Combine risers and fallers

After the Combine, what actually matters for success in the NFL and who is it affecting?

Every year, NFL analysts spill an incredible amount of ink, both physical and digital, on the NFL draft. People will literally start prognosticating the next draft the day after the current draft ends. They look at all of the prospects, they look at the situations for the players, and try to figure out who are going to be the top picks in the next year.

I will not say this is insane. I will not say that these people are crazy. I will not say that it is remarkably optimistic for these people to believe that they can see so clearly into the future of a draft class that will see dramatic changes from the initial impressions of a class a year away.

I will not say any of that.

Instead, I will say that very little about draft rankings actually matters until after the NFL combine, because the rankings change so much prior to that event. For the past two years, I have written about combine risers and fallers. Combine risers are players who significantly improve their draft stock due to impressive athletic testing at the combine, or get good news or an all-clear from the medical checks. Fallers are the opposite: players who bombed their athletic testing, or who were measured with arms that are significantly shorter than the norm, or who had medicals come back negative.