The Giants.com crew previews the week ahead at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
John Schmeelk: I’m sure someone here will want to talk about the quarterback class, but that is the last thing on my mind as I board a flight for Indianapolis. I don’t get a whole lot out of quarterbacks throwing to unfamiliar receivers other than seeing how the ball comes out of their hands as they throw back to back.
I am interested in the data we get out of Indianapolis. It is a data collection event where you can get player measurement and testing. With that, we can compare players at the same position to one another working out in the same exact field conditions.
With measurements, the arm length for some of the offensive linemen will be critical. The top three offensive linemen in this draft (Will Campbell, Kelvin Banks, Josh Simmons) have not been measured yet, and there’s a lot of curiosity if any of them (especially Campbell and Banks) will measure longer than 33.5-inch arms. If they are closer to or under 33 inches, those players may have to move into guard.
In terms of the importance of some of the testing, this is not the most dynamic class at wide receiver and cornerback, which should give players at those positions a chance to separate themselves with really strong athletic testing. The 40-yard dash will be essential for wide receivers as everyone tries to figure out how the receivers will go off the board after Tet McMillan.
The consensus top cornerback in the draft, Will Johnson, has questions about his speed. How will he run? Will he run? After Johnson, there might not be another cornerback taken in the top 20 and what order the next group goes in could be in large part determined by athletic testing at the position.
Finally, the strength of this class is up front at defensive tackle and edge. Dane Brugler has 17 edge players in his top 100 and 13 defensive tackles. That means in the first three rounds of the draft, nearly a third could be players on the defensive front. As teams decide how to stack their board, how players jump, run and show their agility in the three cone drills could move players a few spots in the stacks at this specific positions.
The Combine will give us one more piece of information to pair with the film work from the regular season and what we saw at the All-Star games to finalize our opinions of these players. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into all of it.