Tag: 2023 scouting combine

2023 NFL Draft: Inside the last-minute prep for the combine’s biggest names

Draft prospects have been training for weeks to ace the combine. Here’s how it looks as the clock ticks down to the on-field drills.

INDIANAPOLIS — The scene is several rooms of the lower lobby of the Omni Severin Hotel in downtown Indy. TCU receiver Quentin Johnston and Tennessee receiver Cedric Tillman are running alternating practice 40-yard dashes in a makeshift training center. Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell is stretching on the floor next to a television replaying a Steelers-Ravens game. Down the hall, a staff of nutritionists are putting together food plans for 99 scouting combine participants in which the amount of meat is measured in actual cows.

There’s a hot tub and a cold tub in a small fitness center, and in that same 40-yard dash place, there are massage tables and exercise bikes and treadmills aplenty. Tulane running back Tyjae Spears is leaping and hopping when he’s not running his own practice dashes, and guys are burning up those treadmills in frantic shifts as everybody gets ready for the biggest set of job interviews of their young lives.

The pressure isn’t just on the prospects. It’s also on EXOS, the multi-state performance center charged with making these prospects the best they can possibly be for everything from positional drills to interviews with teams. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik has been hired as a consultant to prepare everyone for the latter, and there’s a very large staff of professionals working frantically to get those last few reps in before things get very real on the Lucas Oil Stadium turf Thursday through Sunday.

EXOS’s list of combine participants reads like a lot of the first round of any mock draft when you filter it up top: There’s Johnston, Alabama edge-rusher Will Anderson Jr., Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez, Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon, LSU edge-rusher BJ Ojulari, Alabama safety Brian Branch, Tennessee receiver Jalin Hyatt, Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Florida guard O’Cyrus Torrence, Ohio State offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr., and on and on.

EXOS’s efforts are just as (probably more) important for the prospects on the fringe, though — the guys who are hoping to perhaps move from the third day of the draft to the second, or from an undrafted free agent future to any part of the draft at all.

Georgia Tech DL Keion White is great on the field, and better at the microphone

Georgia Tech pass-rusher Keion White is a total one-off — both on and off the field. He’s looking to blow up the combine drills, as well.

INDIANPOLIS — Not that Georgia Tech defensive lineman Keion White had too much to prove at the 2023 scouting combine — the 6-foot-5, 286-pound Old Dominion transfer and former tight end put up seven sacks, four quarterback hits, and 30 quarterback hurries in his 2022 season, and was blowing offensive linemen up at Senior Bowl week — but when he took the podium on Wednesday, it was quite an event.

On the field, White reminds me of Michael Bennett, the former Seahawks star pass-rusher who could nuke blockers from anywhere in the formation. Bennett has always marched to his own drumbeat and has a unique mind. It was nice to experience that White is definitely an original when he’s talking, as well.

White had been in college since his freshman year at Old Dominion in 2018, which is a long time, as he noted.

“Six years in college is long as [expletive],” he said. “I don’t know if I can say ‘[expletive]’ up here but it’s long.”

Well, too late for that. The non-recruited White transferred to Georgia Tech following the COVID year of 2020, and he firmly established himself as a premier pass-rusher and run defender in the one season he was able to show out at that level. He had just 36 snaps in his first season with the Yellow Jackets, but when he was given opportunities to shine, he showed all kinds of first-round talent.

The journey made his combine experience a bit out of this world.

“I was not recruited at all coming out of high school,” he said. “When I got to go to college, I just planned on working in the workforce and being like one of y’all, just a normal person. Coming here and being part of this is just a surreal experience.”

The tape is far from ordinary, though.

Power moves are White’s forte. and he has a lot of confidence in what he does best.

“At the beginning of the season, I was trying to be a speed rusher because everybody was like, ‘You need to add more moves; you need to showcase your talent, that you can do other things.’ And that wasn’t me. So I wasn’t being productive. Once I got back to being a powerful rusher and being dominant again, that’s when my sack production picked up.”

And what did he learn from that experience?

“Don’t listen to what everybody said you need to do or the scouts wanna see. Scouts see what they’re gonna see. I’m going to be me and let them evaluate it from there.”

As far as where he’ll best fit in the NFL, White, who played 80% of his spans outside the guards, 17% inside, and 2% at nose tackle, is perfectly fine with wherever his next team wants to put him.

Of course, he does have some opinions about that.

“That’s cool with me,” he said of a main 5-tech role. “I’ve shown throughout my career that I can go wherever I need to go. Personally, I like playing the 5. Anywhere from 3 to 9 I think it’s reasonable for me to play. And I like being able to play anywhere from 3 to 9, and that versatility. That only makes you more valuable as a player.”

White is also quite sure that he won’t need to add weight to transcend any “tweener” concerns.

“No. I’m 285 pounds, reasonably strong. I’ve been playing end, and I’m reasonably quick enough to play the outside as well. I like the weight I’m at. If teams need me to, obviously they’re paying money, I’ll go anywhere if they give me money for it. That’s how I feel about it.”

Of course, some people are going to misinterpret White’s opinionated nature as making him hard to coach… or that old combine chestnut, “Do you love football?” Which really means, are you going to keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told?

If that’s what you want, White isn’t your guy.

“That’s a tough question because I could tell you any bull[bleep] answer and you’ll be like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ It’s more something you have to show. That’s not just something you can evaluate from the tape because anybody can go out there and play, it’s just about how hard you play and the dedication you put into it. It’s just like if I asked you, ‘Do you love media?’ How am I supposed to know if you love media? No, it’s what you do. It’s just a personal thing. I enjoy doing this every day.”

Perhaps White’s independent nature is tied to the fact that he has serious business plans in his future. Budding real estate magnate, in fact.

“Probably property acquisitions and real estate, things like that,” he said, when asked what he would do were he force to work an “ordinary” job. “I worked for a couple companies when I was in Atlanta doing certified finishes and at McKenney’s, I was doing [work in] the accounting department and the estimating side. From there, I realized office life sucks, so [corporate] life is trash, and football is definitely the career path I need to be on.”

Once White gets his NFL contract (he missed out on the NIL boom, to his chagrin), he plans to get that ball rolling.

“Numbers have always come easily to me, and I’ve always been knowledgeable in seeing the information. I’ve realized a lot of the millionaires outside of sports that you see have ventures in real estate and that’s how they develop their portfolios and build up their network. I was like — if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.”

So, Keion White is a one-off, both on and off the field. He’s already proven it on tape and at the mic, and he’s eager to reinforce that when the defensive linemen run through their drills at Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday.

Seventh Annual NFL Women’s Forum: The Future of Football

At the Seventh Annual NFL Women’s Forum, Laurie Fitzpatrick learned that there are many like her who have just wanted opportunities in football.

INDIANAPOLIS — It all started in 2017, when Sam Rapoport had a vision for women to have more of a presence in the NFL. She felt that it was important to create an initiative and pipeline where women could work together and set a foundation that would be important for women to grow within this game that we all love so much.

Since then, 26 teams have hired past forum participants and over 225 opportunities have emerged for women in the NFL. Last summer, the NFL had 15 women in coaching roles during training camp – a record for any male professional sports league in the world.

The forum kicked off with a panel that included NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, head coaches Mike Vrabel and Brian Daboll, general managers Brandon Beane and Andrew Berry Cleveland, Darcie Glazer-Kassewitz (Tampa Bay Buccaneers ownership) and Dasha Smith, NFL Executive VP & Chief Administrative Officer.

“I couldn’t even imagine having a career in football when I was sort of coming up the ranks, and so this is so awesome that this can no longer be a dream but a reality for so many people.” Smith said.

One common thread throughout the day was how passion, dreams and perseverance got us to where we are today and how together we can set a foundation.

Regarding women in the NFL, Goodell said, “We have not begun to reach it’s heights and what is to come.” He continued to stress how women are the future of football, but it’s not just hiring women, it’s hiring the best candidate for the job whether that be a man or women, but giving women a chance is where it starts.

Rapoport pointed out that it’s no conscience that the last three Coach of the Year winners were all coaches who have hired women for their immediate staffs: Daboll (2022), Vrabel (2021) and Kevin Stefanski (2020).

“I didn’t hire the women because I have daughters, I didn’t hire them because I have strong people [women] in my life. I hired them because they were good. There’s such a great talent pool that’s untapped,” said Daboll.

“We all have the same goal, to win,” said Jennifer King, the Washington Commanders’ running backs coach.

After the initial introduction Rapoport hosted a discussion with some of the leagues “Firsts” coaches:

  • Lori Locust, Tennessee Titans defensive quality control coach.
  • Autumn Lockwood, Philadelphia Eagles strength and conditioning seasonal associate.
  • Angela Baker, New York Giants offensive quality control coach,
  • Callie Brownson, Cleveland Browns assistant wide receivers Coach,
  • Jennifer King Washington Commanders Assistant Running Backs coach; and
  • Maral Javadifar, Tampa Bay Buccaneers director of rehabilitation and performance coach.

Participating in these discussions were 41 women who are currently seeking opportunities in the NFL. Most of the participants ranged from operations, scouting and video coordinators at the collegiate level, to player development within Scouting Networks. The panel opened with a Q & A, giving them a chance to ask questions about how they handled certain situations in the workplace.

“Everyone experiences criticism, that’s life, but we have to keep moving forward,” said Brownson.

The advice poured out as the panel shared personal experiences about how they dealt with adversity. In the end, discussions like this are important. It’s vital that women have a place where we can relate to one another, discuss, and give each other guidance in a space predominantly owned by men.

As Lori Locust said, “the NFL is not male dominant, its male prevalent!”

This is an important message because using the word dominant suggests that women aren’t supposed to be here. But we are all working together to achieve the same goal, and that’s to win!

Six sleepers to watch during the 2023 scouting combine drills

When the scouting combine drills get going, here are six offensive players who could tear it up, and the tape is also intriguing.

INDIANAPOLIS — There are some draft prospects who look great on the field, and just don’t show up in the drills, whether it’s at the scouting combine or at their pro days. And there are those prospects who show up at events like this week’s combine ready to blow everyone away… and then, when you go back to their game tape, it’s a big ball of “meh.”

The obvious goal for NFL evaluators seated in the luxury boxes at Lucas Oil Stadium this week is to focus in on the players who look great during the workouts, and the tape matches up. Spinning that forward to the prospects who might be under the radar, if you get enough of those guys on your roster, you might just be on to something.

Here are six offensive skill position players whose tape stands out enough to bank on their athleticism on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium, and it’ll make them more than just workout warriors.

The 2023 scouting combine All-Name Team

Stetson Bennett, Juice Scruggs, Sidy Sow, DeMarvion Overshown, and Habakkuk Baldonado are all part of the 2023 scouting combine All-Name Team.

What’s in a name? Well, some people live up to their names, and others perhaps don’t. In football, you can look at tape of Bronko Nagurski or Mack Strong running the ball, and think that those two men could not have been named anything else. Then, there’s Richie Incognito, who was anything but in his NFL career.

The participating prospects at the 2023 scouting combine aren’t really here to make any sort of All-Name Team; they have bigger and better goals on their minds. But when we see Stetson Bennett, Juice Scruggs, Sidy Sow, DeMarvion Overshown, or Habakkuk Baldonado, we think it’s fun that these young men are about to join an all-time pro football fraternity that includes Fair Hooker, Buzz Nutter, Mac Speedie, Atari Bigby, and Bacarri Rambo.

So, here’s Touchdown Wire’s All-Name Team for the 2023 scouting combine.

C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson will throw at the combine, while Bryce Young won’t

C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson will throw at the scouting combine, while Bryce Young will wait until his pro day.

We now have a better idea of which star quarterback prospects will go through all the drills at the 2023 scouting combine.

Per Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, both Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Florida’s Anthony Richardson will throw in the drills at Lucas Oil Stadium, and Richardson will also participate in all other drills like the 40-yard dash, while Alabama’s Bryce Young will wait until his pro day on March 23.

Young has little to nothing to prove as a thrower or as a runner after his incendiary collegiate career; he’s the consensus No. 1 prospect at the position. The only real question about Young can be answered at the combine: How tall is he officially, and what does he weigh? Young’s unofficial height of 6-foot-0 and unofficial weight of 194 both make him outliers in the modern NFL. If he measures in shorter and lighter than that… well, there will be conversations in NFL offices about that, though Young’s on-field performances should still win the day.

As for Stroud, he could benefit from the expansion of the perception of him as a do-it-all quarterback following his performance against Georgia in the College Football Semifinal. In that game, Stroud broke out of his history as a pure pocket quarterback, and made several amazing throws on the run. If he’s able to do all of that again without all those incredible defenders chasing him (the odds are good), Stroud could go into the rest of the draft process as a virtually ding-proof prospect. Stroud has an unofficial height of 6-foot-3 and a weight of 215, so there’s no problem there, and his ball placement, velocity, and field-reading put him on the same level as Young.

Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud gained as much as he lost in his final collegiate game

Richardson is the real wild-card here. We know about his amazing athleticism and fantastic deep arm; the question will be how well he does with the more nuanced throws after just one year as a college starter. Richardson showed a ton of improvement through the 2022 season, but there are still legitimate questions about his ability to make every throw at the NFL level. Of course, throwing at the combine won’t really answer those questions, but a high-level performance will really help, and had Richardson chosen to wait until his pro day, he probably never would have heard the end of it, so a wise decision there.

Anthony Richardson’s recent progress should have the NFL seeing him differently

Throwing at the scouting combine and at your pro day are two entirely different experiences. At the combine, you’re throwing to receivers you’ve never thrown to before, and the kinds of passes you’re asked to throw are part of a fixed set of drills. At your pro day, your performance coach is there, you’re throwing to receivers you’ve been throwing to for a long time, and you decide which kinds of throws will happen, though the script will be accentuated by the requests of NFL teams.

One note: Prospects are assigned to their positional drills alphabetically, so Stroud will likely throw right after Richardson. Get your popcorn ready for that one.

VIDEO: Which top prospects need positive medical reports at the scouting combine?

Which top draft prospects are most in need of positive medical reports at the upcoming scouting combine?

Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. It’s all about draft prospects with the scouting combine getting started this week, so Doug and Luke get into a bunch of questions about all the draft prospects looking to raise their games in Indianapolis — both on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium, and in private interviews with NFL teams.

Which prospects need the medicals to work their way to cement their standing in this class based on their tape? 

Doug: Georgia edge-rusher Nolan Smith comes to mind, but I have to go with Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker. Before Hooker suffered a torn ACL in November, he was my QB3 in this class behind Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud. Nothing has moved for me in that regard as long as Hooker is well on his way to recovery. You will wonder if Hooker can run as well post-injury as mobility is a big part of his game, but ACL recoveries aren’t what they used to be, in a good way.

If Hooker checks out medically, I think he’s a second-round pick, and has a bright future as a potential franchise quarterback. As far as the “he benefited from the spread offense” stuff, that’s true to a point, but a lot of NFL teams look to spread defenses out as well, and Hooker does enough with tight-window throws and throwing receivers open to make me think it won’t be a huge problem over time.

Luke: Yeah, you nailed it. I agree with everything you said about Hooker, and the fact that he’ll be a 25-year-old rookie puts even more pressure on him to check out medically if he wants to be drafted early. Before his injury, Smith was looking like a dominant force for the Bulldogs. If he checks out, he could easily put himself back in the first-round conversation, even in a deep class of edge defenders. 

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VIDEO: Which top prospects need the best performances at the scouting combine?

Which top draft prospects need to show out to solidify their stock at the scouting combine? Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling have thoughts.

Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. It’s all about draft prospects with the scouting combine getting started this week, so Doug and Luke get into a bunch of questions about all the draft prospects looking to raise their games in Indianapolis — both on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium, and in private interviews with NFL teams.

Which top-tier prospect most needs a great combine performance?

Doug: I think Kentucky quarterback Will Levis is going to have to really impress in the interview rooms. If he throws during the drills, he’ll look great, because he has all the tools – that’s where all the Josh Allen comps come from. But when he sits down with GMs and coaches in those 15-minute interviews, they’re going to ask him about a series of decisions on the field that have ranged from weird to completely head-scratching. Levis didn’t have the best supporting cast in 2022, and I’m not implying that he’ll blame anybody else for the hiccups in Kentucky’s passing game, but it will be absolutely crucial for Levis to not only explain what went wrong in all those plays, but to also get into how he’s working on all that stuff in the offseason. 

Will Levis might be the next Josh Allen. He might also be the next Tim Tebow.

Luke: I think Levis is a great pick, but for the sake of debate, I’m gonna take TCU WR Quentin Johnston. We know he still needs some polish, but the allure with him is the size/speed/athleticism combo, and he’s got to show that off in a big way this week. If he doesn’t impress enough with those testing numbers, there are too many other receivers who could end up leapfrogging him when draft day rolls around because they bring similar explosiveness, but are more pro-ready, even if they don’t have his massive frame.

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4-Down Territory: 2023 scouting combine preview

It’s scouting combine time! Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling are here to ask answer all the questions about this year’s prominent draft event.

Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. It’s all about draft prospects with the scouting combine getting started this week, so Doug and Luke get into a bunch of questions about all the draft prospects looking to raise their games in Indianapolis — both on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium, and in private interviews with NFL teams.

This week’s pressing questions:

1. Which top-tier prospect most needs a great combine performance?

2. Who among the lesser-known prospects could see their stock rise in Indianapolis?

3. Which prospects will be most reliant on positive medical reports?

4. Finally, which prospect are you most looking forward to seeing in the on-field drills?

You can watch this week’s episode of “4-Down Territory” right here!

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2023 NFL Draft: Three-round mock projections, and one big trade

With the scouting combine just around the corner, it’s time for Doug Farrar’s first three-round mock draft of 2023.

In less than a week, the entire NFL and the whole of the 2023 draft class will converge upon Indianapolis for the scouting combine — an opportunity for NFL talent evaluators, scouts, and coaches to get a much better idea of the quality of this class both in on-field drills, and meetings with those prospects.

With that in mind, it’s time to expand our mock draft projections here at Touchdown Wire to the first three rounds, and the first 102 picks, in the 2023 NFL draft. There will be more trades in future mock drafts, but outside of the deal that gives the Indianapolis Colts the first overall pick, and the Chicago Bears with multiple picks in the next two years in return, we’re staying put in this one.

Here’s one version of how the first three round of the 2023 draft might just go.

(Note: The Miami Dolphins, who would have had the 21st pick in the first round, forfeited that pick as punishment from the NFL for tampering). 

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