The Canadian Football League Combine has arrived in Edmonton, giving prospects from across the country a chance to showcase their skills in front of all nine teams and improve their standing ahead of the draft.<\/p>\n
But not everyone is sold on how much the testing actually reveals.<\/p>\n
Former Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant believes some of the most talked-about drills, particularly the 40-yard dash, are overrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the bench press and all the drills at the Combine, I think they\u2019re overrated, especially the 40,\u201d Durant said. \u201cSo many people put such emphasis on it, but the only guys coming out of a three-point stance are linemen. For skill players, I don\u2019t know how much value that really gives you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Durant says teams should be focusing on explosiveness and short-area quickness, traits that translate more directly to football.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to know if a guy can play ball,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s his burst like? I put more emphasis on the short shuttle, the broad jump, the vertical, things where you can see how explosive a player is and how quickly he can move from a standstill.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Durant had his way, the evaluation process would look very different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a football Combine, so you want to see guys play football,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s going to look good in shorts and run fast. I want to see more one-on-ones, more real football situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Durant acknowledged why that likely won\u2019t happen, especially with so much at stake for top prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s too much risk of injury, hamstrings, groins, things like that,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I lean more on film. I want to see what you do in pads. Can you still run fast carrying that extra weight? What kind of burst do you have then?\u201d<\/p>\n
As prospects take the field in Edmonton this week, the numbers will draw attention, but as Durant points out, they may not tell the full story.<\/p>\n
AND that\u2019s between the lines for Sheppard Realty in Regina. Specializing in farm and ranch real estate in Saskatchewan. Call Harry, Justin or Devan at 352-1866.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian Football League Combine has arrived in Edmonton, giving prospects from across the country a chance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,217898,82],"class_list":["post-565079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cfldarian-durantcfl-combinebetween-the-lines","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}