I wanted to add something to Nate's post from yesterday on why the NFL combine is useless. It's a similar point to the one that he made, but it's put in a slightly different way, I think.

In the combine, you run all kinds of drills and tests, and you get a physical done, and that's all well and good -- I can see why teams would want to know some of that stuff, and I can especially see why giving prospective players physicals would be key.

The NFL combine doesn't directly apply to football, though. If football was played by performing a series of drills better than the other team, then I could see why it would be useful.

But that's not how it works.

Football teams play football. These men who are taking these tests are doing so because they've been playing football at a high level for years, and want to show that they're good enough to do it professionally. But didn't they already prove that by playing football?

Michael Crabtree has a foot injury that's going to keep him out of the rest of the combine, and according to ESPN, that is supposedly going to make his draft "stock" fall.

Why? Have they never seen him play football? Missing an opportunity to draft an extremely good wide receiver because you don't know how fast he can run 40 yards yet seems colossally stupid to me.

I feel like players should be able to prove their skill and worth through playing football, and shouldn't have to have a certain vertical jump measurement in order to be considered draft material. I've seen Crabtree do amazing things, and though I can see the injury as being a legitimate worry (as in, will he be the same after surgery?), I just don't see why his vertical jump should be more important than this.