2019 NFL Draft: 3 players affected by new Scouting Combine rules
The NFL has finally implemented some long overdue rules for specific players at the Scouting Combine ahead of the 2019 NFL Draft.
The 2019 NFL Draft, like every single one before it, includes a number of players with unconventional paths to their NFL dream and also players who have made some poor decisions in the past.
The players who have made poor decisions in the past are often prevented from participating in the Scouting Combine completely, from the interview process to the on-field drills and everything in between.
That seems like a fitting punishment for guys who have been arrested in the past or done things that would have gotten them suspended for a long time in the NFL while they were in college, but the NFL really hasn’t been doing themselves any favors by not allowing those guys to the Combine whatsoever.
The Scouting Combine is as much about the interview process with players as it is watching these guys run and jump around on the field.
If players with a checkered past can’t be interviewed by teams at the Scouting Combine, there’s a significant piece of their personal evaluation missing. Teams may not have these guys to their facilities before the NFL Draft, and then all of a sudden they see a guy with a first or second round grade on the board in the fourth round, and what are they going to do?
They don’t know the player personally because he wasn’t allowed at the Scouting Combine and they didn’t bring him to the facility for one of their top 30 interviews.
Even worse, teams might take these kids off of their draft board completely without getting a chance to know them, and you never know how a guy has changed since whatever incident they were part of in college or even in high school.
Now, the NFL is simply preventing these players from taking place in the Combine workouts and on-field drills, but allowing them to be part of the interview and medical process.
The @NFL sent a memo to GMs and coaches informing them LA Tech DE Jaylon Ferguson, MSU DT Jeffery Simmons, and CSU WR Preston Williams will be permitted to travel to Indy to undergo the same comprehensive medical evaluations given to invited prospects at the NFL Scouting Combine.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 15, 2019
This is a major development and could alter — in a significant way — the way teams approach players with character or injury concerns in the future.
Here are the three players affected by this major rule change from the NFL starting in the 2019 class.