The Philadelphia Eagles are most responsible for the NFL Combine craze after the Birds traded up to select Mike Mamula in the 1995 NFL Draft.
Philadelphia was enamored with Mamula’s performance at the NFL Combine and traded with the Buccaneers to acquire the No. 7 pick. The Eagles chose Mamula over Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks among other notable names.
Sapp and Brooks went to become Hall of Famers, while Mamula ended up out of the NFL by the 2000 season after playing in 77 total games with the Eagles. Mamula finished his career with 206 tackles and 31 total sacks, but he’ll always be defined by the combine and a top-10 selection.
Fast forward some 25 years and workout warriors are all the rage, while guys who may not test well seem to slip through the crack. Eagles middle linebacker T.J. Ewards was a great player in the Big-10 at Wisconsin but ended up going undrafted despite having been athletic enough to play the quarterback position coming out of high school.
Edwards is now firmly entrenched as the Eagles starting middle linebacker and he has a huge fan in defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.
During his Monday zoom meeting, Schwartz praised Edwards as a player, while explaining how his middle linebacker is more football player than workout warrior.
Jim Schwartz on T.J. Edwards: "There's a difference between a guy that tests well and a guy who plays football well. T.J. is a guy that plays football well."
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) November 9, 2020
An All-American linebacker, Edwards went undrafted because of his lack of height and speed but has more than made up for it by becoming a rock in the middle for the Eagles defense.
