The 2023 NFL Combine is coming! The 2023 NFL Combine is coming!
It's like Daniel Jeremiah is riding through the streets of Boston announcing the arrival of the Draft Red Coats or something like that. Okay, in all seriousness, the Combine returned last year to Indy after a one year absence due to COVID and the re-arrival was glorious. In a matter of hours, NFL team personnel, decision makers, prospects and media will descend on Indianapolis, Indiana, the home of the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.
It's one of my favorite weeks of the year to reconnect with friends and colleagues around the league, but y'all know me, right? It's about the prospects. So, here are 10 prospects I'm most excited to see perform, interview, compete and dominate the Combine…in no particular order.
1. Tennessee WR Jalin Hyatt
I want to see that 40-time. He's legit, Will Fuller fast and when he hits 4.34 or faster on the stopwatch, I just want to hear my guy, the aforementioned Daniel Jeremiah say "that'll do."
2. Cincinnati WR Tyler Scott
See Hyatt above. Dude flies and he averaged over 20 yards per catch in his career.
3. Texas A&M RB/Weapon X Devon Achane
See both Hyatt and Scott. Achane has run 10.04 in the 100-meters in his lifetime and he might be the FASTEST player in this Draft class.
4. Alabama QB Bryce Young
When the announcement of his height happens, it'll break the internet.
5. Georgia TE Darnell Washington
What are his actual true dimensions? He's a freakin' unicorn at 6-7, 265 and he looks even bigger on tape.
6. Michigan DT Mazi Smith
He could put on an all-around show. He was the No. 1 Freak on Bruce Feldman's annual Freaks List for 2022. He's just an amazing specimen with movement skills of some safeties and torque strength of some of the World's Strongest Men competitors.
7. Ohio State OT Dawand Jones
I don't know that I've seen a larger football player in my life. Ever. He measured at 6-8 ⅛ and 375 lbs at the Senior Bowl and let me assure you he was not fat at all. I just marvel seeing how large he is and how much more improved he is over 2021. He could find his way into the first round. He's currently top 40 in the Harris 100.
8. Princeton WR Andrei Iosivas
He's one of the most versatile athletes in this draft class and he's repping for ALL of us fellow Ivy Leaguers. What truly puts him in this category, though, is his incredible, unmatched diverse athleticism. Case in point, he finished fourth in the 2021 NCAA Track and field championships in the heptathlon. He ran the fastest 60 meters in heptathlon history. He has also benched 370 lbs, posted a vertical of 39 inches and projects to run somewhere in the high 4.2s/low 4.3s. Fast, athletic AND smart, just like all of us Ivy Leaguers (winking eye emoji).
9. Northwestern DL Adetomiwa Adebawore
At a shade under 6-2 and 284 lbs, he doesn't fit any NFL team's position thresholds but after his Senior Bowl performance, combined with what he'll do at the Combine, he'll be the "exception to the rule." He could dominate this Combine completely, in all facets.
10. The Cornerbacks
I'm enamored with this group of CBs and the overall testing will just put more of a spotlight on that position throughout the week. This year, though, the CBs will get early acclaim as they'll arrive, interview and test first, as opposed to previous years when they were last on the docket. I can't wait to see these super-studs test and compete. It's going to be one 6-1+, 200-pound, 4.4 dude after another. Even the short-er types will test through the roof (see TCU Tre'Vius Hodges-Tomlinson, for example).
The 2023 NFL Scouting Combine runs from Feb. 27 to March 6.
