2020 NFL Combine

I was lucky enough to attend portions of the NFL Combine this year.

Here is a short write up on that visit.

First, the NFL does have a limited amount of tickets available for free

to attend certain portions of the drills. I waited too late to take

advantage of that. However, they do allow anyone to attend the bench press part

of the drills and it is interesting. I made it the NFL Combine Experience

Friday afternoon, it is in the Indianapolis Convention Center (which is next

door to Lucas Field), they have some Combine drills setup for the kids and they

have the Lombardi trophy there so you can get a pic with it. They also had a

display of all the Super Bowl Rings there.

On to the Bench Press - Friday was the Defensive Lineman and Linebackers.

First group was the Edge/Ends (I am not a fan of the word Edge).

They have bleachers setup on 2 sides and the actual stage where the bench press

was performed. The fans had the straight on view and the coaches/scouts had the

view from the side. The players that are not benching at the combine they have

come out and take a microphone and face the coaches/scouts and tell them why

they are not doing the bench press and if they will do it on their pro day or

not. Then the players that are going to bench come out and they lift in

numerical order. Again, the players take a microphone, say their name and what

college they are from and then they bench. The Redskins Strength and

Conditioning coach is the spotter and an NFL rep is also there to ensure they

do the reps correctly and they "warn' them if they are not fully extending and

if the player does not adjust, they will deduct a rep. They encourage the fans

to cheer them on as they are doing their reps. It is a pretty cool environment.

So, each player goes through and they are benching 225lbs, every player does

that weight. The Ends did pretty good, Chase Young did not bench but he was

there. No one really stood out to me on the bench - however Jason Strowbridge

looks like a Football player, and he did pretty good at the bench. I believe he

is projected 2nd/3rd rd guy. He looks the part.

The Defensive Lineman came next -same routine. These are the big guys. Saw

Derrick Brown, he completed 28 reps and he is a big man!! Kenny Willikes from MSU had

the most reps for this group.

Linebackers were next Simmons sat out the Bench but was there. He

is a tall guy. No one really stood out rep wise. Kalake Hudson (UofM) appeared

to do the most reps. That was it for Friday.

Saturday was Defensive Backs - Again 2 groups - 1st Group Safeties, 2nd Group

CB's

One Safety that stood out to me was Jeremy Chinn 6'3" 221lbs and a 4.45 40.

He looks like a football player.

The CB's as expected were not putting up as many reps as the previous day’s positions

but Lavert Hill and Josiah Scott from UofM and MSU both did well. Okudah

not so much, he only did 11 reps and he struggled with those. Of course, he

does not need to be able to push a lot of weight!!

A few notes:

The NFL should open the Combine to the public and charge a small fee and

donate that to charity. It would be so cool to see the 40's and the other

positional drills.

UofM and MSU must have very good strength coaching staffs, they all did

really well at the Bench and surprisingly the SEC schools did not do as well.

It was a lot of fun to just watch the bench press.

There were a lot of Lions, Bengals, Browns, and Steelers fans there. Oddly

not many Colts fans.

I am already making plans for next year!!