The Reality Of Pro Day

Now that NFL pro days are in full swing across the nation, I thought it would be a perfect time to address why these guys put up better numbers at their own universities — away from the spotlight of the NFL Combine.

No Pressure

 Think about it.

Working out at your own school is a far cry from the bright lights of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The pressure to perform is still there, but the weight of the world isn’t.

There are no NFL Network cameras, no Deion Sanders and no unfamiliar faces lining up with you to run a 40-yard dash who might determine the rest of your young life. Run fast and you’re in the league. Run slow and you’ll be on Monster.com looking for a job.

Your legs feel like bricks in Indy. The stiffness sets in after your first 40, and as I detailed in my Combine series last month, it’s the most agonizing weekend of an NFL hopeful’s career.

At your school, you get dressed in your own locker room, warm up with your own strength coach and wake up the morning of your workout in your own bed. Your head coach is there. Your position coach and some of your teammates -- your best friends on campus, the guys you drink beer with at sorority parties — are right there with you, too.

For some, it can seem like just another practice — as it did for me at Iowa — and you find yourself cranking out times that are better than you ever expected.

Yes, there are plenty of coaches, scouts and front office types from around the league watching your every move, just as they were in Indy, but this is your home turf.

And that helps you perform your best.

The Track

By now, everyone knows the “track” you run on in Indy is slower than the campus tracks across the country.

At Penn State, legend has it that the field the Lions run on has a gradual decline that allows players to bust out unbelievable times. At Ohio State, a rubber track is placed on top of the turf to increase the speed of the players.

At Iowa — before the rage of field turf took over the nation — we had an indoor practice facility covered by what’s known around Iowa City as the “bubble.” Prior to my senior season at Iowa, a tornado touched down north of town, and the “bubble” blew down the street.

The result: months of rain, sun and early snow beating down on the AstroTurf field. By the time spring rolled around (and the bubble was replaced), the turf had become one of the fastest tracks around. So I could stand on my Combine time of 4.48 or run at Iowa on my pro day.

Looking at the track in front of me, the question was easy to answer.

I ran in the low 4.4’s. Some even had me at a 4.39.

NFL scouts — the good ones — stand by their own times and their own stopwatches from the Combine, but they still like it when they see a prospect run faster, no matter what the track is like.

The Results

Most guys stand on their Combine times, except for the 40.

The 40 was the only drill I did after the Combine, as I stood on the rest of my numbers. And most guys do the same because they know the scouts take those numbers into consideration more than the pro day times.

I did defensive back drills with position coaches and ran through some type of obstacle course by the Giants that resembled grade school recess. The Rams, who ended up drafting me, didn’t put me through any drills.

But most of these scouts and coaches still rely on the drills and numbers from the Combine.

The Combine provides them with an opportunity to see a player in the most stressful and pressure-packed situation, and they expect you to perform. But the pro day gives them a chance to see a prospect one more time. No scout wants to have buyer’s remorse after drafting a player, so they do their homework and take these pro days for what they are — another chance to judge these young men.

But don’t read too much into pro days because most scouts will keep their own numbers from Indy, and if you’re a late-round guy like I was, there’s no guarantee that every team will be represented at your pro day.

Yes, Matthew Stafford had all 32 teams in Athens, Ga., on Thursday, but for the rest of us, the Combine provides an opportunity to shine in front of however many scouts are there.

The pro day just allows you to run faster.

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