Every year, it seems Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh has a new and often radical idea in mind to make the NFL better. Over the years, the enterprising coach has floated proposals such as making kickoffs worth points and implementing a ‘sky judge’ to review missed calls, among other things.
At this last month’s league meetings, Harbaugh unleashed yet another new idea for the league.
Speaking to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, Harbaugh said he believed the league should move its annual draft up in the calendar year.
“I think the draft should be earlier, sooner,” Harbaugh said. “We don’t need to be so involved where we need three months to watch the players ourselves. Let’s draft these guys, let’s get them to us.”
“And let’s be honest, they’re all coming,” said Harbaugh. “Nobody’s taking their last semester of school. You want to get in the real world here? Let’s understand that that’s how it works. Because they end up graduating a high percentage of the time we get them, anyway, because we make sure they do.”
Though bold, Harbaugh’s views on the draft and the pre-draft process are not necessarily novel.
For an exquisite March feature for ESPN — with the headline “Steak, booze and a sense of dull dread: Here’s what really happens at the NFL combine” — writer Wright Thompson embedded himself at this year’s combine and ultimately concluded, through his own experience and testimonials from agents and general managers alike, that the combine is largely a dog-and-pony show.
The combine at its core is an elaborate piece of theater that can’t answer its animating question because it isn’t looking in the right place. …
The combine, like the draft, currently works better as a means of motivation rather than evaluation. … It’s so clear the NFL cannot rely on merely rating speed, size and strength, the things measured at the combine. …
The coaches and scouts in Indy are prisoners just like the players; they know this isn’t an efficient way to evaluate talent and yet the combine keeps getting bigger and bigger. One team president wondered aloud why he sent 20 people to Indianapolis, even though he knows it’s unnecessary …
Harbaugh, too, appears to be of a similar mind.
Let’s help them,” said Harbaugh of the prospects. “But let’s not have them worried about running 40 times. Let’s get them working on football so they can contribute their first couple of years.”
