Random NFL Combine Notes: Day One

I was at Browns general manager Andrew Berry’s press conference when I looked behind me to see a familiar face: a scout for the Bills I’ve known for years.  We shook hands and I was surprised to see him there.  He was deeply interested in what Berry had to say and remarked that the Browns general manager is very smart.  Berry is a Harvard graduate whose career began with the Colts, so his perspective is worth listening to.

This is the first time I’ve covered the Combine since 2009 when I was in college.  During those years, the media room for the Combine was located at the Huntington Bank suite in Lucas Oil Stadium.  With the growth of the combine has come the growth of credentialed media and with it a new location for the media center: a big room on the second floor of the Indiana Convention Center.  It is a huge room filled with hundreds of chairs and tables, which is a huge expansion for the Combine from many years ago.

It’s a long walk from the media room to Hall J, where all the press conferences with NFL head coaches and general managers are held.  One of the challenges is staying in Hall J for a while before returning to the media room to write just because it was such a long walk.

It seems to me the combine has more value for what happens outside of Lucas Oil Stadium than inside Lucas Oil Stadium.  A common theme during the press conferences with head coaches and general managers was why the combine was important.  Their reasons had less to do with the on-the-field workouts taking place in the next few days compared with the value of the interview process late in the evenings.  Teams genuinely want to gauge each player’s personality, as well as get a good read on their intellect and knowledge of the game