Originally posted by thl408:
Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
Originally posted by Mann716:
Originally posted by DeUh:
Originally posted by thl408:
Agreed it's mainly about the 3 cone drill, and also the 10 yard split. I'd also put hand size up there for ball security. No idea how his measurements rank.
San Francisco 49ers
Mike Davis 217 lbs / 10-Yard 1.53 / 3-cone drill 7.00
2015 NFL Draft
Melvin Gordon 215 lbs / 10-Yard 1.62 / 3-cone drill 7.04
NFL
Marshawn Lynch 215 lbs / 10-Yard 1.60 / 3-cone drill 7.05
Wow a 1.53 10 yard split? Didn't know he was that quick. i love it!
You guys seem ridiculous talking about cone drills lol
Scouts use it as a measure of a player's ability to accelerate when changing directions. Why do you think it's a drill at the combines? Follow along with the conversation that led to us talking about the cone drill and add something of value to the conversation.
Agreed it has value, but I think the value of measurements in predicting success outweighs the cost when people start trying to hunt out successful or more highly drafted players as points of comparison to make it seem like the player in question is equivalent.
For every Marshawn Lynch we could find 50 guys with comparable numbers who never made it off practice squads or never made it into the NFL to begin with.
I think combine numbers (like cone drills, which is TBH a pretty important number, probably more important than 40 time too) are best used in two ways:
1) As a check to confirm that what you think you're seeing on film also roughly lines up with what you're seeing in the drills.
2) As a bottom rung cut point to eliminate players you're not that excited about anyway. Put another way, in terms of on field performance I don't think it really much matters if a RB runs a 4.4. or 4.6 in shorts, but maybe you just eliminate every RB who runs a 4.7 or worse from consideration unless you've really seen something different on the film.
A good example of all of this IMO was Byron Jones' broad jump, which made people go gaga. That explosion isn't really something that's matched on the field, and even Byron Jones himself was pretty open that he'd never jump anywhere close to that far again in his life.
[ Edited by PopeyeJonesing on May 16, 2015 at 9:43 AM ]
