Combine numbers becoming rarer in the NFL Draft and college recruiting

Yahoo

02-04-2025

© Peter Casey-Imagn Images
During last week's "Move The Sticks" podcast with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks, the two longtime analysts for NFL Network were lamenting the fact that nearly half of the top 12-15 pass rushers weren't going to run a 40-yard dash in preparation for the NFL Draft.
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This isn't a new phenomenon. Many of the top prospects, regardless of position, have been opting out of the combine testing drills for years out of fear it could only hurt their draft stock. Instead, they've opted to direct scouts to their game film, statistical production and GPS tracking data to verify their athleticism.
Not having verified testing data is common when evaluating high school prospects and it does impact how those players are evaluated and where those players are slotted in the Rivals250.
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Often there are track times for many of the skill positions, which can be helpful, but those rarely exist for pass rushers. Without track times or verified combine results, validating the explosiveness of a pass rusher can be challenging, especially without an in-person evaluation. In these situations, the player's game film carries even more weight and is even more heavily scrutinized during the process. But how should the level of competition be factored into the evaluation?
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On the podcast, Brooks uses former Marshall star pass rusher and projected first-round NFL Draft pick Mike Green as an example: "Are we having true apples to apples discussions when we may look at a Mike Green play in one conference versus somebody else who is playing in the SEC against presumably, presumably better tackles and blockers."
Without verified combine results and measurements to make it an apples to apples comparison, there is an immense amount of uncertainty when trying to decide between two players from different areas of the country who have similar stats and equally impressive film.
Brooks went on to make another point that should be of particular interest to college football prospects: "It makes it harder when we're kind of building the case to support our player in a meeting ... I can say, 'He ran for 2,000 yards,' but [I'll get asked] 'What's his 40 time?' [and I'll have to say] 'I don't have that.'
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"It just makes it more difficult to be able to make some of these arguments when you have Prospect A and Prospect B with similar grades but I have an incomplete profile on Prospect B."
This isn't a groundbreaking revelation but many players, especially ones ranked in the top 100 of the Rivals250, still decide against participating in combine drills. For this exact reason, the in-person evaluation is an invaluable part of the process. For scouts, that means getting in the car or on a plane and going to see these players to validate what you saw on film.
As Jeremiah said on the podcast, "You're getting to the point now where it's like, man, you better get out and do your homework in the fall. Get out and see these guys, go to some live games and see them move around and see them do things and give yourself a little bit of a better opportunity there because, if you're banking on getting all this information in the spring, I don't know that those days are ever coming back."