The Arizona Cardinals and the rest of the league are at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. It is a huge audition for the NFL with medical exams, interviews, measurements and athletic testing.
Fans and analysts get super excited about the workouts, the 40 times, the number of reps players can do in the bench press and more.
The Cardinals like to see great athletic testing numbers, but the workouts don’t actually make the top of the list as to what is important at the combine.
New general manager Monti Ossenfort explained the two most important parts of the combine for the Cardinals.
“For us, the most important thing that we get out of this week is the medical evaluations — the players being here and having our doctors and having our trainers getting a chance to examine the players and just finding out where they are physically,” he explained.
The physical workouts don’t even make the No. 2 spot of importance.
“The second most important thing that I get out of this is the face-to-face time when we interview with the players,” he continued. ‘That’s been great…Those have been great and we get a lot out of those meetings and we’ll continue to work through those weeks. The workouts are important as well, but I’d put the medical and interviews above the on-field workouts.”
The Cardinals already have game film and can see some of the athleticism on that. Players will also have their pro days as well, so there will be workouts then.
But the combine is the one place they get access to their medical records and have their physicians check them out and it is the one place where, in mass, they can speak to many, many prospects.
Yes, they get excited by great workouts like the rest of us, but that isn’t close to what is at the top of the list of importance.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
