For The Win

● By Christian D'Andrea

Accuracy: 7.69%779th Place
The annual scouting combine is a perfectly timed piece of business for the NFL. Any earlier and it might be lost in a Super Bowl hangover. Any later and it steps on the toes of free agency announcements and the breathless roster makeovers across the league. Instead, the tail end of February and beginning of March belong to a week of college stars, clad in spandex and working out to a crowd of millions watching from home. The NFL stokes its own headlines through 40-yard dash times, sound bites from interviews and the vortex of rumors and back-channel chatter that pervades hotel bars in Indianapolis over the course of five nights. This, balanced against the void of no-football, creates space for speculation and overreaction. Anthony Richardson, for example, vaulted up draft boards and into top overall pick territory thanks to the best combine any quarterback has ever had in the history of the NFL. Will Anderson, the uber-productive pass rusher who had 27.5 sacks the last two seasons at Alabama, has become an afterthought after testing out as merely “pretty good” in Indy.

Top Players Not Included

These players appear in the top 31 of our

Consensus Big Board

, but do not show up in this mock.