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Speaker 1: confetti has fallen, the Lombardi Trophy has been placeted, and
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald, Cooper Cup and Matthew Stafford. They have celebrated
Speaker 1: with the big years Mickey Mouse, which means the NFL
Speaker 1: season now a distant memory, not too distant, but that's okay.
Speaker 1: We're here to talk about the future of the league.
Speaker 1: Thought it was fun seeing the Rams pull off victory.
Speaker 1: My co hosted d D kinkoball a little bums. I
Speaker 1: would imagine that Joe Burrow and his team didn't get
Speaker 1: the w No. I mean, isn't my job as an impartial,
Speaker 1: unbiased reporter to just tell it like it is uh yeah,
Speaker 1: but you're you're around those guys like I would imagine
Speaker 1: the storylines just changed a little bit when well, sure,
Speaker 1: but you know, and I'll tell you covering what was
Speaker 1: it nine nine Bengals games this year and spending the
Speaker 1: time with them, great team, so fun, such wonderful energy.
Speaker 1: So you're just happy for a great game and great experience.
Speaker 1: A heck of a halftime show, Mike, which this will
Speaker 1: be a whole other episode, but I shared a green
Speaker 1: room on Super Bowl Sunday with Snoop and his cohorts,
Speaker 1: so um yeah, I want to hear some of those
Speaker 1: stories that went down, and you're right, an epic halftime show,
Speaker 1: and I get to relive my college years and you
Speaker 1: know those aurists that was when fifty comes out? Are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? In the club? One of those songs?
Speaker 1: All right, well, look, you and I can you know,
Speaker 1: dork out about the halftime shows and we can go
Speaker 1: down memory lane with some of these songs. We'll do
Speaker 1: that on another episode of NFL Explained. But no NFL
Speaker 1: games officially being played now for a little bit of
Speaker 1: time with the league on vacation. But there's something really
Speaker 1: cool about the NFL we got a lot of different
Speaker 1: moments throughout the year that give us something to talk about.
Speaker 1: We've got NFL free agency in mid March, the NFL Draft,
Speaker 1: which all eyes will be on in April, and then
Speaker 1: before that we got the NFL Combine also starting in March,
Speaker 1: and today on the NFL Explained Pod, we're taking that
Speaker 1: deep dive into the history of the NFL Combine, one
Speaker 1: of my all time favorite events. Let me tell you so,
Speaker 1: the Combine, and we'll probably get into this at some point, Mike,
Speaker 1: but there is consideration to move the Combine out of Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: which would really and truly make me shed a tear.
Speaker 1: One of the things that's so phenomenal about Indianapolis is
Speaker 1: that everything is within walking distance, and you're all right
Speaker 1: there Lucas Oil Stadium, in all these hotels and a
Speaker 1: ton of restaurants and bars and everything. And what happens
Speaker 1: at the come line is that every single team's scouting
Speaker 1: department and assistant coaches and head coaches and gms and
Speaker 1: agents and everybody is in town for this week. While
Speaker 1: the hundreds of future NFL prospects are all showing off
Speaker 1: every piece of why they are potential NFL players from
Speaker 1: on the field to off the field to all of that.
Speaker 1: And so it's just this tremendous chance to catch up
Speaker 1: with people not in the midst of the season, but
Speaker 1: outside of the season and hang out on a personal
Speaker 1: level and as you just said, get to know the
Speaker 1: guys that will populate the league as we move forward.
Speaker 1: All right, give me a handle here, give me a
Speaker 1: better sense of of actually what's happening for the players
Speaker 1: during the week of the combine. Okay, So they'll take
Speaker 1: medical tests, they'll do team interviews. Some of them are
Speaker 1: kind of at the train station, which is super super quick,
Speaker 1: you know, you get maybe five minutes, and then some
Speaker 1: of them are intense and they'll have been in hotel
Speaker 1: suites or rooms and go through kind of being put
Speaker 1: on the board. There's on field drills that show their
Speaker 1: athletic abilities as well as their mental abilities. And you
Speaker 1: have to be invited to Indy. So it's obviously a
Speaker 1: very lite group. How do you get that invite, Mike.
Speaker 1: It's an anonymous committee that's made up of executives from
Speaker 1: all thirty two NFL teams player personnel departments. There are
Speaker 1: directors from the National Football and Blessed scouting services that
Speaker 1: are also there. And here's a little random tidbit, because
Speaker 1: our show is so good at random tidbits, right, blessed O,
Speaker 1: which I'm sure you've heard, right, you've heard blessed O.
Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered what BLESSO stood for? Mike, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I am here to tell you. It is for the Lions,
Speaker 1: Eagles and Steelers talent organizations. And then the Bears joined
Speaker 1: and that made it Blessedo. So it was LESTO Lions, Eagles,
Speaker 1: ste Allers Talent Organization LESTO, and then the Bears joined
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four and it became the less Sto Bears.
Speaker 1: Oh my, that's right. Blesso does sort of have a
Speaker 1: good little ring to it. I think the other thing,
Speaker 1: Addy is when a lot of these teams Blessed Scouts
Speaker 1: however you want to describe it, they're assessing some of
Speaker 1: these players like it's not an exact science. And I
Speaker 1: think it is important to sort of go back here
Speaker 1: because we've chronicled in a lot of ways the history
Speaker 1: of the NFL how teams got their names, and encourage
Speaker 1: people to go back to listen to some of our
Speaker 1: previous episodes but I think if you have listened to it,
Speaker 1: you'd realize that the league has actually been around for
Speaker 1: over a hundred season. But the NFL Combine didn't start
Speaker 1: until the great year of nineteen one. You know why
Speaker 1: it's a great year? Hello? Alright, so blessed o the
Speaker 1: National Football Scouting Like they gathered players in Indianapolis for
Speaker 1: those medical tests, no team interviews or on field activities
Speaker 1: were actually conducted at that point. Nowadays, the players should
Speaker 1: do in the interviews the drills, and it's the reason
Speaker 1: why we only have records for what the players have
Speaker 1: actually performed in those drills since two thousand three also
Speaker 1: another great year because that was the year that I
Speaker 1: graduated college. So in nineteen eighty two, the National Invitational Camp,
Speaker 1: which was the official name for the NFL Scouting Combine,
Speaker 1: began with only a few teams participating. So the first
Speaker 1: National Invitational Camp was held in Tampa, Florida, with a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three players taking part. But during that time,
Speaker 1: other camps actually started to pop up until one all
Speaker 1: twenty eight teams with the goal of splitting the cost
Speaker 1: of all the medical exams, got on board. So I
Speaker 1: was talking about the dollars right, That to me makes
Speaker 1: sense to sort of streamline things well. And I think
Speaker 1: that the medical tests are incredibly important because you want
Speaker 1: some sort of consistency right to some degree, every team
Speaker 1: wants its own physicians to check out every player, but
Speaker 1: that's just not feasible. So you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that the players are healthy enough to compete at a
Speaker 1: high level. So every position group is in Indie for
Speaker 1: four days, and three of the four days are spent
Speaker 1: on medical testing and interviews, and only one of the
Speaker 1: days is about on the field workouts. And now part
Speaker 1: of that is because obviously the tape is the tape,
Speaker 1: the film shows what it shows, and an on field
Speaker 1: workout is not nearly as valuable as this other sort
Speaker 1: of intensive examination. It's a good point, especially when you
Speaker 1: consider the amount of money that's going to be invested
Speaker 1: in a lot of these individuals. To have some sort
Speaker 1: of consistency on the medical testing and then to get
Speaker 1: to just know some of these players is really important.
Speaker 1: So that official combine, by the way, has been held
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, uh it was eighty four and eighty six,
Speaker 1: Arizona in eighty five, and then last year obviously with
Speaker 1: the cole COVID situation, the combine was canceled. But this
Speaker 1: year's combine, how about returns to Indianapolis for a thirty
Speaker 1: fifth time a d D which is pretty cool, well,
Speaker 1: which I already told you that it's my favorite place
Speaker 1: for it to happen. So I don't know if anybody
Speaker 1: in decision making capacity is stening to us right now,
Speaker 1: but hey, I vote for Indie. I vote for a
Speaker 1: repeat to indian Especially after coming home from a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl in l A. I would prefer the combine in
Speaker 1: Indy to l A. But that's a whole other conversation, Mike,
Speaker 1: So let's get into it, like what actually happens, Like
Speaker 1: what are teams looking into when they're trying to assess
Speaker 1: who exactly they are drafting. There's obviously questions that range
Speaker 1: from testing football and playbook knowledge, and then of course
Speaker 1: getting to know players about the way they were raised
Speaker 1: and their passions and their general philosophies on life. All
Speaker 1: of that, and one of my favorite games is hearing
Speaker 1: the somewhat bizarre questions that are leaked and hearing from
Speaker 1: coaches what questions they are told they are not allowed
Speaker 1: to ask, because that has happened too. Yeah, and actually
Speaker 1: it has changed a d D in a lot of
Speaker 1: ways because look, i mean sometimes you know, there's only
Speaker 1: so many things that you can ask a lot of
Speaker 1: these players but also keep them on. I've thinking a
Speaker 1: lot of these teams, even before they get into that
Speaker 1: interview room, are doing their own investigations and getting a
Speaker 1: better sense of some of these players, whether it's talking
Speaker 1: to former coaches, former players, just to sort of paint
Speaker 1: the picture on what these guys can actually do. But
Speaker 1: there's there's so much on tape, right, Like you got
Speaker 1: the film on these guys, but it's now all about
Speaker 1: getting to know who that player is. So I'd love
Speaker 1: to get into some of these questions with you. You You
Speaker 1: wanna have a little bit of fun here on on
Speaker 1: some of these Sure, why not? There was a player
Speaker 1: who was asked, and that was Cam Newton. Would you
Speaker 1: rather be a cat or a dog? Add How would
Speaker 1: you answer that question? Dog? Why? Um? Dogs are loyal
Speaker 1: and loving and offer a companionship in a way that
Speaker 1: cats are aloof I don't I'm trying to think of
Speaker 1: a very clean way to say this, but I just
Speaker 1: don't really love the idea of an animal that goes
Speaker 1: to the bathroom in the open in the house. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's fair. So there's that, and um, yeah, let's move on.
Speaker 1: All I was gonna say was, there's this one moment
Speaker 1: on NFL Network that I'll never forget watching a lot
Speaker 1: of the coverage. Charles McCoy was actually asked you wear
Speaker 1: a jockstrap or a G string when you play, which
Speaker 1: to me is like an awkward thing to have to
Speaker 1: ask in like an interview setting. But he told the
Speaker 1: story on NFL Network and it was actually really hysterical,
Speaker 1: and it just got me thinking about all of these
Speaker 1: odd questions cat or dog or you know what kind
Speaker 1: of garments you wear? Like, to me, that's it's just different.
Speaker 1: And I guess some of these teams feel like you
Speaker 1: can gather some sort of intel about someone's personality based
Speaker 1: off of how the answer those questions. Sure, and I
Speaker 1: do remember a assistant coach with a team telling me
Speaker 1: that the head coach had instructed this assistant coach he
Speaker 1: was not allowed to ask about a player's personal life
Speaker 1: during an interview. So anything is game and not everything
Speaker 1: is game, which is maybe Mike part of why that
Speaker 1: In January of this year, the NFL sent a memo
Speaker 1: to remind teams that any club rep who displayed a disrespectful, inappropriate,
Speaker 1: or unprofessional conduct during the combine interviews with prospects could
Speaker 1: lead to teams losing a draft pick and also a
Speaker 1: fine of as much as a hundred and fifty thou dollars.
Speaker 1: And those inappropriate questions quote unquote include questions on race, religions,
Speaker 1: sexual orientation, marital status, disabilities, national origin, etcetera. The memo
Speaker 1: also says, quote prospects are encouraged to report offensive conduct
Speaker 1: without retaliation. And we should also point out that the
Speaker 1: NFL eliminated one of my favorite tests, the Wonderlick. I mean,
Speaker 1: the wonder Like has been a very very telling test.
Speaker 1: In fact, I just had a conversation with somebody about
Speaker 1: Josh Allen and how his Wonderlick score was significantly higher
Speaker 1: than some other quarterback prospects in his draft class and
Speaker 1: why that may be surprising but is so telling as
Speaker 1: we sit here and look four years later. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: no more wonder Look that is officially now in the
Speaker 1: rear view mirror. Have you ever taken one? No? I haven't.
Speaker 1: Have you I did? Yeah? I killed it? Oh so
Speaker 1: that's the only reason why you brought it up. If
Speaker 1: you scored like really bad, you'd never asked me that
Speaker 1: question to bring that up. So never. But I'm an
Speaker 1: Ivy leaguer, you know, I didn't go to Fordham or anything. Oh,
Speaker 1: here we go. It's here's what I've learned about you
Speaker 1: Ivy leagueers. You guys there, there must be like this
Speaker 1: insecurity that you have that you always have to go
Speaker 1: and bring it up. I've been around enough of you
Speaker 1: to know that that is the case. But I think
Speaker 1: a lot of us, if we're building a team, we'd
Speaker 1: of course want to know absolutely everything about a player.
Speaker 1: I think there's some that just sort of are fascinated
Speaker 1: by the forty yard dash dd the fastest man of
Speaker 1: combine in the forty Well, actually, I'll give you some
Speaker 1: time to think about that, because we'll get into that,
Speaker 1: plus explain why the forty yard dash records might actually
Speaker 1: be obsolete and why you hear the term hand size
Speaker 1: more than you ever expected. That's still to come. And
Speaker 1: also one other note, we got a mail bag episode
Speaker 1: right around the corner. Feel free to fire off some
Speaker 1: of your burning questions at a King Kabwala at Mike Underscore. Yam,
Speaker 1: I've been compiling some of these questions that we've been
Speaker 1: getting over the last few weeks. A few months. Um
Speaker 1: Our malt last mail bag episode was really successful, so
Speaker 1: we thought we'd bring that back. So make sure you
Speaker 1: have a question you just don't know who to ask.
Speaker 1: ADDI and I have you covered. We'll get to that
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Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome back to NFL. Explained Mike Yam and A. D. D.
Speaker 1: Kinkaballah with you, and before the break we talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the history of the NFL Combine and
Speaker 1: I had mentioned some of the great performances, one in
Speaker 1: particular that I think everyone associates the combine with, and
Speaker 1: that's that forty. Keep in mind we can only go
Speaker 1: back to two thousand three when they started to keep
Speaker 1: track of records. Over three hundred players eligible for the
Speaker 1: NFL Draft take the field to perform some of these
Speaker 1: drills in front of their coaches so they can display
Speaker 1: some of that athletic ability. The college that's sending the
Speaker 1: most players to Combine national champs not a shock here
Speaker 1: that Georgia Bulldogs. Man, those dudes looked fantastic, terrific, and
Speaker 1: they were fast as hell on the football field. In
Speaker 1: the Natty they got fourteen dudes that are going That
Speaker 1: ties the record with Ohio State. But one of the
Speaker 1: premier drills, yes, it is the forty a d d
Speaker 1: the person who has the fastest forty time anyone come
Speaker 1: to mind. I do know this one actually, because of
Speaker 1: course he lived in the division that I call my wheelhouse,
Speaker 1: and that of course is John Ross out of Washington
Speaker 1: who ran a four to two. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Speed doesn't necessarily translate into incredible football playing ability. Now
Speaker 1: for Chris Johnson, who ran an official four to four,
Speaker 1: it did. Obviously the running back was incredibly successful. But
Speaker 1: I also remember Dree Archer, who was with the Steelers
Speaker 1: for a while after running a four to six out
Speaker 1: of Kent State didn't too much. And then there was
Speaker 1: of course Marquis Goodwin who ran a four to seven
Speaker 1: out of Texas and competed for an Olympic birth too.
Speaker 1: Did he actually make the Olympics or was he just
Speaker 1: a national champion? I think just the national champ if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, didn't actually, but he did compete in
Speaker 1: an effort to try to make the Olympics, you know, um,
Speaker 1: And I'm with you there on that forty And we'll
Speaker 1: get into why it might be obsolete here in just
Speaker 1: the minute. But John Ross is a guy that I watched.
Speaker 1: I literally watched every one of his games when he
Speaker 1: was playing at Washington, and speed did kill the opponents
Speaker 1: when he was playing. There was some vivid memories that
Speaker 1: I have at that speed. Do you remember this story
Speaker 1: about that forty time where he would have been gifted
Speaker 1: an actual island had he warned the right cleats at
Speaker 1: the combine? Do you remember? So? Yes, I do remember this,
Speaker 1: And it's like he missed out on the easiest thing.
Speaker 1: Was it superstition or was it comfort or ease or
Speaker 1: what was it that prevented him from So Adidas was
Speaker 1: going to give the fastest forty winner or time. They
Speaker 1: were going to give them an island, and John wore
Speaker 1: Nike instead of Adidas, so that obviously wouldn't count. So
Speaker 1: we didn't get the island. He was asked about it,
Speaker 1: and John such a great kid, and he said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't swim anyway, which I thought was a great
Speaker 1: response to not getting getting the island. But um always
Speaker 1: a ton of fun when he was on the football field. So,
Speaker 1: but you're right, like it's hard sometimes to use forty
Speaker 1: as a measuring stick in a barometer for NFL six
Speaker 1: US well, of course, because you know, as we run
Speaker 1: through the list of the fastest forty times ever, only
Speaker 1: running back Chris Johnson, who made the Pro Bowl three times,
Speaker 1: and wide receiver Dural Mathis who made the Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: once have actually been selected to sort of the exalted
Speaker 1: land of their profession, being the Pro Bowl as opposed
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's saying the exalted land. Well, let's just say
Speaker 1: they have been the only ones that have been recognized
Speaker 1: as amongst the best at their positions. Yeah, is it
Speaker 1: just me? Or every time I see a forty I
Speaker 1: always think richis who has raised so much money for St.
Speaker 1: Jude over the how many years has it been now? Ten,
Speaker 1: fifteen years that he's been running the forty in his
Speaker 1: suit and sneakers, fifteen years, handling business a D fifteen years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but his fastest time, by the way, is a five
Speaker 1: point nine four. So I guess being fast doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: equate success because he's about as successful as they come
Speaker 1: at our network. Right, Yeah, Look, I'm sure you've covered
Speaker 1: a bunch of pro days. I have as well. It's
Speaker 1: not just the forty that is used as a measuring
Speaker 1: stick or something that I think NFL teams are hoping
Speaker 1: is at least a little predictor of success. Broad jump,
Speaker 1: three cones, drill, the vertical jump, the bench press, all
Speaker 1: different measuring sticks. To me, it's almost like a horse
Speaker 1: and pony show watching some of these guys, because physically
Speaker 1: they're so gifted, and to see some of these numbers
Speaker 1: a D it's jaw dropping. Well, and I think it's
Speaker 1: important beyond them numbers, just to explain why these drills
Speaker 1: are relevant, you know, Like when we talk about the
Speaker 1: forty mic, it's often well, when do you see a
Speaker 1: guy really running forty yards? Right? Like? Why does a
Speaker 1: forty yard time matter for an offensive lineman who never Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a lineman never moves more than five yards, so
Speaker 1: why does the forty time really matter? I think it's
Speaker 1: a good idea to jump through. Like, okay, so the
Speaker 1: broad jump. You're never seeing anybody do a broad jump
Speaker 1: on a football field. Why does that matter? Because how
Speaker 1: far a player can jump is a good measurement for
Speaker 1: sort of their lower body explosiveness, which we know is
Speaker 1: incredibly important. The three con drill assesses how fast a
Speaker 1: player can change direction, and you know that you want
Speaker 1: just about anybody on a football field to have a
Speaker 1: good change of direction. The vertical jump is a good
Speaker 1: indicator for lower body explosiveness from the ground up, and
Speaker 1: you know that might mean something different for a wide
Speaker 1: receiver who's trying the high point a ball versus a
Speaker 1: defensive lineman who's trying to block a pass or a
Speaker 1: field goal, but still it's important. The bench press is,
Speaker 1: of course, all about strength, and it's always fun to
Speaker 1: see who can lift the most, and in some ways
Speaker 1: it's important, some ways it's not. The guy that's number
Speaker 1: two on the list is offensive lineman Mitch Petris. He
Speaker 1: did this in two thousand and ten at Arkansas, and
Speaker 1: I covered him with the new York Giants, but Mitch
Speaker 1: was never a full time long starter in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So there you go. There is something really impressive watching
Speaker 1: some of these players at the bench press. Like I've
Speaker 1: covered enough pro days where the guys who do it
Speaker 1: well on the higher reps and like it really is
Speaker 1: something to watch and then just everyone getting around because
Speaker 1: it's it's that pure strength. It's kind of like freakazoid level.
Speaker 1: I mean not everyone can do it and do it
Speaker 1: at that level, so it is kind of cool just
Speaker 1: from a fan's perspective, Like I get why people check
Speaker 1: in on coverage just to see some of these videos. Sure,
Speaker 1: but again that's not the be all end all of
Speaker 1: whether you will be a successful NFL player or not.
Speaker 1: I was just going to mention this speaking of like
Speaker 1: complete performances and guys who have done well. Tristan Worse
Speaker 1: out of Iowa plays for the bucks fastest forty, best vertical,
Speaker 1: best broad jump by any player, weighing at least three
Speaker 1: and twenty pounds at the combine. He was drafted thirteenth overall.
Speaker 1: Back in Another guy that comes to mind, DK Metcalf
Speaker 1: also had a great combine, shocking right fastest forty among
Speaker 1: players when at least to five only player to record
Speaker 1: a sub four four forty vertical jump of at least
Speaker 1: forty inches and a broad jump of eleven feet and
Speaker 1: have twenty plus reps on the bench. He was drafted
Speaker 1: in the second round at sixty four Ferndon Davis, another
Speaker 1: guy fastest forty. It was a four or four guy
Speaker 1: best vertical jump when at least two fifty pounds. So
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying not necessarily a precursor for success.
Speaker 1: Those guys obviously have had success in the NFL. But
Speaker 1: just the visuals of seeing guys that look like that
Speaker 1: that way that much do things that other people can't do,
Speaker 1: to me is one of the best parts of watching
Speaker 1: any coverage around the Combine or any of the pro
Speaker 1: day stuff. Some of this is not surprising to me, however.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're naming guys that are really, really good
Speaker 1: at what they do, and obviously they show an exemplary athleticism,
Speaker 1: and what you're saying is is not that they were
Speaker 1: the best at one discipline. They were amongst the best
Speaker 1: at everything. So it feels a little chicken and eggish
Speaker 1: to me. I'm with you all, I'm saying is from
Speaker 1: like a visual standpoint. Watching stuff like that is just
Speaker 1: it's it's really cool. It's fun. And now I understand
Speaker 1: if you've seen the videos and you follow some of
Speaker 1: these guys and they work out routines like that, that's
Speaker 1: why because they do things that not everyone can do.
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Speaker 1: unlock new possibilities, creating a world powered by healthy digital systems,
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Speaker 1: the world. Kendrell the heart of Progress. Okay, let's move
Speaker 1: on to, of course, the most glamorous position, and that
Speaker 1: of course is quarterback. And since you and I talked
Speaker 1: about our height a fair amount, and you obviously lie
Speaker 1: about your five inches, whatever, can you guess? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: can you guess the shortest quarterbacks to be drafted in
Speaker 1: the first round? I know the shortest one only because
Speaker 1: I watched him a ton when he was in college,
Speaker 1: and he's a guy that I roote for, so like,
Speaker 1: this entire group of players to me are like the
Speaker 1: can do guys that I just like because I'm obviously
Speaker 1: not six five, but Kyler Murray. All the hoopla and
Speaker 1: the fanfare around his size and for him to still
Speaker 1: have the success that he's had at the NFL, to me,
Speaker 1: it's just really cool. But I know it's Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: h and you are correct. Number two would be Johnny Manzel,
Speaker 1: who officially measured in at five ft eleven three and
Speaker 1: a quarter inches. And I was there when Johnny Manzell
Speaker 1: was drafted and I interviewed him, and you could find
Speaker 1: photos of me next to Johnny Manzell, not five ft eleven.
Speaker 1: The Browns next quarterback or car quarterback, Baker Mayfield is
Speaker 1: supposed to be six ft and five eight inches, and
Speaker 1: I will tell you that he is taller than Johnny Manzel.
Speaker 1: So I'll buy that one. Now. Rex Grossman six one,
Speaker 1: drafted twenty second overall in two thousand three. Totally by
Speaker 1: that one. And then here's what's crazy. Patrick Mahomes, Christian Ponder,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Rodgers are all six too, and that is
Speaker 1: still included in the list of shortest first round quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: which six two to me feels like a tremendously good height.
Speaker 1: It's good height, and look at those are names of
Speaker 1: guys that have actually had success at the NFL level.
Speaker 1: So I think the outlier of the Murray's and the
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfields of the world are probably the ones that
Speaker 1: get the most attention just because they are the shortest guys.
Speaker 1: But there's another measurement in terms of quarterbacks that always
Speaker 1: comes up, and I've always felt like, does it really
Speaker 1: matter talking about hand size two thousand three. The only
Speaker 1: quarterbacks to be since two thousand three, i should say,
Speaker 1: the only quarterbacks to be selected to the Pro Ball
Speaker 1: with hands that measured nine inches or smaller at the
Speaker 1: combine Jared Goff, Ryan Tannehill, Joe Burrow. So in fact,
Speaker 1: twenty four quarterbacks have had hands that measured under nine inches,
Speaker 1: only three have started a game in the NFL. Jake
Speaker 1: from Brandon Allen, Charlie Fry so generally okay, and you
Speaker 1: have to love though, you have to love Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: a year ago, tweeting up, excuse me, sorry, I'm going
Speaker 1: to have to retire because apparently my hands are so
Speaker 1: small that the ball will slip out of my hands.
Speaker 1: And here we are a couple of years later where
Speaker 1: he absolutely galvanized a franchise and a fan base and
Speaker 1: lead his underdog underdog underdog team to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: within basically a couple of plays of winning the Lombardi Trophy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and once again, sometimes these numbers are not an indicator
Speaker 1: of success. I think it's just teams just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, Hey, like, what's what's that, what's that average? Where,
Speaker 1: what's the threshold on where guys could actually sit? And Yeah,
Speaker 1: but sometimes you wonder what the indicator of that is.
Speaker 1: Because I can tell you that there's a guy who's
Speaker 1: in the city that I live in right now that's
Speaker 1: hearing this right now. Certainly you've heard about this. Oh
Speaker 1: can you pick it? You're talking about yes, can you
Speaker 1: pick it? People are questioning why does he wear two gloves?
Speaker 1: Is he wearing two gloves a mask? The size of
Speaker 1: his hand? Is his hand really under nine inches? Is
Speaker 1: that really true? And or is it just because he's
Speaker 1: got a double jointed thumb. Maybe I don't know. I
Speaker 1: did see something that he's going to have to do
Speaker 1: hand exercises to develop more accurate measurements at the combine?
Speaker 1: Can we do some exercises to make us taller? Like
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that means. That's just like
Speaker 1: like like what do you? What do you? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I thought it was kind of a cool little side note.
Speaker 1: I just don't know what it means, you know. I
Speaker 1: do wonder, though, I will say this, Mike, how long
Speaker 1: before these measurements are outdated? Right? You know, the NFL
Speaker 1: is always trying to be at the forefront of evolution
Speaker 1: and the combine. It's no exception to that. So in
Speaker 1: one our guy, Daniel Jeremiah, who's our draft expert and
Speaker 1: who is one of the nicest humans on the planet,
Speaker 1: tweeted that the forty yard dash is becoming obsolete, and
Speaker 1: he specifically pointed to game GPS data as a much
Speaker 1: more superior measurement of speed. And the Rams, who just
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl, by the way, have already been
Speaker 1: using GPS data instead of actual forty times for their
Speaker 1: draft picks. Not that you know they're all about high
Speaker 1: draft picks. Clearly I don't have many of those. They
Speaker 1: like trading away those picks, but hey, they they are
Speaker 1: on a victory parade through l A, so more power
Speaker 1: to them. Cooper Cup one of those guys, by the way,
Speaker 1: the DRAMs drafted in the third round. Dude ran a
Speaker 1: four six to forty at the combine. Now, I think
Speaker 1: we've all seen him ball out this season, Like that
Speaker 1: doesn't even seem relatively accurate. Offensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: Super Bowl m VP, by the way, doing something right there,
Speaker 1: and drafted after your guy, Juju Smith Schuster ju Ju.
Speaker 1: All right, But the RAMS like they were interested not
Speaker 1: necessarily in that time, but more on the GPS data
Speaker 1: side for the rats that he ran at the Senior
Speaker 1: Bowl to gauge how quickly he could navigate in shorter spaces.
Speaker 1: So to me, once again, you said, like, is the
Speaker 1: forty obsolutely Like I think you can make a case
Speaker 1: like it kind of is at this point, Like there
Speaker 1: are more opportunities to gauge what players can do real
Speaker 1: time in real game situations, and data, as we know,
Speaker 1: drives a lot of the things that we do in
Speaker 1: the NFL from an analytic side of things, a players safety,
Speaker 1: so I think from a future draft pick, like, you're
Speaker 1: gonna probably hear a lot more of this in the
Speaker 1: draft in April. But here's another thing, like combine is
Speaker 1: generally speaking, we had mentioned you've got to be invite
Speaker 1: only in the whole thing. This year, the NFL has
Speaker 1: actually held its first ever, HBCU Combine players that attend
Speaker 1: historically black colleges were able to showcase themselves and keep
Speaker 1: in mind, like, there's some real dudes in the league.
Speaker 1: Darius Leonard one of those guys that comes to mind
Speaker 1: who came from an HBCU. So a lot of talent
Speaker 1: that's there. And as a guy that just was covering
Speaker 1: the nfl p A Collegiate Bowl in the East West
Speaker 1: Shrine Game, there are more and more players that are coming,
Speaker 1: Like Jackson State's got a kid at Dian Sanders had
Speaker 1: comped to um to Mica Parson's Like, there's enough players
Speaker 1: that are out there that we're going to see plan
Speaker 1: on Sundays from HBCUs. Well, I do think that expanding
Speaker 1: the search is just a smart thing, right, I Mean,
Speaker 1: isn't that the whole idea. So it's funny though that
Speaker 1: you talk about the sort of regional combines and general
Speaker 1: locations for combine because, as I sort of hinted at
Speaker 1: the top, the location of the Combine beyond this year
Speaker 1: is kind of up in the air. You know, there
Speaker 1: have been rumors and we do know that the league
Speaker 1: signed a five year deal with Indie back in two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, but that only takes us to two twenty two,
Speaker 1: so there's another five year term up. And last June,
Speaker 1: the NFL sent a memo to all thirty two clubs
Speaker 1: and said, hey, we are looking for a partnership. So
Speaker 1: now the combine joins the Draft and the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: as another NFL event that could cycle between locations. And
Speaker 1: according to Troy Vincent, the NFL looking into how to
Speaker 1: quote unquote improve the athlete experience. Yeah, that's in Indianapolis
Speaker 1: or elsewhere. I just hope that they settle on Indianapolis
Speaker 1: because that really is the best place for this to happen.
Speaker 1: Well keep in mind too, like the league continues to
Speaker 1: expand and go international, they're also hosting international combines right Australia, Germany, uh, London, Mexico.
Speaker 1: The list goes on and on. So the point is
Speaker 1: expanding that searching to you that you made reference to
Speaker 1: really critical to not only a pipeline from a fan
Speaker 1: base perspective, but also to get some dudes in here
Speaker 1: who could play that have untraditional paths. But wherever it
Speaker 1: ends up, I know, I'm grateful we got the NFL
Speaker 1: Combine to kind of get us through the through the
Speaker 1: off season and get us to the start of next season.
Speaker 1: But I think everyone's really excited about the combine. It
Speaker 1: gives us a glimpse of the next generation of great
Speaker 1: NFL star and it gives us something to talk about.
Speaker 1: And of course we got everyone cover. We got the
Speaker 1: Combine on NFL Network. We got complete draft coverage that's
Speaker 1: around the corner here coming up in April. And do
Speaker 1: not forget a d D. I made reference this a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier in the show and the mail bag
Speaker 1: episode that was so popular that you and I had
Speaker 1: a blast doing. Keep the questions coming at a King
Speaker 1: Kabala at Mike underscore, yam, I'm keeping a little notes
Speaker 1: tab of all the questions that we're getting. If you
Speaker 1: don't know who would ask the question to about anything
Speaker 1: football related, d D and I have you covered just
Speaker 1: like we did with the Combine, and that is the
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