INDIANAPOLIS — As the 2020 scouting combine gets underway, there are several major changes that will affect the event both behind the scenes, and in the public eye. Here’s how the combine will be different than it has been in the past.
Fewer coaching staffs will be in Indianapolis.
As ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported, the Broncos are not sending any of their assistant coaches to Indianapolis this year, and the Rams are not sending offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, because the teams believe their staffs are best-served by staying home and watching easily accessible film of the drills. McVay, who is traveling to Indianapolis to fulfill his obligation with the assembled media, will then return to Los Angeles to implement the new system with his coaches.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio told Schefter that his coaches will be more efficient studying players at home and in their offices than in person. He expounded on that in Indianapolis during his Tuesday media session.
“When we first decided that, we were going to wonder if anybody even noticed, but then the Rams spilled the beans because they copied us. I just felt, and [President of Football Operations and General Manager] John [Elway] agreed with my suggestion, that our time this week would be better spent back in the office. What the guys are doing all this week is just watching college tape Monday through Friday, every minute they’re there. I think it’s a much better environment to do that. For instance, yesterday I went to weigh-ins early in the morning and I had three interviews late at night. That was my day from a production standpoint here. I just think it’s a better use of time for these guys to stay back. I think you evaluate players better when you evaluate them right next to each other instead of evaluating one guy February 20 and then somebody else March 25. It’s hard to slice them and stack them sometimes. It’s a one year trial kind of like OPI-DPI instant replay. We’ll see how we feel after this year.”
As for McVay, he sounded quite chipper about his approach, which will leave the in-person personnel doings in the hands of Rams general manager Les Snead.
“I think it’s an interesting situation that presented itself this year,” McVay said Tuesday. “We’ve got great continuity in a lot of spots on our coaching staff, and we have two new coordinators on offense, defense and special teams. So what – I’m not going to be here the whole week. I’m going to be leaving pretty shortly and what it looks like is, Les and his group do a great job in the vetting process and then our position coaches have a great feel of, okay what do we want to do? What are the things that we want to get out of the combine, so being able to empower them and then feeling like, let’s get back to LA, still be able to study the film which is the most important part of the evaluation — trusting some of the vetting on the backgrounds with these guys and then being able to kind of continue to get a jump on the schemes that we’ll implement specific to the offense and defense. That’s really what went into it. If it was a bunch of turnover, then I’d think you say, ‘Okay, we can get a lot of stuff done out here’ but because of the continuity of the position coaches, we felt like that was the best approach and the most efficient way to utilize the week.”
One wonders how the absence of assistant coaches will affect the prospect interviews on site, although that whole process is affected as well this year.