It didn’t take the completion of my question for ex-Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik to spill his answer on exactly how 2021 is shaping up for the guys filling the positions he did over two decades spent in NFL personnel departments.
“It’s terrible, Albert!” he said, laughing. “I mean, I thought last year was difficult, but we had the combine, which saved everybody on medicals. And I know that they’re still going to do mini-combine medicals, but just the interview process is so, so much more difficult. You think about last year, with the NFLPA game, East-West game, you had all these chances to go meet all these players and spend more time with them.
“The Senior Bowl [this year], it was speed dating—a few nights, 15-minute blocks per club. Now you can basically just Zoom guys, and Zooming is not the way to really meet someone. That’s not ideal. So it’s a very challenging year for every club to try to put together how they’re going to attack the draft, because I think every club needs to look at it different.”
Friday, Dominik’s going to try to be a part of the effort to help fill in the scouting gaps.
EXOS is among the leaders in predraft training for college football’s best, and they have prospective first-rounders like LSU’s Ja'Marr Chase, Miami’s Greg Rousseau, Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman and Alabama's Patrick Surtain II among the 133 players working to get ready in their ranks this year, across facilities in Pensacola, Fla.; Carlsbad, Calif.; Frisco, Texas; and Phoenix. And this week, they’re consolidating those four groups down to two and running their own combine.
The kids at the San Diego–area facility will go to Phoenix, and those in Pensacola will travel to Texas. Dominik will help run the Dallas-area pro day, and former Panthers director of player personnel Don Gregory will help conduct the one in Phoenix. As it stands as of Thursday afternoon, fewer than half of the 133 guys with EXOS are expected to participate in these combine sessions.
But this isn’t about who chooses to go and who doesn’t. It’s about creating an opportunity for kids who’ve had their dreams and plans thrown in a blender over the last 12 months.
“In a normal year, guys would have an opportunity to participate at the combine and then at their pro day,” said Adam Farrand, EXOS’s VP of pro/elite sports. “And so if you get a kid with an injury, not ready to perform at the combine, he’s always got his pro day. This year, that’s gone. So we just want it to be sort of that secondary opportunity for guys. And we have some smaller school kids where our pro day is going to be their pro day.”
So yes, this is a story about what’ll take place in Dallas and Phoenix the next two days. And it’s also the story of what a weird year this has been, in general, for all the players there.
