Quote Originally Posted by LoganBuck View Post
What gets me is the 40 yard dash. Some of these kids go to track specialists and learn to run with the best form. Much of that time comes from how fast they come out of their stance. Maualuga and Laurinaitis didn't come out of their stances cleanly and they were "slow" each in at around 4.8. Maualuga may have hurt himself as well as he seemed to pull up as he finished his 40. Marcus Freeman who isn't half the player either of them are runs a 4.67 and is labeled fast.
I think the combine is overrated as an evaluation tool. If your team drafts someone solely off their combine results, they are really setting themselves up. If I were a GM, I would have scouts checking their times and performance over multiple trials conducted weeks apart from each other to determine whether the combine results are a fluke. I also think the combine does little to show on-field decision making. GMs who salivate over combine times are kind of like Jim Bowden and his fascination with 5-toolers. Sure, they have the naturability to play, but they don't always have the smarts to put it together (Wonderlic scores notwithstanding).