Apart from the reality that the P.R.-driven effort to exclude certain players from the Scouting Combine won’t exclude them from being considered for employment, teams also have concerns about the manner in which players are selected for non-selection to the Scouting Combine.
Supposedly, no player who has been convicted of violence or use of a weapon, domestic violence or sexual offenses will be allowed at the Scouting Combine. As one league source explained it to PFT, however, teams are having a hard time understanding why some players with criminal histories have been blocked from attending the Scouting Combine, but other haven’t.
“There is no consistency,” the source said. “Why some, why not others? . . . It’s subjective.”
It’s also possible that there is consistency, but that the communication between the league and the team regarding the line of demarcation between getting to Indianapolis and being barred has been substandard.
More probable than not, the NFL isn’t being consistent -- or it’s getting its information too slowly. For example, Mississippi quarterback Chad Kelly, who was on the official invitation list as of February 1, has been uninvited.
Implemented in 2016 to bar incoming player from the Scouting Combine, the draft, and all league-related events, the procedures apparently need to be buttoned up. Or maybe the league should let the best players attend regarding of past transgressions, so that NFL teams will have a full, fair, and efficient opportunity for doing what they are going to do anyway: Evaluate the players for potential NFL employment.