Devin Moore and the NFL Combine

The NFL combine has finally come.  What a great time in history we live, when I can watch or opt not watch the future stars of the NFL weight lift and shuffle drill their way up the draft board on cable TV.  You know it wasn’t always like this.  I don’t remember when it wasn’t, but trust me, it wasn’t always like this.

I mean, it used to be that you got all of your information from your local newspapers sports section.  And Lord knows you certainly didn’t trust the guys on Sports center with the shiny suits and their expensive haircuts, high on cocaine and animal tranquilizers. 

My favorite combine drill, is the cornerback hip turn exercise, where they run backwards as fast as they can, turning their hips to the direction they are told.  At the end of the drill, a facilitator throws up a ball for them to simulate an interception and they either make the catch and run it back toward the end zone, or the ball bounces off their stone hands, revealing to the world the real reason they didn’t choose to be a wide receiver.

I have one important scouting combine update.

Devin Moore, running back out of Wyoming didn’t get a combine invite, so he held his own in Indy.  14 teams had reps there.  The kid ran a 4.4 40-yard dash.  I like it.  I’m going to remember his name, and see what happens on draft weekend.  He showed more heart in taking that initiative than 79% of players ever show. 

 

Since I do my NFL scouting based on photographs, I have a good read on this guy.  He has great down field vision, because he runs with his eyes really wide, his mouth guard is in all the way, which is good…good ball security, he wears those black arm things, so that’s important.  His pants don’t seem done up all the way, so that will be a concern heading into draft weekend and the major issue teams will see in him, is his affinity to face mask the opposing team while attempting to straight arm them. 

To prove my theory about judging based on photographs, I present to you a random photo from the 2000 scouting combine.  This player clearly cannot be successful at the NFL level.  Based on his photo, he suffers from low self worth, his body clearly won’t be able to handle NFL sized hits on his blindside, his shorts are grey, which is a huge red flag and his body looks dumb because he has terrible posture.  Based on this information, this player was drafted 199^th overall on draft day.  

It is Tom Brady for those of you who can't make out the image.