The NFL Combine is a Collosal Waste of Time

Each year, the NFL combine becomes a bigger and bigger media spectacle, with more and more coverage being devoted to 40-yard times, vertical leap measurements, 225 lb bench press reps, and a bunch of other statistics that just don't translate into NFL success. A case in point last year was Teddy Ginn. A wonderful athlete with the best looking stride in all of professional sports. But should his combine times have justified a top ten selection in last year's draft? I should think not. Did he pan out last year? Barely. He is too fragile and simply not proven in my opinion.

This year's version of Teddy Ginn is DeSean Jackson from Cal.



A great return man with explosive YAC capabilities, but he had a hard time getting the ball in college so how the heck is he going to get open in the pros? The so-called experts have him rated as the number one WR. I just don't see it. Anyone wanna step up and back Mr. Jackson as the number one WR in the draft or refute my statement about the Combine? Bring it.

Rebuttal
Fair point on the interview portion of the combine, but, I seriously doubt that any of the teams are actually going to use the interview comparisons for much more than a tie breaker. They'll take 0.01 seconds on a 40-time over a well-spoken young man. DeSean might be slightly better than Teddy Ginn because of his elusiveness, so perhaps he becomes a poor man's Devin Hester. That wouldn't be a bad thing. I just can't see how he should be much higher than the late 20s in the draft, and probably the 3rd or 4th WR taken.

I think the media's coverage of it is a waste of time but the event itself is not. My understanding: it's one of the only forums where a lot of the players are there and you can talk with them. Given how much money they will be making and overall media coverage, I think the character issues are becoming ridiculously important and outside of flying each person up to their locale, it's an efficient way to see athletes. Now if you sit around and watch it all weekend, that is a collosal waste of time.

On the DeSean Jackson thing, I think he's better than Teddy Ginn. I only watched Ginn a couple times and have watched DeSean over 20 games. I thought that Ginn seemed like a straight up and down runner and that his YAC stuff was primarily just running by folks. DeSean's moves are close to Steve Smith and Santana Moss style. Both those guys are smaller / shorter receivers but very effective and worthy of 1st round grades. DeSean clearly has to put some more weight on but I haven't seen a guy with his speed and his moves in a while. His punt return ability is CRAZY. He has very good hands, so much confidence, speed and moves. I'm not sure he's the best WR but I think he's worthy of a #1.