarterback’s most important trait.
Because of Richardson’s athleticism, some draft analysts are comparing him to Cam Newton and Jalen Hurts. This, too, is ludicrous and ignores what the three players did in college.
During his final year, Newton had one of the greatest seasons in college football history. He ran for 1,473 yards, threw for 2,854 yards, completed 66 percent of his passes and almost singlehandedly led the Auburn Tigers to an undefeated season and a national championship. During Hurts’ final season at Oklahoma, he ran for 1,298 yards, threw for 3,851 yards, completed 70 percent of his passes and led Oklahoma into the College Football Playoff.
My point is, Newton and Hurts were great college quarterbacks whereas Richardson was not. He completed only 54 percent of his passes last season and only had the 77th-best passer rating in the nation, 11th in the SEC. Granted, the Gators were not very good last season and finished with a losing record, but Richardson’s erraticism is one of the major reasons for that.
This is not to say Anthony Richardson cannot go on to become a great quarterback in the NFL, but the team that drafts him will need to have both patience and time.
Unfortunately, these two attributes are in very short supply in sports — and in society — today.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
ravidubey
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I believe that NFL people overreact to QB pre-draft performances to help bad teams make even worse choices.
After Alex Smith’s pre draft workout, NFL scouts and front office folks stood up in a standing ovation.
That overwhelming enthusiasm certainly didn’t dissuade the 49ers from making a decade-long bad choice with the #1 overall pick.
Likewise a couple of years ago whe Zach Wilson shot up draft boards mainly because he looked the part and had a workout that had NFL front office PR departments jizzing themselves, mainly over a single deep pass.
I laughed out loud at that until I remembered what happened with Smith. Overhyped reactions can help set a narrative and dumb personnel people will swallow it all. Jets aren’t looking very smart right now.
After Alex Smith’s pre draft workout, NFL scouts and front office folks stood up in a standing ovation.
That overwhelming enthusiasm certainly didn’t dissuade the 49ers from making a decade-long bad choice with the #1 overall pick.
Likewise a couple of years ago whe Zach Wilson shot up draft boards mainly because he looked the part and had a workout that had NFL front office PR departments jizzing themselves, mainly over a single deep pass.
I laughed out loud at that until I remembered what happened with Smith. Overhyped reactions can help set a narrative and dumb personnel people will swallow it all. Jets aren’t looking very smart right now.
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