2025 NFL Scouting Combine: What We Should Care About
One of the biggest events of the off-season, the NFL Scouting Combine, is just around the corner and all of us dynasty degenerates are dying to watch our favorite prospects participate. Understanding why you should care about the Combine as well as what to look for is quite important and can help you get a leg up on your league mates. Today I’m here to help you get ready.
Heights and Weights
Perhaps one of the more underrated aspects of the combine is that we finally get accurate height and weight measurements for everyone. It’s no secret that colleges and college athletes have been known to embellish with their measurement reporting. Players are frequently listed taller and/or heavier than they really are. Who else remembers Wan’Dale Robinson coming in at 5’8” after being listed as 5’11” in college?
It’s not normally that drastic but it happens. Even small differences matter though. A wide receiver who’s listed at 6’2” and 220 pounds in college and looks surprisingly nimble for his size who then measures in at 6’1” and 205 pounds looks a little less impressive.
Also, be aware of players who may be packing on weight or purposely trying to be lighter for the combine. Some players will specifically trim weight just to run faster even though it’s not their playing weight making those athletic measurables invalid. Anyone remember Tyrion Davis-Price?
“They Are Who We Thought They Were”
Look, I know you’ve heard this before and will hear it many times this offseason, but you mustn’t ‘double-count’. What this means regarding the Combine is to make sure you don’t overreact to player testing in a way that was expected for them, even when it’s very good.
A player seen as having blazing straight-line speed then running a very fast 40-yard dash time at the combine shouldn’t be a surprise. Be excited that they confirm what we thought, but don’t think more of them because of it. When Isaiah Bond runs extremely fast, as he’s expected to do, this shouldn’t change your opinion of him.
With that said, if a player fails to meet expectations, that’s something we really need to take note of. It’s important to remember that these days college prospects have trainers to help them get ready for these tests. If Isaiah Bond doesn’t run fast at the Combine, that’s a bad sign. Not only does it mean that he’s not as fast as we thought, which changes his profile, it means it’s likely he didn’t prepare for one of the biggest events of his career as well as he should have.
I like to think of Kayshon Boutte in 2023 who disappointed at the Combine across the board. Boutte certainly didn’t look like he was as poor of an athlete as he tested on film and that was a sign to me that he didn’t prepare for the combine like he should have. Boutte fell in the draft because of it and while he showed some signs of life in 2024 it’s nowhere close to where we thought he could be when he was playing for LSU.
The Positional Drills
The next big part of the Combine is the positional drills which, surprisingly, do have some noise to them. It’s obvious but we must remember that no defense is being played at the combine. Wide receivers aren’t being pressed at the line on their routes. Quarterbacks don’t have a defensive end barreling at them as they step into a throw. Running backs are hitting holes that don’t close. These aspects need to be considered when watching players in their drills.
I know some of you out there right now are thinking to yourself: “But Wyatt, I’m not a scout, I don’t know what I’m looking for.” Well neither am I but there still are things we can pick up from watching the drills. Are quarterbacks leading the pass catchers on their throws? Are the wide receivers and tight ends making solid hand catches or are the footballs getting in close to their body? How sudden are the wide receivers in and out of their breaks when running routes? How quickly are the running backs reacting to the direction changes in their drills? Are the running backs covering the ball when running through “traffic” and carrying it in their outside arm when running to one side of the field?
These nuances are something you are likely to know to look for without realizing it just from watching football.
After the Combine
So, you’ve consumed the Combine and all the information as best as you could. What do you do with all that information?
Apart from draft capital, we’ll basically have all the information we’ll get for the prospects. This is when I work to finalize my pre-NFL Draft rookie rankings tiers. We will still get some information from pro days, but I mostly ignore them as they’re done in a way that helps make players more comfortable and perform better. They’re normally on their home field running through the drills with their former teammates and coaches; it’s set up for them to succeed. But we do get some data points for those who didn’t participate in the Combine. It’s still a little noisy but at least it’s something.
The most important part of getting your rookie rankings tiers ready before the NFL Draft, though, is to prevent yourself from overreacting to draft capital. For my rookie rankings tiers, in almost all cases, players don’t move between tiers because of draft capital. They only move up and down within their tier. For a player to move between tiers their draft capital would need to be drastically different than what was expected.
Once you have your rookie rankings tiers, you can begin to identify the areas of your rookie drafts that you want to be in. If you think there’s a clear tier gap after the 1.07, and you have the 1.08, perhaps you’re trying to find a way to move up a tier or trying to trade back to the end of your current tier to pick up an extra asset while staying in line to get a similar level of prospect. Maybe you think the best values are in the second round so you try to get multiple picks in that round.
Hopefully now you’ll be able to use the Combine to your advantage. Rookie evaluation is not easy, but knowing the correct things to look for with the Combine will go a long way in helping you work towards being proficient at it. When you can do well in your rookie drafts, you can gain a significant advantage over your league mates. Happy Combine!
- Four Wide Receivers to Buy, Sell, or Hold in Dynasty Leagues - April 16, 2025
- Four Running Backs to Buy, Sell, or Hold in Dynasty Leagues - April 9, 2025
- Four Quarterbacks to Buy, Sell, or Hold in Dynasty Leagues - April 2, 2025
