Combine appearance isn't as critical as it once was

BY ASHLEY FOX
Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA - Matt McCoy's mother was worried. Her son had decided to give up his senior year at San Diego State to enter last year's NFL draft, yet he was not among the slew of college linebackers invited to the all-important Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

"Everybody was in her ear," McCoy said last week while eating lunch at the Eagles' NovaCare Complex. "She doesn't really know what the Combine is, but then she started talking to everybody, and they said, `What about these linebackers who are 6-foot-3?' She got caught up in the politics of it all, and she was just stressed. She didn't want me to make the wrong decision."

This is the time of year when NFL scouts, coaches, general managers and presidents definitely don't want to make the wrong decisions. It is draft time. In five days, with the first pick in the 2006 NFL draft, the Houston Texans will be on the clock, and months of intense preparation and posturing will give way to actual picks.

There was a time when a Combine snub would be devastating for a player. But today, teams have ample opportunity and a variety of resources for vetting a prospect.

An unprecedented amount of game film is available. The top college players were invited to the Senior Bowl, which drew hundreds of scouts. In February, more than 300 players attended the Scouting Combine, where they underwent physical examinations, were electronically timed in the 40-yard dash and other speed drills, worked out, and took the Wonderlic Personnel Test, which helps determine a player's aptitude.

Each team is allowed to bring in 30 players for workouts at their facilities. Those visits often included more physicals, interviews and aptitude tests.

Colleges put on their own pro days, and teams send scouts on location for even more workouts.

By draft day, teams think they know just about everything about a player, from his practice habits to his favorite food to his ability to answer the old "Sesame Street question: One of these things is not like the other; which is it?

What bit of information is valued most? Several pro personnel people queried said, hands down, that it is game tape. But much more goes into a pick than how a guy played in college.

"The No. 1 (criterion) in my mind for drafting a player is tape," Atlanta Falcons president and general manager Rich McKay said. "How did he play as a college player? The second-most-valuable piece is going to be the character side, football and personal. That gives you a better way to predict how he'll be as a pro. Those two things will tell you."

Eagles general manager Tom Heckert said that character often is the determining factor in whom the Birds will select. In a draft meeting Tuesday, the Eagles brass reiterated the point.

"You don't have to be a great player," Heckert said. "You have to be a good player, but you have to be a good guy, fairly intelligent, and you have to be a guy that we're not going to have to worry about. We try not to make an exception because a guy's an exceptional athlete, or superproductive. If he doesn't fall into the hard-worker, good-guy category, I just think those guys, the chances of succeeding are slim to none. Or they're always a problem, they're always in trouble, or they turn into somebody you want to get rid of. We try to avoid that."

Of course, the evaluation process is not perfect. Look at drafts past, and you will see big busts from the first round - Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith, and Mike Mamula, to name a few. You also will see incredible players who were overlooked, such as Shannon Sharpe, a late seventh-round pick in 1990; Terrell Davis (sixth round, 1995); and Tom Brady (sixth round, 2000).

And what has the evaluation process done to Texas quarterback Vince Young? Three months ago, Young was the best player on college football's biggest stage, outperforming Southern Cal's Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush in the Rose Bowl. Now, after a well-publicized struggle on the Wonderlic and increasing concerns about his throwing motion, Young is falling in several analysts' mock drafts.

Unlike Young's situation this year, McCoy's momentum grew as last year's draft got closer. Motivated in part by his Combine snub and aware that one criticism of him was his size, the 6-foot McCoy gained 14 pounds. At San Diego State's pro day, he posted a quicker 40 time than teammate Kirk Morrison, a linebacker who had attended the Combine.

The Eagles rewarded McCoy by selecting him in the second round with the 66th overall pick. He was the highest player selected who did not attend the Combine.

"I felt I deserved better," McCoy said. "People get caught up in the whole idea of the prototypical linebacker, (that) you have to be tall. Playmakers are playmakers. You're going to make plays regardless. I really couldn't care less about size."

McCoy played sparingly as a rookie, but he is spending the off-season working out at the Eagles' practice facility, and said he planned to start this season. While Shawn Barber should have something to say about that, the Eagles certainly would like McCoy to prove their extensive evaluation of him a year ago was correct.

I have some MAJOR serious doubts about this. But hey,..whatever makes the suits masturbate for joy.