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NFL considering changes to scouting combine drills

Brian Spurlock / USA TODAY Sports

The 40-yard dash could soon be a thing of the past. 

Speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston on Friday, NFL director of player development Matt Birk and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton revealed the league plans to re-evaluate the usefulness of traditional scouting combine drills to determine if they can be improved. 

"That’s a project we’ll be working on this offseason," Birk said, ESPN's Mike Rodak reports. "Once we look at the data that was gathered in-game this year, it may be important to know how fast a wide receiver or defensive back can go 60 yards. Maybe for an offensive lineman it’s only 20 yards. We can actually see that in-game: How far are these guys running? What are the real or improved measures of importance and value as it relates to evaluating players and whether or not they should be drafted in the first round or the sixth round?"

It's hard to make a case for the usefulness of some current combine drills. For example, while broad jump can demonstrate a player's explosiveness, when would an offensive lineman ever jump forward from a stationary position during a game?

Payton mentioned the possibility of position-specific changes to some drills to better identify the traits scouts look for. 

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