Combine Day is Upon Us

     For all of the NFL junkies, there are a few days of the year that we get excited for. These are opening week, the Super Bowl, and the NFL Draft, but one that gets us just as riled up is the combine. 

    The NFL combine is one of the weekends recruiting nerds and big board enthusiasts live for. It is a Thursday-Saturday event where most of the top prospects in the upcoming draft show their abilities in an objective and raw environment. Thursday, March 2, 2023, was the first day of the event, and defensive linemen and linebackers kicked off the scouting.

    Before going any further, we must examine what each athlete can participate in. There are measurements and drills. The measurements are basic such as height, weight, and wingspan. The main group of drills consists of the 40-yard dash, 10-yard split, vertical jump, broad jump, three-cone drill, and a 225 bench press, and on top of this, there are position-specific drills. Athletes may opt out of specific drills if they think it will hurt their draft stock or if they think they would perform better on campus on their pro day. 

    Here I would like to look at one biggest of the standouts from day one of the combine and some things to watch for as the weekend goes along. The biggest standout from yesterday was Georgia outside linebacker and edge rusher Nolan Smith. The edge rusher had originally only planned on doing the broad jump and 40-yard dash (which would have included his 10-yard split) but instead decided to participate in all three athletic events. Smith proved himself to be a specimen of an athlete as he led all participants on day one in the 40-yard dash time, 10-yard split, and vertical jump height. With Nolan coming in an undersized 6 foot 2 inches and 238 pounds, plus coming off of a severe pectoral injury that sidelined him for quite some time last fall, there are some concerns about his size and strength will play in the NFL. At the start of the day, most draft experts had Smith at the early 2nd round spot, but with his impressive feat of athleticism and proof of production when healthy at Georgia, he would be expected to go sometime in the middle of the first round.



    Now for the biggest story of the week. Bryce Young or CJ Stroud. Young has announced that he will not throw at the combine, but everyone knows what kind of passer he is. The story around Bryce is how he will measure. The biggest story surrounding the draft is who should be taken first overall. Arguments for Bryce are centered around stellar tape and skills, but CJ has similar tape and numbers while also being a big quarterback. Some expect Young to come in at around 5 foot 10 inches or 5 foot 11 inches, but some images have recently come through the internet, depicting Bryce to be much shorter than that.


https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/look-nfl-world-reacts-to-viral-bryce-young-video

    The projected first pick better hope that he does not come in too small, as anything under 5 foot 10 inches might be enough for whoever picks first to go with the 6 foot 3 inch Ohio State standout CJ Stroud. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March is Madness

March Madness. It is said to be one of the most  electrifying  times in sports every year. Buzzer beaters, upsets, and Cinderella runs is what one can expect from the NCAA Tournament and conference tournaments every year.  The goal of every team in the nation starting in November is to make the tournament because once you make the field of 64 teams anything is possible and everyone has a chance to cut down the nets April 3rd.  There are two ways to make the tournament: at large bid or an auto bid. Auto bids come from every conference in the Division I ranks. Here is how your team can get an automatic place in the tournament — win the conference tournament. Seems simple enough, but for the smaller conferences such as the Patriot League typically only  receive  one representative; so in these "mid-major" conferences that conference championship means everything, and thus some of the most thrilling, gritty games will be in those conferences. This year Colgate won the Patriot Lea
Read more

A Fruitful Conversation About Home

Image
    Wynne, Arkansas, may not be known for many things these days. Most people don’t even know the little town forty minutes from Memphis, and Jonesboro exists. However, the home of the YellowJackets has quite a history in Eastern Arkansas.       Wynne is the county seat of Cross County, Arkansas, and this makes it very important to the economic development of Eastern Arkansas. Way back in the day, Cross County and Saint Francis County, the county directly south of Cross, were the biggest producers of peaches in the United States.       Although some other industries in the county also played a factor in the economic development of Cross County and Wynne—mainly railroads in the World War II era. However, agriculture has always been a considerable employer in my hometown. However, most of Cross County today is dominated by rice, soybeans, and sweet potatoes. Following the Civil War, peaches and many other fruits and vegetables were planted across the state to stop the overharvesting
Read more