Dan Campbell has brutal assessment of NFL Combine
Aug 28, 2022; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell watches the third quarter action against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. The Steelers won 19-9. Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports
Evidently, the Detroit Lions will not be making any huge changes to their draft board based on what they see during the on-field portion of the NFL Combine.
Lions coach Dan Campbell had a pretty brutal way of assessing the value of the Combine to his team. Campbell said the one-on-one meetings with draft prospects are “pivotal,” but everything else is pretty useless to him.
“I guess there is somewhat of a spectacle,” Campbell said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “To me it’s more, at this point, just to be able to sit with these guys. They get the medical during the week, but for us to be able to do these interviews is to me the biggest part of all this. It’s not even the working out portion. To me, you grade them off the tape, you don’t grade off somebody out here in pajamas, running the 40 with no defender around.”
It might be harsh, but Campbell has a point. There is much more to football than being able to put up good Combine numbers. After all, one guy whose draft stock soared after a remarkable Combine performance several years ago is barely hanging on in the league these days.
Campbell would probably find some agreement from others in his assessment. We’ve seen some coaches not even go to the Combine at all, though that may still be a bit much.
