Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson’s message to players at the Scouting Combine is, if you can run and jump, you should run and jump.
Grigson said that while he understands some players with injuries won’t work out at the Combine, he questions the competitive of a player who stand there and say, “I choose not to run.”
“If there’s a good valid reason for it then of course you’re not going to say the guy’s soft,” Grigson said. “But if a guy just flat-out crosses his arms and says, ‘I’m not doing it,’ that’s going to turn you off. You want guys to compete in this arena. You want the cream to rise to the top.”
Grigson says that if players want to show they’re freakish athletes, there’s no better place than the Combine to let their freak flags fly.
“Somebody on my staff asked me what I’m going to be looking for,” Grigson said. “One of them is, I want guys to compete. A lot of times the vertical, and all these different drills, people say, ‘I don’t know if that’s going to equate to football.’ I like to see guys get in there and give personal bests, do freakish things. Because that’s something that sticks with you.”
And if you choose not to run, that label may stick with you, too.