The NFL has officially announced major changes to the 2021 NFL Combine. According to a memo sent out by the NFL, the league will not have a centralized combine at Indianapolis this March. Instead, the league will rely on Pro Days, virtual interviews, and limited in-person medical evaluations.
Here are full details from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
“There will be no in-person workouts at the Combine. Instead, any workouts will take place on the individual pro days and college campuses,” the memo in part reads.
It goes on to say the NFL will work with colleges to create consistency for school’s Pro Day workouts and to ensure each team gets video copy of the events, even if the team didn’t attend in person. Medical evaluations will largely happen locally while others will happen in one, central location.
The memo also indicated Steelers’ GM Kevin Colbert made up a special committee to create guidance for what the 2021 Combine will look like.
This is a big shift for one of the NFL’s annual traditions and massive source of information. The Combine afforded the ability for players, coaches, and scouts to all meet in one location for standardized testing, face-to-face interviews, and maybe most importantly, medical testing. Even last year’s draft had full Combine information, the event taking place just weeks before the start of the COVID pandemic.
These obstacles will make the 2021 Draft as challenging as ever. Teams already had limited information throughout the season thanks to college football’s season being heavily disrupted. Without a Combine, their mission of finding the next great NFL talent just got a lot harder.
