It’s fun, sure — but the actual impact the combine has on the draft process, assuming you’re discussing Madden 24 coins a functional, smart franchise, is really fairly minimal. For teams it’s more often a chance for coaches and front office executives to see prospects up close that the scouting department has already put on their radar. A bad combine outing rarely completely destroys a prospect, nor does a mammoth combine alone create one.
That said, there are opportunities for players to show another side of their game. To bolster those previously written scouting reports and find a team who will fall in love with them. It’s an chance for scouts to say “I told you so” to their directors of college scouting when a player breaks out, or have more questions to answer if someone they’ve been advocating for completely blows it in Indianapolis.
I hate the idea of calling anyone a combine “loser,” because there’s so much that goes into the process, and some players just aren’t great at these standardized tests. A lot of work is put into having players master the 40 yard dash to bolster their combine stock, regardless of how quick they did (or didn’t) look on the field. Despite my misgivings there was one big loser of the combine, and we’ll kick it off there.
The entire “hand size” myth has been thoroughly debunked time and time again, but it’s a fallacy that teams buy into. Teams having bizarre arbitrary measurements for what “proper sized hands” are has unquestionably led to prospects sliding in the draft.
Hell, look at Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater was seen as a lock to be a Top 10 pick for the majority of his final season at Louisville. Hell, he threw for 4,000 yards, completed 71 percent of his passes, tossed 31 TDs and only 4 interceptions. Every sign pointed him to being an absolute stud in the Madden NFL 24. Then the combine rolled along and suddenly everyone freaked out about his 9.25” hands. The entire “small hands” argument reached a fever pitch, and on draft day Bridgewater fell to the 32nd pick, taken after Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel — both of whom flamed out, while Teddy is still starting for Madden NFL 24 teams.
We may never know if Bridgewater’s hands really caused his stock to plummet, but there’s at least a decent chance that it played a role — as dumb as it was.
Enter Kenny Pickett. Pickett isn’t nearly as attractive a prospect as Bridgewater. He had a great season for Pitt, but nobody has been as sold on Pickett as they were on Bridgewater. Now we get to the hand size. Pickett’s hands measured 8.5”, believed to be the smallest of any top QB prospect ... ever.
It’s clear Pickett was aware he was going to suffer the same draft fate as Bridgewater, which is why he didn’t allow his hands to be cheap mut 24 coins measured at the Senior Bowl. Instead, Pickett made an excuse that a double-jointed thumb wouldn’t adequately return an accurate hand measurement, which I’ll give top marks for creativity, if nothing else.
