Posted: February 23, 2011 3:40 p.m. CT
By TIM YOTTER
VikingUpdate.com
Right now, the NFL prospects heading to Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine are full of warts, question marks and potential red flags.
Welcome to open season on speculation and innuendo, making the Scouting Combine this week important for the Vikings as they sift through the prospects' physical prowess and professional potential. But while football fans sit through mundane drills and endless analysis watching coverage on NFL Network or highlights on FOX Sports or ESPN, NFL scouts, coaches and general managers are usually more concerned with something else besides the numbers.
The Combine provides the insiders with insider access to the two most important elements they may not already have - medical records and first-hand interviews.
Endless hours will be spent evaluating 40 times, bench-press repetitions and three-cone drills during television coverage. It all makes for good entertainment for hard-core draftniks looking to shuffle their own mock drafts, but NFL personnel have been tracking the players for months, sometimes years, already. They already know what they've accomplished on the playing field, and how they look competing in college and all-star games.
What they don't have yet - and will have a better grasp on after this week in Indianapolis - are the medical records of the players. While fans watch the players run through the physical drills, it is much more than just a few-hour exhibition for the participants.
Prospects arrive one day, register and go through medical exams, including X-rays (and, if needed, magnetic resonance imaging tests). Then it's onto orientation and starting the interview process with NFL clubs. The following day they are measured, take exams, including psychological testing, and meet with the media and more teams. Then come workouts and more interviews over the next two days.
It's a grueling process that leaves even the most highly tuned athletes worn down by the end of it. It's a three- to four-day stretch of physical and emotional stress as they continue their money-building (or losing) portfolio before the draft.
For teams, including the Vikings, the medical exams and their private interviews with the players are two of the most important elements of NFL Scouting Combine. Each team is allowed 60 15-minute interviews, giving them a chance to delve into the character of the player in which they might make a $50 million investment.
"It's always come down to an organizational decision. Everyone we have taken, whether we have it built in our system when they get put in boxes that they have issues, that is an organizational decision where our ownership and (head coach Leslie Frazier) and myself have to sit down to say is this guy worth the risk or not?" said Vikings vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman. "And you have to make that decision before you pick the guy. But that is an organizational decision that we all have to feel comfortable with."
The Vikings already interviewed all but one of the players that participated in the Senior Bowl. Their allotted Combine interviews are largely made up of the juniors they haven't yet grilled.
The Combine interview can help the Vikings avoid a problem prospect or solidify a high-character player. The medical exams can also keep them clear of potential risks or give them the confidence to select the player they want, despite an injury that may scare of other teams. Last year, medical concerns kept the Vikings from selecting California running back Jahvid Best, who was taken by the Detroit Lions. In 2007, when other teams were concerned about the collarbone of Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson, the Vikings had enough confidence in its healing progress from the medical records they saw to take him seventh overall.
Frazier, Spielman and oftentimes assistant coaches will be involved in the interview process, and this year a revamped coaching staff will offer the organization a chance to look at players with different talents. In the seven-plus weeks since Frazier has been named the full-time head coach, he has maintained that his revised coaching staff will tailor the schemes to the skills of their players. When it comes to the draft, the physical drills and the interview process will help the assistant coaches get more familiar with what each of the incoming rookies is comfortable with and with what skills he excels.
"You're identifying a player's strengths and a player's weakness," Spielman said. "As long as the coaches understand too, 'Hey, this is what he can do, this is what he can't do. Can we utilize this?' They're going to say, 'Yeah, I know what he does. Let's go ahead and feel comfortable utilizing him.' It makes it an easy and smooth working relationship with Leslie and the new staff as far as, 'OK, I know what you're telling me what his strengths and weaknesses are.' Now they're going to say, 'Hey, this is how it's going to work for us.'"
The predraft process continues over the next week at the highest profile meat market around.
Tim Yotter is the publisher of Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter, check out Viking Update on Facebook, or to become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.
