INDIANAPOLIS — As the 2020 scouting combine gets underway, there are several major changes that will affect the event both behind the scenes, and in the public eye. Here’s how the combine will be different than it has been in the past.
Fewer coaching staffs will be in Indianapolis.
As ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported, the Broncos are not sending any of their assistant coaches to Indianapolis this year, and the Rams are not sending offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, because the teams believe their staffs are best-served by staying home and watching easily accessible film of the drills. McVay, who is traveling to Indianapolis to fulfill his obligation with the assembled media, will then return to Los Angeles to implement the new system with his coaches.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio told Schefter that his coaches will be more efficient studying players at home and in their offices than in person. He expounded on that in Indianapolis during his Tuesday media session.
“When we first decided that, we were going to wonder if anybody even noticed, but then the Rams spilled the beans because they copied us. I just felt, and [President of Football Operations and General Manager] John [Elway] agreed with my suggestion, that our time this week would be better spent back in the office. What the guys are doing all this week is just watching college tape Monday through Friday, every minute they’re there. I think it’s a much better environment to do that. For instance, yesterday I went to weigh-ins early in the morning and I had three interviews late at night. That was my day from a production standpoint here. I just think it’s a better use of time for these guys to stay back. I think you evaluate players better when you evaluate them right next to each other instead of evaluating one guy February 20 and then somebody else March 25. It’s hard to slice them and stack them sometimes. It’s a one year trial kind of like OPI-DPI instant replay. We’ll see how we feel after this year.”
As for McVay, he sounded quite chipper about his approach, which will leave the in-person personnel doings in the hands of Rams general manager Les Snead.
“I think it’s an interesting situation that presented itself this year,” McVay said Tuesday. “We’ve got great continuity in a lot of spots on our coaching staff, and we have two new coordinators on offense, defense and special teams. So what – I’m not going to be here the whole week. I’m going to be leaving pretty shortly and what it looks like is, Les and his group do a great job in the vetting process and then our position coaches have a great feel of, okay what do we want to do? What are the things that we want to get out of the combine, so being able to empower them and then feeling like, let’s get back to LA, still be able to study the film which is the most important part of the evaluation — trusting some of the vetting on the backgrounds with these guys and then being able to kind of continue to get a jump on the schemes that we’ll implement specific to the offense and defense. That’s really what went into it. If it was a bunch of turnover, then I’d think you say, ‘Okay, we can get a lot of stuff done out here’ but because of the continuity of the position coaches, we felt like that was the best approach and the most efficient way to utilize the week.”
One wonders how the absence of assistant coaches will affect the prospect interviews on site, although that whole process is affected as well this year.
Players get fewer opportunities to interview with NFL teams.
Because the combine drills are going to be broadcast in prime time for the first time in 2020, the schedules for prospects has changed, and it’s also changed for the teams. In years before, teams were able to line up interviews with up to 60 prospects in Indianapolis; now, that number has been reduced to 45.
“That’s frustrating for me,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said. “There’s always some good in change and some bad. But probably the thing I was most disappointed in was going from 60 to 45 interviews. So, I’ve got to figure out how we can make up for losing these 15 guys. We’ll still get out. I may find myself out on the road even more in March to try to get my hands on as many guys as I can because I really want to get to meet as many as I can before I would turn the card in and say this guy is going to be a Buffalo Bill.”
And while the Bills, and all other NFL teams, will still be able to host the same 30 prospects at their facilities, Beane said that this process will also be different by default.
“It changes the names because maybe now I’ve got to bring in a guy who I wouldn’t have needed to if I get him here. I could have checked that box. I hope in the future, and I’ve expressed – and i think some other general managers have as well – that 45 is not enough. We’ve got to try to work that number closer to 60. I don’t know if well get it all the way back to 60, but that’s probably the hardest thing with the changes for me.”
Beane can’t be the only GM unhappy with this change.
There are new drills.
In the interest of making combine drills more reflective of the modern NFL on the field, there will be 16 new drills, and 10 old ones will be eliminated.
“First, we want to make sure the drills are reflective of today’s game,” said Jeff Foster, president of the National Invitation Camp, which runs the combine. “We’ve been using the same drills for many, many years, which is great to use as comparative analysis. But we also wanted to make sure we were updating the drills to reflect how the game has changed. The second piece was to add some elements to it that would be more attractive to the players and the fans.”
Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm told me on Tuesday that he only had a couple of days to prepare for the fade drill; prospects weren’t really able to vet this. And there are agents who will undoubtedly hold their top players out with this as one reason.
Quarterbacks will now throw end zone fades, and smoke/now passes during their throwing sessions. The 10-yard fade routes will be thrown to the right side of the end zone, and pylons will be used to direct receivers. The smoke/now reads, popular in RPOs, test a quarterback’s ability to process a pre-snap read and make a quick throw to an option route receiver based on coverage.
Running backs will now run the Duce Staley drill, named after the former Eagles running back and current assistant coach. The back will up behind a horizontal step-over bag that is part of three bags laid to form a cross. The running back will step over the bag in front of him, then laterally over the perpendicular bag, then backward over the other horizontal bag before repeating the path in the opposite direction. Coaches lined up eight yards away holding pop-up dummies will move in coordinated fashion, creating a hole for the running back to identify before exploding through it. The drill is designed to display a running back’s ability to use his eyes while navigating physical obstacles as a ballcarrier might perform while running an inside zone play, which doesn’t create a defined target for the running back, but instead the possibility for a number of options to run through.
In addition, running backs will run Texas routes, which are angular routes in which the back runs outside the backfield and then back to the middle of the field. This is a staple route for running backs going back to the Bill Walsh days in San Francisco.
The pitch and cone drill and the find the ball drill have been eliminated.
Receivers are now aligned with quarterbacks in the fade route drill. They will run 10-yard fade routes to the right side of the end zone with pylons as obstacles.
The toe-tap drill has been eliminated.
Tight ends will also run the fade route drill.
Offensive linemen will participate in new mirror and screen drills. In the mirror drill, the player lines up at a set point between middle of two cones roughly six yards apart and slides laterally left and right based on a coach’s direction. This drill places emphasis on feet and change of direction ability of player with at least four movements to right and left.
In the screen drill, the player will set in pass protection position, then release and sprint toward first coach holding blocking shield 15 yards wide of starting point to simulate engage and release action of a screening lineman. If the first coach steps upfield, the player must adjust direction and advance to second coach, at whom he will break down and engage. If the first coach remains stationary, the player will break down and engage him (and will not advance to the second coach).
In addition, the pull drills will include engaging a one-man sled instead of a bag. Inclusion of “rabbit” is eliminated in pass rush drops and pass pro mirror drills, with a coach’s hand motion changing direction of a lateral slide in the latter drill.
Defensive linemen will now participate in run and club drills and run the hoop drills. In the run-and-club, five stand-up bags are in a vertical line, five yards apart, with the final bag including “arms”. The defender will fire out of a three-point stance and run through the bags, clubbing the first with his right arm, spinning on the second bag, clubbing the third bag with his left arm, ripping through the fourth bag and flattening downhill to slap the bag with his arms to simulate a strip.
The stack and shed drill has been eliminated.
Linebackers will no longer do pass drop drills. They will now participate in shuffle, sprint, change of direction; and short zone breaks drills.
In the shuffle, sprint, change of direction drills, the player will start in a two-point stance five to seven yards outside the hash before shuffling across the field. He’ll then open his hips and sprint on the coach’s command, then change direction on command and finish with a catch of a thrown football.
In short zone breaks, three different route reactions are involved. First, the player drops at a 45-degree angle, flattens out at five yards and breaks forward (simulating breaking on a short out) before catching a ball. Then, the player drops at a 45-degree angle, flattens at five yards again and breaks inside (simulating breaking on an underneath route) and catches the ball. Finally, the player takes a flat drop and reacts to a coach’s signal to turn and run with a wheel route before catching a ball.
Defensive backs will no longer do the close and speed turn, and pedal and hip turn drills. They will now do the line drill, Teryl Austin drill, box drill, and the gauntlet drill.
In the line drill, players will backpedal, open their hips at the direction of the coach, return to backpedaling, then open the hips again on command, then catch the ball being thrown from the opposite location of the coach.
In the Teryl Austin drill, named after the Steelers secondary coach, a player will backpedal five yards, then open and break downhill on a 45-degree angle before catching a thrown ball. Then a player will backpedal five yards, open at 90 degrees and run to the first coach and break down, then plant and turn around (180 degrees) to run toward a second coach and catch a ball thrown by a quarterback before reaching the second coach.
In the box drill, the player will backpedal five yards and then break at a 45-degree angle on the coach’s signal. Once he reaches the cone, the player will plant, open his hips and run back five yards with his eyes on the coach. On the coach’s signal, the player will break toward a coach at a 45-degree angle and catch a thrown ball.
In the gauntlet drill, similar to the one run by receivers, a player will start with two stationary catches with each made in opposite directions before sprinting across the 35-yard line catching balls from throwers alternating between each side. The drill will be timed from the second stationary catch to when the defensive back reaches a cone 10 yards upfield from the final catch. The player will also perform in a second time in the opposite direction.
The drills will be in prime time.
From a ratings perspective, pretty much everything the NFL touches turns to money, so it’s not a surprise that the league has decided to hold the combine drills — especially Thursday’s quarterback throwing sessions — in prime time for the first time. The only real question is, what took the NFL so long? Now, if you want to watch the drills, you may be able to do so live as opposed to from DVR when you get home from work. The drills will be shown on NFL Network from 4:00 to 11:00 p.m. EST Thursday through Saturday, and then 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
As Joel A. Erickson of Indystar.com reports, the aforementioned Foster, the rest of the National Invitational Camp staff and a Combine Working Group of five general managers, including the Colts’ Chris Ballard, have spent the past six months working on the new timing.
Foster, for one, would have preferred a more gradual rollout.
“I will tell you that strategically, I never would have implemented this much change in any one year, simply because of the potential domino effect it can have on the logistics involved in the event,” Foster said. “With regard to that, it’s been an incredible challenge.”
For the league, it’s all about visibility. And profit. And ratings. To the extent that the NFL does things in a ready-fire-aim fashion (which is to say, frequently), those in charge of logistics will just have to deal with it.
“Interest in the Combine has continued to grow,” Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of events, said in a statement. “By shifting the on-field drills to primetime, it’s easier for fans to watch on NFL Network and across the various NFL digital platforms, as well as to attend for free at Lucas Oil Stadium.”
These changes are designed to bring the combine out of its former veil of secrecy and into a new era of fan interest and involvement. The real test will be whether it affects the process in a negative sense that has the league backtracking to a more businesslike model.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
