Its Game Tape Then Interviews!

With the scouting combine less than a week away, we will find out more about all the attending draft prospects, as they try to improve their draft stock in front of all 32 teams. Each prospect participates in 4 main tests which is measurements, medical evaluations, team interviews, and agility tests. They are all important, but I feel the most important is the team interviews, and obviously the players game tape. The interviews are only 15 minutes, but a team can learn so much about a player during that short period, and it can sometimes make a team move that player up the board or completely off it.

Don't get me wrong, I love watching the position drills, and the 40 yard dash but rarely does it affect the team evaluators opinion of a player. Rather it will just confirm their thoughts of a player whether its good or bad. Here is a quote from Jason Licht from last years combine:per Buccaneers.com

“We put some value in it. For me and for most of my scouts - and this goes for scouts in general - the tape is the majority of the body of work that you go off of. But, the drills here and the measurements, the 40 and the vertical, they all can kind of cement our feelings about the player, good or bad.”

Here is more of Licht talking about being cautious about putting too much emphasis on these workouts:

“It’s always a trap. A lot of mistakes have been made over the past in the league with the fast risers, the guys that come out of nowhere this time of year. We like to- usually your purest evaluation of a player is what you’ve seen during the fall. You have some juniors or underclassmen that came out that you’re behind the 8-ball a little bit on. You’re trying to catch up with the rest of the class, but your most pure evaluation comes from what you saw in the fall or on tape.”

Licht is spot on here, as it is all about the game tape, and the interviews are equally important during these workouts and up coming pro days as it allows the team to really get a feel for the player. The team can tell if the player really loves football and is truly committed to this profession through the interview process. That is the one good thing that Jason Licht and his staff have done during his two drafts is finding guys that truly love football and are committed to the job. Lets hope for more of the same in 2016. Cant wait till next week, its going to be fun.