Photo: USA Today Sports

Outside the NFL Draft itself, there’s no bigger event during draft season than the NFL Scouting Combine. Back in 1982, the Combine was just an attempt to centralize player workouts and get prospects and teams in the same place. Now, just over four decades later, the Combine is a week-long media event. Thousands of fans attend the event. Millions watch the workouts on television.

It’s quite the job interview for the players in attendance. In front of scouts and coaches from all 32 teams (and a nation of fans watching from home), players are measured, interviewed and put through the paces in a number or workouts. Speed, agility, and athleticism are all tested. Players are interviewed. Poked. Prodded. Pressed.

But here’s the thing about the combine—fans tend to put more stock in Combine workouts than they should. Sometimes NFL teams follow suit.

The last 40 years are littered with players who blew up the Combine only to go on to eminently forgettable pro careers. Mike Mamula was one of the first players to ever train specifically for the combine, and he parlayed that into being a first-round pick in 1995. In five pro seasons, he posted 206 total tackles. There have also been plenty of players who fell flat in Indianapolis who went on to make Pro Bowls and star in the NFL.

It's a similar story in fantasy football. Sure, it’s fun to watch a youngster peel off a blazing 40 time or shine in the three-cone drill. But it doesn’t guarantee fantasy stardom any more than a bad workout dooms them to an eternity of fantasy irrelevance—especially since we don’t know where these players will open their careers.

However, while the Combine might not be the end-all, be-all, the happenings at Indy this past week shouldn’t be ignored, either. Some defensive players helped their draft stock this year and others wish they could have a do-over on the workouts.

In both cases, scouts will be headed back to view the tape on those players once again. But in the meantime, we can at least highlight the biggest IDP winners and losers of the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.

WINNER: EDGE Adetomiwa Adebawore, Northwestern

Adebawore has been on a roll since the start of draft season, and after impressing in workouts at Senior Bowl practices, Adebawore took the show on the round to Indianapolis. As Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz wrote for USA Today, Adebawore was every bit as impressive at the Combine as he was in Mobile.

“If not for Nolan Smith,” he said, “Adebawore likely would have been the talk of the first two days of the combine. Following up a strong Senior Bowl week, the 6-foot-2, 282-pounder astounded observers with a 4.49-second 40-yard dash as well as a 37 ½” inch vertical and 10’5” broad jump. Those marks all bested the numbers posted last year by Georgia edge rusher and eventual No. 1 pick Travon Walker, who had one of the best Combine performances by a defensive lineman in recent history. Adebawore's ascent won't take him to the same heights as Walker, but there's little question his stock is on a rapid rise.”

Adebawore only had five sacks last season for the Wildcats, and he’s still most likely a Day 2 pick in this year’s draft. But that sort of speed and athleticism at that size no doubt caught the attention of more than a few NFL teams.

LOSER: EDGE Andre Carter II, Army

Andre Carter II needs a hug.

Earlier in the pre-draft process, it appeared that Carter might be the first first-round pick to hail from West Point since 1947. And he’ll still be the first Army player drafted in 15 years. But since piling up 18 sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss over the last two seasons for the Black Knights, it’s been a downhill slide ever since.

First, Carter looked pedestrian in workouts at the Senior Bowl, struggling against higher-end competition. Then, as Bill Bender wrote for the Sporting News, Carter’s struggles continued in Indianapolis.

“Carter, a 6-foot-6, 256-pound edge from Army, did not run the 40-yard dash,” Bender said. “He saw his sack total drop from 14.5 in 2021 to 3.5 in 2022. Carter had a 9-1 broad jump and put up 11 reps in the bench press, the lowest marks among his position group. On a day when several edge rushers flashed, Carter might have slipped down the board.”

Carter’s a smart, physical player who looked the part of a first-round pick back in 2021. But since the season ended, he has looked limited athletically—and it’s hard to be a difference-maker off the edge with those sorts of limitations.

WINNER: DT Bryan Bresee, Clemson

Draft season is more important for some players than others. Bresee is an example of the type of player who stands to benefit the most from workouts. A former five-star recruit, Bresee’s collegiate career was a disappointment—he tore his ACL as a sophomore and also had to deal with the death of his 15-year-old sister. But Bresee was healthy and focused at the combine, and after watching his workout, Charles Davis of the NFL Network said he expects Bresee to be an excellent NFL player.

“Bryan Bresee is on his way back,” Davis said. “That’s the young man we saw come to Clemson and is starting to make his way back to being 100 (percent healthy) again.”

Bresee was one of the stars of the defensive line workouts, running a 4.86-second 40 at 298 pounds with a 1.71-second 10-yard split. He also showed a quick first step and plus agility in position drills.

Add it all together, and you have a player working his way into the first round of some post-Combine mock drafts—and a guy with the length to play end on an off-front and three-technique in even fronts.