The Combine's Here, Bitch!

[Direckshun]

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2014/2...-list-workouts

2014 NFL Combine schedule: TV channel, online streaming, invite list, workouts and more
By Matt Conner
on Feb 20 2014, 10:12a

he road to the NFL Draft is longer in 2014 than any other offseason given the league's decision to push it back a few weeks to May 8-10. For the next three months, draftniks will circle around prospects like hawks, analyzing their every move and weighing the pros and cons of each player.

The process starts en masse this week with the start of the 2014 NFL Combine in Indianapolis. If you love the Draft, then this is a big week for you.

For those who are new to the NFL Combine, it's a seven-day event broken up into four-day shifts for each position group (quarterbacks to punters). Each group comes to Indy for four days to meet with representatives from each NFL team for medical assessments, interviews and a number of workouts. It's termed the Underwear Olympics for that reason, as teams fall in and out of love with prospects based on 40-yard dash times and vertical leaps.

The quick guide to the Combine

• NFL Network will televise; NFL.com will stream
• Andy Reid (Thursday, 2:15 p.m.) and John Dorsey (Friday, 12:15 p.m.) will speak to the media (full schedule here)
• Workouts take place Saturday-Tuesday
• Here are the players invited

Now that you have the basics, let's dive into a little more what's going down this week in Indianapolis.

The Combine workout schedule

Here are the days the actual workouts for each position group:

Saturday, Feb. 22: Tight Ends, Offensive Linemen, Special Teams

Sunday, Feb.23: Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers

Monday, Feb. 24: Defensive Line, Linebackers

Tuesday, Feb. 25: Defensive Backs

There are four groups of players arriving as shown above. Each group has four days of events.

Day 1: Travel to Indianapolis* ~ Registration ~ Hospital Pre-Exam & X-rays ~ Orientation ~ Interviews

Day 2: Measurements ~ Medical Examinations ~ Media ~ Interviews

Day 3: NFLPA Meeting ~ Psychological Testing ~ PK/ST Workout ~ Bench Press ~ Interviews

Day 4: On-Field Workout (timing, stations, skill drills) ~ Departure from Indianapolis

With the first arrivals coming on Wednesday, that puts the first day of workouts on Saturday.

The players invited

Every top college football player will likely be in attendance in Indianapolis, even if some of the top athletes won't participate in the workouts. The NFL invited over 300 players to attend. Teddy Bridgewater to Jadeveon Clowney, your favorite college players will likely be there.

Who is eligible to be invited to the Combine? Basically, seniors without college eligibility left and those who have declared early.

And how are players selected to the Combine? Read this:

Participants are determined annually by a Selection Committee. The Directors of both National and BLESTO scouting services, which combined represent twenty-five NFL teams, are joined by members of various NFL player personnel departments to form the committee. The participating NFL executives can rotate on a yearly basis, and remain anonymous. ALL eligible players are reviewed and voted on by the committee members. Each athlete receiving the necessary number of votes, by position, is then extended an invitation. While it is not a perfect science, the goal of the committee is to invite every player that will be drafted in the ensuing NFL Draft.

You can find the full list of players expected to attend at the bottom of this post. While the list is comprehensive, there are a few players every year who are drafted but didn't get invited to the Combine.

The workouts

The most important one is not a workout -- it's the interview. Teams will have the opportunity to interview players where they'll get about 15 minutes with them. With so little time, the questions have to be precise and all have a purpose.

The second most important item there is getting the medical check-up -- essentially confirming that the player is healthy or checking out previous injuries. Team doctors will want this information so the GMs and coaches can make an informed decision.

Some of the other workouts, via Big Blue View:

40-yard dash: Measures straight line speed over a distance. Not very important for non-skill position players, but coming from the 40-yard dash is the "10-yard split." That is the time it takes to travel the first 10 yards of the event and gives a measurement as to the player's explosion and first step. Very important for defensive and offensive linemen. Dontari Poe had a 10-yard split of 1.7 at 330 pounds, which is decent for a linebacker.Bruce Irvin at 235 pounds had a 10-yard split of 1.57, which is a good number for a defensive back. Both help push those players into the middle of the first round.

Bench press: Fairly simple, it measures upper body strength. Moreso it shows if you have stayed in good condition over the offseason. Poor numbers here possibly indicate not working hard enough.

Vertical and Broad jump: Another measurement of explosion and lower body strength. Also important for wide receivers and defensive backs to show off their leaping ability.

3-cone drill: Essentially a change of direction drill. Most important for skill position players. Shows off lateral agility and ability to accelerate out of a turn. One of the drills that translates best on the field. A good score in the 3 cone is often a marker for a high draft pick.

20/60-yard shuttles: Shows the ability to come to a complete stop and accelerate. Obviously important for any position and a good score here is indicative of explosion and body control. As you can see, explosion is a big factor here and one that the NFL is keen to see.

Position-specific drills: Each position has specific drills that test for many different attributes. Change of direction and hip swing for defensive backs, hands skills for wide receivers during the "gauntlet," kick slide drills for the offensive linemen, power for the defensive linemen in hitting bag drills and accuracy for quarterbacks in throwing drills.

How do I watch the Combine?

NFL Network will televise some of it.

NFL.com will stream the action.

KCChiefs.com will have full video of Andy Reid and John Dorsey's press conferences but will not stream them live.

[Direckshun]

He's probably the #3 WR on everybody's boards.

[Sully]

We are responsible for setting our culture and our environment. The athletes are not responsible for setting our culture and our environment. It's up to us to set an environment that is accepting and understanding of our differences and be respectful of our differences. It is not on our freshmen or rookies or whomever to decide how the workplace environment is. It is on us. I take that very seriously. I select the songs that we play in the weight room based on the environment and the mood that I want. Not a freshman, not a senior, not a captain. I do it. It's my responsibility. If someone is being disrespectful in my presence, that's my responsibility."

Asked if there were some instances where some things might have been said by teammates that were challenging in light of Sam coming out, Ivey acknowledged that there were.

"There was that going on," the coach said. "But who's supervising the environment? Who's educating that young freshman? 'Hey, That's not the right thing to say. You may have said that for your first 18 years but for the rest of your life, or at least the rest of your time at Missouri, you won't use gay slurs. You won't use racial slurs. You won't use sexual innuendo. You won't do that here.' That's on Coach [Gary] Pinkel. That's on Mike Alden. That's on me. Every day we're talking about respect. I have to do it often. 'Hey, pull your pants up. That's disrespectful to show your underwear.' 'Hey, let the lady get a nutrition bar first.' We talk about that every day."

As a coach myself, I love this quote. I love football. I love every bit of the game, down to some of the mundane things that most people overlook. But I wouldn't coach if it weren't an opportunity to build better men. That's where the real reward is.
I have worked with coaches who cared more than anything about this part of it, and coaches who couldn't care less, and the better teams were always coached by the ones who cared about these things.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Beckham isn't dropping to #23 now, I don't think.

I've seen mock drafts that have Cooks over Beckham right now. Most have the WRs as:

Watkins
Evans
Beckham
Cooks
Benjamin

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

I've seen mock drafts that have Cooks over Beckham right now. Most have the WRs as:

Watkins
Evans
Beckham
Cooks
Benjamin

You have to figure with these guys' measurables, the top 3 are sure top 20 picks and all 5 of them COULD go in the top 20.

I still like Jordan Matthews too.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

You have to figure with these guys' measurables, the top 3 are sure top 20 picks and all 5 of them COULD go in the top 20.

I still like Jordan Matthews too.

Great.

Push the other players down.

We don't need a WR in the 1st. We need the best player at a position that helps us.

If taking those five means a really good CB, S, 5-tech (I know), OLB or TE fall to us, all the better.

[RunKC]

Love Jordan Matthews. He's gonna be a very good receiver for a long time.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Love Jordan Matthews. He's gonna be a very good receiver for a long time.

There are a bunch of WRs in this draft that I think are going to have solid careers.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Great.

Push the other players down.

We don't need a WR in the 1st. We need the best player at a position that helps us.

If taking those five means a really good CB, S, 5-tech (I know), OLB or TE fall to us, all the better.

Say Gilbert, Donald, Ealy, Mosley, Ford, clowney, haha, Pryor and Mack are gone. Who do you take for the d? Dennard?

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Say Gilbert, Donald, Ealy, Mosley, Ford, clowney, haha, Pryor and Mack are gone. Who do you take for the d? Dennard?

Hm.

Is Dennard still around?

Edit: Or Hageman?

Edit edit: I just saw that you said Dennard is still around. Sorry. Yeah, I'd take him. I'd really take a hard look at Nix, Hageman, and Tuitt, but from the sounds of it, this team will either bring back TJax or sign his replacement.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

There are a bunch of WRs in this draft that I think are going to have solid careers.

Which is why I'm still leaning towards defense or TE.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Which is why I'm still leaning towards defense or TE.

I'm leaning towards your mom.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Which is why I'm still leaning towards defense or TE.

This is honestly the draft where it's going to be BPA. Really the only position I don't see them taking is oline unless for some unknown reason....they get nothing in FA to fill in the holes. It'd be the Chiefs way.....

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

This is honestly the draft where it's going to be BPA. Really the only position I don't see them taking is oline unless for some unknown reason....they get nothing in FA to fill in the holes. It'd be the Chiefs way.....

They're likely going to let three starters walk this offseason.

The Chiefs are dipping at OL in the draft. It's happening.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

They're likely going to let three starters walk this offseason.

The Chiefs are dipping at OL in the draft. It's happening.

Three starters isn't fully true. If they view Fisher and Stephenson as their tackles.....it's really only two. I'm hoping they're smart enough to realize that they need to bring back either Schwartz or Asamoah. Dipping in the draft is fine....when you're doing it in the 4th round and after. Spending another 1st rounder on offensive line though? Monumentally stupid.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I'm leaning towards your mom.

Totally uncalled for.

Plus, she's out of your league.