Combine has become league's measuring stick

Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman knew the NFL Scouting Combine was an important measurement to determine the potential of his professional career.

He just did not know how literal those measurements would be.

"I remember them measuring how far back my arm stretched," said Freeman, who participated in the 2009 combine before becoming the No. 17 overall draft pick. "They leave no stone unturned."

How quickly players are able to pick up stones might be the only thing not measured when the combine begins Wednesday. It runs through March 2 in Indianapolis.

More than 300 players invited to the NFL's annual job fair will be tested in several individual drills, including the 40-yard dash, bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, three-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle and 60-yard shuttle. There also will be additional drills for individual positions.

"It's going to be like a meat market," said former Connecticut running back Andre Dixon, who will participate in the combine. "You're going to feel like you're the cattle, and they're looking for the biggest cow."

The NFL's analysis of its future herd does not stop there.

Officials will measure the size of a player's hands, wrists and ankles, in addition to height and weight. Players will have to lie down in a Bop Pod, a contraption that looks like a giant egg and calculates body fat. They also will endure interviews with team officials until 11 each night.

Oh, and many of those events are aired on NFL Network and NFL.com.

"One day is the medical day and you really go through, like, six rounds of doctors," Freeman said. "They measure everything. They take your blood. And teams want to know everything about you. They even dig back in your past.

"They consider you an investment and want to find out every possible thing about you."

Although teams are investing in a person, they spend more time during the combine evaluating a prospect's body.

Dennis Hickey, the Bucs' director of college scouting, said his staff will watch countless hours of college film on players before the combine. They use film, not the combine, to determine how good a player is.

The Bucs have 10 picks in the NFL Draft in April, and Hickey said team officials already have met and determined in which round they would potentially select each prospect.

"The No. 1 thing we get out of the combine is medical evaluations," Hickey said. "We get our doctors and medical staff there and we get a chance to see over 300 prospects, get their medical histories, MRIs and get an idea what their medical condition is.

"That's invaluable to our organization because we want to see what type of condition these guys are in and what we're getting when we draft a prospect. That's the primary importance of the combine. ... The most important thing when you're evaluating the guy is the tape."

While Tampa Bay's approach is similar to other teams, ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said the combine can positively or negatively affect a player's draft position.

"The medical is critical because you want to make sure nobody has an injury you didn't know about, but draft changes can be significant with some players," Kiper said. "You can look at tape on these guys, but if the physical attributes don't match up, you're not going to go high on that person. If there is an interview issue and you have a character issue, or intelligence of football issue, you're going to downgrade them.

"The days of saying your board is locked is never the case because you're going to see guys who do very well at the combine, and guys that do very poorly at the combine, and nobody is going to tell me if a guy does very poorly at the combine you don't move them down significantly."

Freeman's stock rose with Tampa Bay not only because of his physical ability, but because he interviewed well.

Most of his evening interviews with teams were spent drawing up coverages and sharing his football knowledge. While some coaches tried to push his buttons to test his composure, Freeman said the hardest part about the combine was fighting boredom.

"One thing you don't expect is when you're doing the physical aspects of it, whether it's running the 40-yard dash or jumping or throwing the football, you wait a long time," Freeman said. "There is a treadmill and a workout room, but a lot of times you feel a little cold going out there because you might run the 40-yard dash, but it might be 45 minutes before you do anything else.

"One thing about the combine is everybody has to do it. It's kind of like a test. It's one of those things you have to do."