As the Las Vegas Raiders observe combine week, here are some drills we as fans should pay attention to for each position group.
The combine athletic testing is about to get underway, and each prospect will be able to give teams a glimpse into what kind of athletic upside they present. For the Las Vegas Raiders, this draft is huge, as they hold two first round picks, and five within the first 91 selections.
There is a tendency to devalue the combine and quote “underwear Olympics” whenever this event comes around, but that would be unwise.
Yes, the tape is and always should be one of the highest determining factors when looking at a prospect. However, events like the combine should be able to help confirm what you see on tape. If a player wins with a specific style that their athletic profile doesn’t necessarily match, you may need to go back to the tape and do some more digging.
(This is, of course, assuming all things are equal and the prospect is entirely healthy during testing.)
There have been plenty of players that have been able to succeed while not being gifted athletes or even just bad athletes. But those players are not the norm, and more often than not, there is a threshold for players at every position where it can become a red flag if they are poor athletically.
On top of the testing, the players also get to interview with teams and go through medicals, which can be an even bigger deal than some of the field testing depending on the prospect.
For this, we will be looking at each position group and which test most translate to how they can win on the field. This isn’t a 1:1 correlation, but they are valuable data points to look at. We’ll also be looking at some top players throughout the positions when necessary to show why those particular tests matter when it comes to the best at those positions.