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The NFL Scouting Combine has become a major problem for the league. Participation rates dramatically fell from last year and are substantially down since 2019.
Many have praised the event for producing the fastest times in drills that we’ve ever seen. This is also the result of artificial selection and a lack of participation. Prospects are reluctant to take part in drills when their training suggests a lackluster time is on the table. They prefer to wait until they are on their home turf and put their best foot forward at their pro day, or at least that was a popular refrain from combine week.
It has become difficult to square the fact that prospects take the podium early in the week and call themselves competitors. They promise to put it all on the line for the team that selects them in the NFL Draft. But in the following days they instead opt out of competition. Teams can only assume a lack of participation in drills was intentional and for cause.
ACME Packing Company summarized this shift as well as anyone could:
Over (the main five) drills (460 total drill opportunities for this crop), there was a 37 percent participation rate (168 opportunities actually taken), based on NFL.com’s results page.
Last year, 102 front seven players participated at a 44 percent rate over the same five drills. So 2026 is just another year of continued drop-off for the combine, an 18 percent drop in participation relative to the 2025 rate. From a raw numbers perspective, the front seven defenders did 58 more drills last year than this class did. The drills per player rate dropped from 2.2 in 2025 to just 1.8 in 2026.
The last “pre-Covid” combine was actually in 2020, as the NFL was able to thread the needle before travel restrictions started to hit. That year, there was a 63 percent drill participation rate among front seven defenders.
In a matter of seven years, overall drill participation at the combine has fallen sharply from 63 to 37 percent.
Another frustrating aspect of the combine is that not all prospects get invited. Sometimes players from smaller programs can grab attention at the Senior Bowl or East-West Shrine Bowl and earn an invite. Others miss out on an important opportunity to demonstrate their skillset in front of every franchise.
If the bluechip prospects are going to rest on their laurels, it only makes sense to expand the pool and allow those with something to prove to compete on the most significant pre-draft stage.
Because right now the combine is floundering. It’s good television, of course. However, that is effectively the extent of its impact. The Rams, Jaguars, Bears, 49ers, and others have very limited participation from their top brass between general managers and head coaches (or both). This pool of teams grows each offseason.
While the medical evaluations are paramount—and each franchise sends personnel to the combine to collect data—perhaps the Rams knew the combine was dead before everyone else. Sean McVay and Les Snead stopped attending several years ago. McVay maintains that this allows him time to work with his recently assembled coaching staff and prepare for the rest of the offseason.
Is the combine fixable? Of course, but it requires the NFL (1) admitting there is a problem, (2) expanding the invite list to players who are actually willing to compete, and (3) tailoring the event to NFL decision makers rather than television viewers.
Without a course correction, the combine is on a trajectory to become an afterthought akin to the Pro Bowl. That is not a positive for the pre-draft process or for fans watching from home.