It’s NFL Combine week, which means an endless series of people tweeting out measurables and statistics without much context. Yes, obviously running a fast 40-yard dash can be a pretty good skill to have, especially for, well, skill positions.
But the Combine takes it to an entirely different level, and we only see the tip of the iceberg, not things like the half dozen MRI tests some prospects have to undergo. Today, hand sizes were released. There’s a world in which something like that, entirely out of a prospect’s control, could reasonably be used as a differentiating factor for a team. If, say, there are two players with 7th round grades, for example, and you have to pick one of them.
When perhaps the most obvious #1 overall pick in recent memory has hands a bit smaller than average for the position, though, it’s probably not something to care about. Such was the case today, as Joe Burrow measured in.
Takes flew in both ironically (because the internet) and unironically (because NFL scouting).
https://twitter.com/toben41/status/1231931840279257088
Joe Burrow, of course, is coming off one of the best seasons in recent college football memory, in which he clearly looked like the best quarterback in the country and one with a skillset that should translate fairly seamlessly to modern NFL offenses, and maybe even what the Bengals run, too.
Burrow took to Twitter to address the seriousness of the situation with the exact amount of gravity it deserved:
Of course, he might end up having to play in Cincinnati, so maybe he shouldn’t be crying wolf about preemptively retiring just yet.
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.