NFL Combine - Articles - Michigan OL "years ahead" and "Opt outs" - Discussion
As most of us know - the NFL Combine just took place with some interesting feedback from those who participated and others who followed it.
The news about JJ was great to follow - and other threads here have touched on that. There were two other non-paywalled articles that caught my attention. One dealt with Michigan's OL and how advanced they are, while the second touched on "Opt Outs" - players (usually high profile) who elected to not work out at the Combine or interview.
Here's a link to CBS' Michigan OL article: https://247sports.com/college/michigan/article/michigan-offensive-linemen-nfl-combine-draft-sherrone-moore-daniel-jeremiah-nfl-network-interview-227965338/
Here's the link about Opt Outs from Yahoo Sports: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/as-stars-like-marvin-harrison-jr-and-caleb-williams-pull-plug-on-nfl-combine-drills-the-league-grapples-with-the-opt-out-generation/ar-BB1jc9p9
So, what are my perspectives? Michigan's OL has been solid the last three years. Why? Is it the Covid season and older lineman? Is it the techniques and schemes? If so - who's responsible for that - Moore, Harbaugh, a combination? Any concerns about it being sustained?
Regarding the Opt Outs - especially for Top Ten players - what are your thoughts? As an NFL GM who needs to make draft decisions - with a significant commitment to first round picks and the associated contracts - would you be content to rely on college film without any participation in the Combine to provide a "standard" reference point?
The NFL Draft is about seven weeks away. What are your thoughts? Will Michigan's OL continue to be a strength of the team? Would you commit a high first round pick to select a non-injured player who didn't work out at the Combine?
Enjoy Monday... Go Blue!
The downside of our low attrition culture where we have had excellent roster management (transfer portal usage and stocking overall numbers to prevent weak areas) and a high quality of play is that it's incredibly difficult to break through for playing time. This is even more exaggerated on the OL. El-Hadi is a Top 100 recruit who will be in his 4th year out of HS when he earns a starting job. Gentry will be in his 3rd year after his mission (5th year total). That level of patience only appeals to a select few, especially when it comes at an NIL discount.
And we did pick up Andrew Sprague and Blake Frazier who are very highly regarded in this year's class.
Michigan's got really good OL coaches and have also been able to develop them for years; not a surprise they're ahead of a lot of their peers.
As for the opt-outs, it's not like these guys don't do their own pro days, meet with teams, etc. The Combine is an event the NFL created to get eyeballs on guys and the league, and so I get players not necessarily wanting to participate in a less controller environment when there are millions of dollars at stake.
I admit that "pro days" are meat markets of a sort too .............. but to me the NFL Combine has always felt WAY over the top in that regard, with the added component that the NFL monetizes it and makes a good chunk of $$$ on it (selling tickets, selling ads for TV).
I get why it won't happen, but I sort of wish everyone opted out. The NFL Combine has always felt .... rather creepy and cringe .... to me.
I get why it won't happen, but I sort of wish everyone opted out.
I get the sentiment. Plus, with the amount of opt-outs nowadays, you sort of feel like what's the point anymore?
I'm being naive, because the NFL monetizes everything. But I'd feel considerably better about the Combine without the monetization component.
The Combine definitely has value:
- It is a job interview of sorts, and teams are making huge investments in these players.
- It's logistically efficient: the "interviews" can all be done in one location, among multiple teams and players.
- It serves as an "NFL social event" - all 32 front offices are together for a few days and trades/moves are made after that networking.
But, all the above can be done without selling tickets or TV coverage. For the moment, none of those guys being "interviewed" are drawing an NFL paycheck.
There's always been a bit of an exploitative vibe to it, this chance to see guys work out and these paragons of athleticism that it's hard to not both be awed and a bit intimidated by. And as fans you do sometimes get caught up in caring that a guy in cheetah cleats and shorts ran really fast, or a 320 lb hulk just benched 225 an ungodly number of times. But in terms of actual value in determining your ability to be good at football in the NFL I'd assume college tape and interviews tell you way more.
Addressing the two questions with simplistic answers:
Re: M's OL - I think the success is more systemic than anything else. Maybe that's just because I want to see it continue, but i really think it's more the due to coaching, scheme, and M's S&C program than it is the bonus Covid year.
Re: Opt-outs, granted, it's easy for me to sit here and say this when my reputation and livelihood aren't dependent upon decisions I'm making about a 250m/yr payroll, but if i were a GM, I don't think my decisions would be too heavily influenced by a guy opting out of combine workouts. most of the players I'm looking at have 2years of film to evaluate. If a guy doesn't want to risk getting hurt and/or having a bad day, I get it. disappointing, but, i get it. 2 years of game film tell me more than a couple of afternoons of non-contact drills.
If you’re a top TOP prospect, the Combine can only hurt you; opting out is a good idea.
Teams will want to interview and evaluate and work you out separately. My understanding is that the Combine isn’t really something that GMs rely upon to make draft decisions.
and, if you’re a top TOP prospect, you’ve been under the microscope for a long time.
The Oline success is likely a bit of all those factors. Another piece of the success is the #2 & #3 deep guys know what's expected, know what it takes and are carrying the legacy of the Sherrone Moore award winning OLines of the previous three years. As long as we're returning players who practiced and played with Zinter, Keegan, Henderson etc and Coach Moore is still going to have influence on the Oline, it will continue to be a strength of the team.
If so - who's responsible for that - Moore, Harbaugh, a combination?
This hasn't really been addressed yet, but I personally have some concerns about sustaining it. To your question about who's responsible, I'd say Moore first and foremost. I certainly don't think Harbaugh had much to do with it--while he's often had good OLs, the Drevno and Warriner years weren't without struggles. And the rise of the OL to truly elite heights coincided with Moore's move from TE to OL coach. I don't think that's a coincidence at all. Unless a lot of the OL success was due to coaches behind scenes (i.e. grad assistants and analysts), I'd say Moore's coaching was the biggest driver.
Any concerns about it being sustained?
This hasn't really been addressed yet, but I personally have some concerns about sustaining it. So while I feel like Moore has been the biggest factor in the OL success, and yes, Moore is still around, what worries me is his shift away from OL coaching duties. Last year Moore took on full time OC duties in addition to coaching OL, and while the OL was still very good, it was a marked step down from the previous two years. It's such a small sample size that it's tough to know why--it could have just been a function of the players--but my concern is that as we lose Moore's focus on coaching OL, the OL will in turn take a step back. It's actually something we observed with Drevno and that I would term the "Drevno effect." Drevno was a highly regarded OL coach when he came here to be the OC as well as OL coach, and while he cleaned some things up from the disaster he inherited from Funk, his OLs were never great, to the point where Frey was (awkwardly) brought in as a co-OL coach and then the next year Drevno was fired (though to be fair his OC performance had quite a bit to do with that). In trying to figure out why Drevno couldn't recreate his previous successes with our OL, my best guess is that in trying to also be the OC, it drained enough of his time that he couldn't properly coach the OL.
The hope is that Newsome will be a great OL coach like Moore was, but it's always a concern when you replace a highly skilled coach with an unproven one.
Official measurements, some workout data to get baselines and test speed/agility..
QB's letting them throw under measured conditions.
I do think too many are taken based off of good performances at the combine or even pro-day at their school. As we have seen, practice like Tarzan, plays like Jane, or practice all american's. The funny thing is how hard fans defend these or go after a poor drill at the combine as if that is definitive about that player.
The combine simply needs to tell players if you're healthy you'll participate in drills, or we will not welcome you here to just try and get some free interviews in while takiing a spot from a kid who would have actually used the opportunity. Pre-draft is the one time a preventative like this can work as players won't want to fake injuries before signing a deal, for obvious reasons.
Most of those who opted out will be doing the same drills during pro day at their schools. I think not doing anything at the combine is becoming a status thing.
Did the COVID year have an effect? The uptick in the Michigan running game began in 2021 immediately after the COVID year, picked up in 2022 and actually fell back a bit in 2023.
Looking very loosely at the 2021 and 2022 previews on this site, most of the OL was pretty young. The obvious exception was Olu Oluwatimi, who had been at Air Force in 2017 and Virginia from 2018-2021. He'd presumably had a redshirt and a COVID year.
So I'm going to say Harbaugh and staff were more of a factor, but the COVID year did have some effect.
(Also, in retrospect it's really funny to see how depressed the Mgoblog staff was for those 2021 previews. Not that I can blame them after, oh, 2008-2020.)