NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith proposed Wednesday to abolish the annual NFL scouting combine and replace it with regional pro days.
Smith made the comments at the NFLPA’s annual Super Bowl conference in Phoenix.
Smith took aim at the timing of the combine along with draft prospects’ having to waive their medical rights as part of the process.
“Who decided that it was a good idea to take your son and have him exclusively try out for the NFL’s exclusive way of getting into the league — for the most part, unless you’re a free-agent player? You have to be invited to the combine,” Smith said of the combine, which takes place annually in February or March.
“As soon as you show up, you have to waive all of your medical rights,” Smith went on. “Would you want your son to spend hours inside of an MRI (machine) and then be evaluated by 32 separate team doctors who are, by the way, are only doing it for one reason? What’s the reason? To decrease your draft value.”
Smith said the internet has provided all of the relevant information any teams would need to know, since “we’ve been tracking these players since grade school.”
“So, we’re now in an era where we know exactly how fast these guys can run, how much they can live, how far they can jump, do all of those things. Why do we insist on them showing up in Indianapolis? It’s not for anything physical, right? It’s for the teams to be able to engage in intrusive employment actions that don’t exist anywhere else.”
The 2023 combine is March 2-5 in Indianapolis.
–Field Level Media