Abstract

The NFL combine has been created with the intent of assessing American football players’ physical, cognitive and psychological qualities, in order to understand their future value and on-field performance. The literature showed that American football players’ playing ability is highly correlated with maximal strength and power (both upper and lower body), agility, reactive strength and sprinting performance. Due to abundant literature regarding physical tests, the NFL combine, in author’s opinion, should slightly modify the actual testing battery, implementing new tests such as an isometric mid-tight pull, medicine ball put and drop jump; in the interest of creating a more complete and valid assessment. An upgrade in technology, regarding the jump tests, is also advised to increase tests’ validity and reliability, replacing the Vertec device with an electronic jump mat. However, has been shown that past on-field performance can better detect players’ future NFL performance, while physical tests can only partially predict it. These findings suggest an analysis on how much a single physical assessment event can detect about future NFL career.