McGrath
At the meat market that is the NFL Combine, one test stands alone as the most important of them all: The Wonderlic test. Sure, it sounds more like an advanced lesson taught at the Playboy mansion, but to NFL scouts the scantron evaluation is more serious than a particularly aggressive staph infection.
The Wonderlic is a 12-minute, 50-question test that assesses an athlete's brain power. It is scored on a scale of one point per question, just like the original Family Fued board game with the irresistibly kissable — or so I'm told — Richard Dawson on the cover.
Last year, Vince Young infamously scored a six on the glorified IQ test. He apparently missed some questions like: What is the last team you'd want to be drafted by (Oakland), and if you should model your career after one quarterback, who would you choose? (Young wrote in Ryan Leaf.)
Now sure, it looks like Young was a sound choice now, but wait a little while. When he starts getting confused about which team is his, like color-blind Vinny Testaverde in his Tampa Bay days — who wasn't color-blind when watching those highlighter-orange uniforms in action, though?
The Wonderlic first of all helps sort out the guys who actually went to class and the guys who had other students and aides do all their schoolwork for them. This is essential, because anyone who has ever seen "Little Giants" knows that if you want to be successful in football you need to know about the Annexation of Puerto Rico.
It also clearly displays a player's aptitude to perform and perform well on Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune when NFL celebrity week rolls around, a date circled on every GM's calendar in the same color marker as the Draft itself.
That is why the Wonderlic is more than just a perversely named test, but an NFL scouts greatest evaluation ally.
Point: Wonderlic.
Poppy
As players hope to improve their draft stock at the NFL combine this week, there's one drill next year's rookies should pay the most attention to. Forty-yard dashes and bench press marks can mean the difference between the first and second round, but scouts know it's all about the 20- and 60-yard shuttle times.
Sure, the shuttle tests true football speed as it is a solid barometer of speed, explosion and change of direction, but it's the most underrated combine test for a completely different reason.
Simply put, the shuttle tests are a representation of what one has learned in life.
Remember in elementary school physical education class when gym teachers gave the President's Challenge? That Joe Schmoe who always wore a pit-stained T-shirt and a whistle would mark your progression from the start of the semester to the end and then rank it against the top marks in the nation. In grade school, you always wanted to be the best, and the shuttle run always turned out to be the most important test for some reason. That little wooden block just gave it that extra zeal.
Decades later, the shuttle run is still important. I know if I were drafting a team, I would solely look at those marks — and not only for speed purposes. If a player is good at the shuttle run, it tells me something: He was a good student and paid attention.
I don't want to draft someone who isn't as good in the shuttle run as maybe some of the other events. That only means that player was probably a punk in elementary school, putzing around with the climbing rope or smacking some kid with a lacrosse stick.
In fact, the shuttle run almost goes hand in hand with The Wonderlic — at least Vince Young would be able to score higher than a reported 6 on this test.
