NFL Scouting Combine RB Observations…

The annual NFL scouting combine is a smorgasbord of the league power brokers coming together to pick, prod, fall into and out of love with…

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NFL Scouting Combine RB Observations…

The annual NFL scouting combine is a smorgasbord of the league power brokers coming together to pick, prod, fall into and out of love with a whole new class of prospective job seekers. For those not familiar, well maybe you should just stop reading this now, but to refresh, the combine is a four day event broken into interviews, physical measurements and drills (such as 40 yard dash, agility, etc.) that are meant to provide a common platform to judge everything from ability to character; all in a quest to determine their respective chances of succeeding in the national football league.

I’m publishing these notes right after the combine, so analysis is subject to change based on draft selection, performance in mini-camps and pre-season games. In short, the combine is one small but important step in the evaluation process.

The running back position in particular has undergone more evolution, aka change, over the past decade than any other in the NFL. Teams by default now have specialists and rotate players based on niche roles. For example the standard has become a bigger, short yardage type paired with a quicker, outside the tackles third down performer. These guys now split snaps evenly, and some teams regularly rotate in a third player as well. This has led to more distribution of touches, lower production per player and more playing time opportunities.

Here are the players that impressed and/or highlighted performance. I’ve linked to Youtube for highlights as well.

Tyler Erving — A smaller back (5’9” 194 lbs) who handled a massive workload this past year (2nd in FBS in total yards in ’15); he entered the combine as a day 3 pick and left as a firm day 2 selection. He showed well in all the drills (top 5 in 40, 3 cone, broad jump, vertical) combined on field productivity and his stock is rising. The best way to describe him was “smooth”, pair that with testing and tape and he’ll be somebody to watch closely. Highlights

The remaining Impressive & Disappointments from the RB group of the NFL Scouting Combine can be read at FFCollective.