INDIANAPOLIS — As the NFL scouting combine wrapped Sunday afternoon, league coaches, executives and scouts traveled home with notebooks full of 40-yard dash times and drill results, physical measurements and medical evaluations.
As notably, they traveled home with dossiers of new opinions combed from a deep docket of prospect interviews and information exchanges in the hallways of Indianapolis’ convention center and hotels.
chof360 Sports collected some of these opinions rippling through combine hallways, gauging how talent evaluators’ opinions on top prospects shifted over the course of the week. Here are five takeaways from those conversations.
1. Mixed opinions on how close Shedeur Sanders is to Cam Ward
Talent evaluators generally agreed: The Colorado quarterback expected to go high in the first round is talented, accurate, a sharp thrower and an adept processor. But the extent to which they weighed Shedeur Sanders’ readiness against that of Miami quarterback Cam Ward varied.
One NFC executive far preferred Ward’s personality and “phenomenal leadership,” impressed by the consistency of his approach across college stints at Incarnate Word, Washington State and Miami. Ward has “got some little thing he’s going to have to refine,” the executive said, “but he has the character and personality to do it.” That executive didn’t prefer Sanders’ approach.
An NFC assistant coach from another team disagreed. The assistant found Ward “very physically intriguing” and believed both top QBs are “legitimate QB1 options.” The assistant believed Sanders’ personality would be infectious, his pocket presence and mechanics looking “kind of [Tom] Brady-esque.”
“He’s tough as nails,” the assistant told chof360 Sports. “I think players will buy into the swag, the confidence. He knows his limitations and he plays to his strengths: his pocket presence, awareness, toughness to hang in there.”
Medical tests during combine week revealed that Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter was battling a stress reaction in his right foot. While surgery was initially considered an option, doctors had confirmed by Thursday that Carter would not need surgery and is on track to work out at Penn State’s March 28 pro day.
Will the medical setback impact the draft stock of Carter, who was projected as the second overall pick in chof360 Sports’ most recent mock draft? An AFC talent evaluator said that they’d want to know more information about the expected long-term impact, but if Carter is expected to recover fully, he shouldn’t fall at all. Why?
“[Top-drafting teams] are in a position that [they’re] not going to be very good — so you can start him slowly,” the evaluator told chof360 Sports. “I don't think it's going to affect him because he can start on [an injury list] for [a top draft team] because [they’re] not going to win games in September anyway. And if he falls because of the medical, then [a later-drafting team] is going to be good without him anyway.”
Put another way: Teams aren’t drafting prospects on the basis of what they can do in the first four weeks. They’re projecting what they can do over four-plus years.
3. Travis Hunter: WR, DB or both?
Colorado receiver and defensive back Travis Hunter’s reception by the NFL community is fascinating. Evaluators offered a wide range of visions for his NFL usage, discrepancies resulting from prospect evaluation, team needs and roster-building philosophies. Some talent evaluators believed that in order to justify Hunter’s high draft slot, he needed to play at least some role on both sides of the ball given his generational status stems from his versatility rather than his pure projection at one position.
Others disagreed, believing he could be elite at each position. Overwhelmingly, though, evaluators who spoke to chof360 Sports do not believe he could be a full-time two-way player due to the game-planning and film-study demands of the pro level, especially at receiver.
“If he plays one, I want him to play receiver,” an AFC talent evaluator said. “If he plays both, he has to play corner [because] you can't play receiver and have a package on defense but you can play defense and have a package on offense. So if you intend to utilize him to the fullest extent, he's either going to be your No. 1 receiver or he's going to be your corner that has packages. But now I think the argument too can be made that he's not a No. 1 receiver — he’s a No. 2 receiver.”
A second AFC talent evaluator believed Hunter should be trained full-time at corner and part-time at receiver, initially given the offensive responsibility level of a No. 4 wide receiver with limited snaps. The evaluator envisioned graduating Hunter into more advanced offensive opportunities if he mastered the initial ask atop his defensive responsibilities. An NFC executive explained further why the duality would need to tilt offensively.
“On offense, it's OK to be that one thing predictable because you're offense, you're dictating the ball anyway,” the executive told chof360 Sports. “But if I need him at receiver, I'm not playing him on defense.
“He's extremely talented. It’s rare. I've never seen somebody be so good at both positions.”
4. RB market might be less straightforward than you think
Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty is projected to go 20th overall in chof360 Sports’ latest mock draft, compared to North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton going 29th. But two talent evaluators who spoke to chof360 Sports weren’t sold on drafting Jeanty before Hampton.
Neither doubted Jeanty’s ability to star, an AFC evaluator praising his explosiveness and rare contact balance. But Hampton reminded the NFC evaluator of Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb.
“It’s beautiful watching him,” the evaluator said of Hampton. “His running style. His tenacity. For as big as he is, the way that he moves, he’s more nimble than Jeanty.”
An AFC evaluator didn’t believe Jeanty or Hampton was a clear-cut stronger prospect relative to the other, instead “tied for me because it’s just — what flavor do you want?” Coaching staff vision would dictate draft strategy, the evaluator said.
Some believed Jeanty’s power would help in short-yardage situations while others question his size (5-foot-8 ½, 211 pounds) and ball security. The AFC evaluator said teams would need to think carefully about whether Hampton’s size advantage (6-0, 221 pounds) actually equated to a significant power advantage. Size isn’t everything — so the evaluator had a soft spot for Georgia running back Trevor Etienne’s skill set even if his size (5-9, 198-pound frame) and production leave questions.
“I think that Trevor Etienne is the most talented,” the evaluator said. “His skill set, with his vision, his instincts, his explosiveness, his pass-catching, his pass pro[tection]. His problem is he's small. But I think he has the best overall well-rounded skill set.”
5. A QB not named Ward or Sanders worth keeping an eye on
Alabama prospect Jalen Milroe strikes evaluators as a low-floor, high-ceiling prospect at quarterback — and just a high-ceiling prospect as an athlete. Evaluators are navigating how to weigh a bucket of traits that they view as “a first-round athlete” with raw, inconsistent passing. One high-ranking NFC executive said that as a quarterback alone, he’d grade Milroe as a late third- to fourth-round prospect. With all of his assets considered, evaluators’ combine week projections range more realistically from late first round to late second round. The historical precedent guiding those projections: the Baltimore Ravens drafting Lamar Jackson at 32 and the Philadelphia Eagles drafting Jalen Hurts at 53.
An NFC assistant coach who described Milroe as “so intriguing physically” wasn’t as worried about a floor, because “at worst, he’s Taysom Hill on steroids.” A high-ranking NFC executive considered Milroe to be more athletically gifted than Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, whom the Indianapolis Colts drafted fourth overall in 2023.
The executive said they’d want to strike a deal with Milroe: If you commit to helping in other parts of the game initially, we’ll commit to developing you as a quarterback. Let Milroe contribute 12 snaps in a game in offensive packages and/or special teams, the executive said, and they’d be comfortable spending a late first- or early second-round pick.
Patience and a passing development plan will be crucial to maximizing the investment.
“It's just like, if you're cooking a certain meal, you can't rush it,” the executive said. “Too many times people are like, ‘I know I'm supposed to make this at 350 [degrees], but I'm turning it up to 450.’”
