Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians is not concerned that the NFL won’t have a Scouting Combine this offseason.
Arians said he enjoys going to the Combine most years, but with the event scrapped this offseason, it won’t significantly affect how the Buccaneers evaluate draft prospects.
“I think for me, it’s always been what’s on tape — now let’s do the background on the person,” Arians said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “You go to the combine, you fall in love with those guys in shorts, they run a 4.3. You look at the film though, they don’t run 4.3 . . . and that guy that ran 4.6, he’s the fastest guy on the field. So the tape don’t lie. You can fall in love and get your heart broken at the Combine.”
Players are still showing their stuff at Pro Days, and there will be a process for players to get medical evaluations that are distributed to all 32 teams. So teams can still get the data they need about 2021 NFL draft prospects. But Arians says the information they really need is on the game tape.