There's a lot of things about the NFL Combine that have been long overdue for a change, and there's nothing you can do to convince me (and a lot of others) otherwise.
So much stock is put into the numbers on the bench press, a player's 40-time, or a quarterback's hand measurements that the game tape tends to get lost in the discussion
As fun as it is to see and talk about someone running a 4.20 40-yard dash, while we can all agree that is fast, should running really fast in a straight line really carry the type of significance that scouts and NFL Draft prognosticators give it annually?
The clear answer is of course not, but like so many other things, stuff like the 40 at the combine is a product of what NFL scouts and evaluators have become all-too-comfortable with, so why rock the boat?
Well with college programs investing in GPS data to provide feedback in-game and in-practices, we could be nearing the end of the relevance of the 40-yard dash.
That 40-time data can now easily be supplanted with in-game data from the on-person GPS device that can relay information from in-game conditions and provide years of data in a variety of different areas like top speeds for further context.
The value of having that data vs. a few 40-yard dash times seems like an absolute no-brainer to make roster and draft decisions, right?
Daniel Jeremiah, an analyst for NFL Network, believes we could be 2-3 years away from personnel departments not valuing those 40 times at all, and instead going to the in-game data provided by the GPS units.
I couldn't agree more, and this change could be the welcomed start of a technology revolution that could take over the combine process that disrupts things in the best possible way.