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2015 NFL Draft: NFL considering changes to Combine workouts

By Rob Rang | The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com

February 27, 2015 5:28 pm ET

Changes may be coming to the NFL Scouting Combine and this time it involves the drills being run by the athletes.

As the so-called "Underwear Olympics" have evolved into one of the most television-friendly events in the league's calender, the NFL has increasingly marketed the Combine, opening the doors to quarterback workouts for select members of the media in 2007, the general public a few years ago and even creating Regional Combines for players not invited to the national audition held in Indianapolis each year and most recently a workout for players with NFL experience.

This time, the NFL is looking at adjusting some of the workouts to cater to the specific position groups, specifically considering changes to the 40-yard dash -- the event's most iconic test.

"That's a project we'll be working on this offseason," Matt Birk, the league's director of player development, said Friday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. "Once we look at the data that was gathered in-game this year, it may be important to know how fast a wide receiver or defensive back can go 60 yards. Maybe for an offensive lineman it's only 20 yards.

2015 NFL Draft: NFL considering changes to Combine workouts - CBSSports.com

finally some changes i can agree with

Rugby Saint II

Hopefully, better evaluation means better selections.

jeanpierre

The best, most significant change that could be made...

MAKE THEM DO THE DRILLS IN PADS!!!

vpheughan

Or take the best and make them into a team. Then play them against the Super Bowl winner, call it the College All-Star game............oh yeah they tried that!

RaginCajun83

Best possible thing to do is to just get rid of it. Most of those drills don't mean a thing once they make a team. Seriously the 40 yard dash is one of the most useless things they do

jeanpierre

Actually Ragin, when using the "splits" it's a very useful drill/tool in examining a player's abilities...

hagan714

see all the drills have there uses.

i say keep the forty for all. i like watching big OL and DL run. nothing is funnier than a 300+ pound DL using a cut off angle to make a tackle on the side line. RB hate those on film day.

making a WR go 60 is good and so is a 100 for the fun of it. those long strider WRs and DBs will love it. level the playing field a bit.

plus it is great way to see the small school guys. there is always players you have on the fence too. they do well and then you give more credit to was it the system or the team itself type of question.

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

Danno

Its football. Make all players wear full pads for all the drills.

I've never seen a player in underwear play on gameday.

RaginCajun83

oh please, its so useless. Never seen a 40 yard dash break out on 3rd down

jeanpierre

So when a wide receiver runs a streak...

Or when a running back is or isn't caught behind on a gash...

Or a defensive back runs the length of the field to catch a ball carrier preventing a touchdown...

You haven't seen some semblance of a dash in those games?!?