Preparing for the NFL Draft

Follow @theprowife1 on Twitter Today!!!

Times have changed in the last few decades when it comes to what college athletes do in order to prepare for the NFL draft.

It used to be, finish up your college season and hope you made a big enough impression on a team for them to draft you in April. This is not the case anymore, and in order to get ahead and make an impression, as soon as the college season is over you have to get to work preparing yourself to make an impression on an NFL team.

First of all comes the Senior Bowl, where seniors get a last chance to make an impression on the field. There is also a college all-star game which allows underclassmen that have opted for the NFL draft can make one last impression as well.

Then comes the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in late February and early March. Players that are invited to participate in the combine can make or break where they might be drafted. They are poked and prodded, interviewed to death by teams, and looked at from under a microscope.

They are timed in the 40 yard dash, passing and receiving drills, offensive and defensive lineman drills, and how much weight they can lift. They also take the Wonderlic test which measures their intelligence under pressure.

Bad times in the drills or a bad Wonderlic test could cost players and agents millions of dollars in salary and bonus money.

For some athletes, who do not participate in the scouting combine, their schools have “Pro days,” where their athletes get a chance to perform in front of NFL coaches, scouts, and general managers in order to impress them before the draft.

Agents and athletes, looking to climb up team’s draft boards have created a mini-industry for athletic trainers. There are training centers all over the country and every agent has to send a player to one of these centers prior to the combine and the draft.

There is a lot at stake too, not just for the players, but their families and their agents too, who get a percentage of the player’s earnings.

It is big business and it is not cheap either as it can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 to train for two months prior to the combine and pro days. Athletes put in three to five hours a day, three to six days a week for up to two months. However, in the end it could be worth millions in their bank accounts.

 

Subscribe without commenting
E-Mail: