NFL combine primer: Position-by-position summaries, players to watch ahead of big week in Indianapolis

The 2024 NFL scouting combine starts next week. Here are the top storylines to watch. (Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports)

The 2023 season and Super Bowl are in the rearview mirror, but the NFL calendar never, ever, ever stops. As the Eye of Sauron of the general NFL fan moves its gaze from Usher and Mecole Hardman’s touchdown in Las Vegas to free agency and the draft, we reach our next checkpoint: the combine.

Next week, the NFL’s personnel follow NBA All-Star Weekend and head to Indianapolis for their de facto convention and annual foray into scouting, interviewing and networking (and way too many pictures on X/Twitter of shrimp cocktails).

I put together an NFL combine primer of where each position group of prospects stacks up and who to keep an eye on as the testing (or opting out) begins in Indianapolis.

2024 NFL Scouting Combine TV/workout schedule

(All times ET on NFL Network)

Thursday, Feb. 29: Defensive line/linebackers, 3 p.m.

Friday, March 1: Defensive backs/tight ends, 3 p.m.

Saturday, March 2: Quarterbacks/wide receivers/running backs, 1 p.m.

Sunday, March 3: Offensive line, 1 p.m.

Quarterbacks

There’s plenty of star power at quarterback in Indy with two former Heisman Trophy winners in USC’s Caleb Williams and LSU’s Jayden Daniels, plus several quarterbacks from College Football Playoff participants and another top-tier prospect in North Carolina’s Drake Maye.

Williams is a strong favorite to be the No. 1 pick — at -1200 with BetMGM; Maye is second favorite at +700 — either by the Chicago Bears or somebody at this point in time, but Maye and Daniels have fans around the league and there’s jockeying at every spot in the hierarchy. How many of the quarterbacks throw or work out in general is anybody’s guess, but the interview and medical processes will still be paramount in helping teams arrange their board at the signal-caller position, with the week in general of the league’s top brass converging in one location bringing clarity (or more…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-02-21 01:56:57

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