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It’s about the video, not the workouts

General Manager Steve Keim mentioned yesterday about the fine line evaluating players and, more specifically, not wanting to overevaluate them. With so much time between the end of the season and the draft, that is a concern.

But both he and coach Bruce Arians agree it is the play on the college football field above all else that should be driving these player grades.

“I don’t grade anybody down at the (Scouting) combine,” Arians said. “The tape doesn’t lie. If a guy plays football fast and doesn’t run fast at the combine, that means he carries his pads pretty well. … I don’t believe in working out in shorts because the game is not played in shorts.”

Keim, not surprisingly, referred back to Anquan Boldin — he of the relatively slow 40 time when he was at the combine in 2003 (the 4.7 range) — and yet became a Pro Bowl receiver from his first game in the NFL.

“As much as combine numbers mean to you, and sometimes our guys will get enamored with a guy who ran a (tremendous) 6.55 three-cone, you have to remind them, unfortunately, at 1 o’clock on Sunday, we don’t get to run a three-cone drill,” Keim said, adding that the evaluator has to ask, “What are his compensating abilities” for whatever shortcomings he might have.

That doesn’t mean someone with an impressive combine gets thrown out, even if his stats weren’t great in college. Again, the evaluation is about what the team sees on video. Production counts but it isn’t the whole picture. The player had to have shown something in real games. It sounds simple. But every team doesn’t always adhere to it.

– Really good read from Josh Weinfuss collecting an oral history of various Cardinals players from their time around the draft.

– Safety James Sanders, who wasn’t going to return this year after his one year on the Cardinals, has been suspended the first four games of the NFL season.

– And with that, I am headed to this evening’s Tweetup with SI’s Peter King, Arians, Keim and a host of players downtown at Tom’s Tavern as we raise funds for a Tillman Foundation scholarship. Tomorrow, I’ll be running in Pat’s Run at ASU. Hope to see some of you.

Potential new NFL calendar floated

The NFL is reportedly talking about changing the offseason calendar, which is an interesting concept, to say the least. The theory goes that the Scouting combine would be moved from February to March, free agency from March to April and the draft from April to May. The idea, according to ESPN, is to make the league more relevant through the calendar year. There has been more and more talk about the regional combines and the role they could play going into the main combine, which would be helped by a shift in timing.

How could that play out? The collective bargaining agreement is pretty set in stone for timing, and organizing a new offseason schedule that would fit with the new dates wouldn’t be a simple process (the NFL Players Association would have to sign off on any new timeline.) The hardest part to fathom is how the players would get a chunk of time off before training camp (which, in the plan, would begin on the same day for every team — again, making for an change for the teams playing in the Hall of Fame game, since they have always started earlier.)

Yesterday, Bruce Arians was lamenting how long he has to wait to talk football with his players and I’d assume moving the calendar back would delay that even more, since you need free agency at least to be underway you can get the offseason program started. Let the debate begin.

Thoughts on Beanie and Ryan Williams

Both Steve Keim and Bruce Arians talked about the Cardinals’ top two running backs today. As you can imagine, injuries were at the center of their analysis with both Beanie Wells and Ryan Williams.

“I think Beanie had a tough stretch this year because of the injuries,” Keim said. “He showed a lot of grit, a lot of toughness late in the year when he was able to. Some of the lower extremity injuries, his ankles, his knees, his feet, he’s had a tough time with his cut ability and his lateral movement. But Beanie is still a big horse who can finish runs and create yardage after contact, which is something that excites us.”

Arians didn’t get around to Wells, and it would still seem that Beanie’s future — even though his salary is a manageable $1.4 million this season (assuming he is a main back) — is up in the air. He still remains a work-in-progress as a pass protector, and that is a prerequisite for Arians. As for Williams, there is something to work with — as long as he can get on the field. Keim spoke generally a couple of times about availability being as important as ability and that certainly applies to the 2011 second-round pick.

“Ryan has to stay healthy,” Arians said. “I actually ran the (Virginia Tech) Pro Day there when all those guys came out and he was a fantastic athlete. He has to get healthy and we’ll see how he fits. But as a running back, he’s got what it takes.”

Keim said he has seen Williams rehabbing and sounded optimistic about what the Cards could have.

“He’s a guy that, watching film with Bruce, because he got injured early in the season, you forgot the type of run skills Ryan had,” Keim said. “We watched him against Philadelphia, we watched him against New England, his lateral quickness, his natural run skills, his avoidability is something he brings to the table. Plus he’s a three-down back. We’re expecting big things out of Ryan moving forward.”

Here in Indy, the combine (with chats) to start

So I have arrived at the Scouting combine for another year (that’s 13, if anyone is counting) to the chilly weather — it’s in the 20s today, so however poor the weather is back in Phoenix, it’s not Indy. We’ll have a bunch of content from here, both written and video, not only over the four days of our stay but extending into next week. It starts tomorrow when head coach Bruce Arians and general manager Steve Keim each take their turn at the podium in front of the national media (and I will have a story).

Just because you aren’t here at Lucas Oil Stadium doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions yourself. I’ll be hosting a pair of live video chats on azcardinals.com on Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be Keim’s turn and Friday will be Arians, both taking place at 12:30 p.m. Arizona time. I’ve been taking questions already but if you have something to ask, shoot an e-mail to askdarren@cardinals.nfl.net or send a tweet to @azcardinals with the hash tag #AZCardsChat.

With free agency still a few weeks away, the heightened tension at a combine isn’t as great as it used to be once (I remember one year where free agency actually began while teams were here.) But this is really where it feels like the 2013 season gets underway.

Ask questions of the decision-makers

With the Scouting combine this week in Indianapolis, azcardinals.com will be hosting a series of live video chats with key Cardinals decision-makers when it comes to the team and the draft, including general manager Steve Keim and head coach Bruce Arians, among others. Specific times are still being hammered out, but they will take place Thursday, Friday and/or Saturday. More details to come.

In the meantime, we’re asking for your questions. Send them to askdarren@cardinals.nfl.net or tweet them to @AZCardinals using the hash tag #AZCardsChat.  Then, tune in to see if your question is used on the air.  You can watch on http://www.azcardinals.com/livevideo. Keep it tuned here for more info.

Stories from the interview room

While it’s the 40-yard dashes and the bench presses (with John Lott bellowing in the guy’s ear as he lifts) that get the TV time from Indy at the Scouting combine, it’s the medical checks and interviews that teams value the most.

The interviews are 15-minute quickies, impossible to learn everything about a kid in that time. But they are important to glean a little something. But it can be a grind, going back-to-back-to-back-to-whatever each night as teams try to stuff in up to 60 visits. You have to try and break it up.

During today’s final live chat from the combine (it’s probably not the last live talkback the team will do, so keep an eye out) someone asked coach Ken Whisenhunt and director of player personnel Steve Keim about memorable interview questions they had asked. They had a couple of good ones.

Whiz said the Cards were interviewing “one of the better guards in the draft” Friday night. “He is a very passionate, stone-faced guy, very intense,” Whisenhunt said. “He did 30-something reps in the bench press.

“I was kind of joking around but I wanted to see how he’d take it. I said, ‘So let me get this right, you did 18 reps in the bench press?’ I thought he was going to come out of his chair to fight me, because he was upset I had shorted him out of 14 reps on the bench press. We were laughing about that.”

Certainly it spoke well for the player’s passion. Sometimes, the teams have to ask about uncomfortable situations. Keim relayed an anecdote like that from last year’s combine when they needed to ask a player why, for goodness sake, was he texting on his phone at 2 a.m., which let to him driving into an apartment building.

“Coach got him on the grease board but didn’t have him diagram a play, he had him diagram how he ran his car off the road and drove 40 yards into a cement wall,” Keim said. “That was one of the more comical situations we’ve had.”

Time for Indy and the Combine

I, along with a handful of other Cards’ people like head coach Ken Whisenhunt and assistants Russ Grimm, Mike Miller, Freddie Kitchens, Kevin Spencer and John Lott, made it to Indianapolis today for the annual Scouting combine. I’ll be here until Sunday, bringing you the stories around the Cards. That begins tomorrow when Whiz and general manager Rod Graves address the media gathered here. Not sure anything of major consequence will come out of it; because free agency is pushed back, there is still plenty of post-combine time for things to happen before free agency starts.

But this is always the best place to start getting a flavor of how that top part of the first round will shake out. Some is obvious — I think it’s going to take a miracle for the Colts not to take QB Andrew Luck, and I think there’s a good chance the Rams trade out of No. 2 so someone can move up to take QB Robert Griffin III. Speaking of Luck, it’ll be interesting to see if the Colts make anyone available to take a turn at the media podium with all the Peyton Manning speculation going on. I did see Manning’s picture still on the side of Lucas Oil Stadium — for now.

If you are in the Valley, don’t forget you too can take in a small part of the combine yourself if you head down to Tom’s Tavern Thursday or Friday night or Saturday morning (details here) to chat with someone from the Cards who is in Indy. Skype is a wonderful thing.

And, not that it’s combine-related, but be sure to check out the teaser for our new web series. Stories about the Cards, called “Zoom,” and the boys in broadcasting definitely caught my attention with this video.

But again, these next few days are about 40 times and interviews, about “rising and falling” in the draft (even though it isn’t that, because teams haven’t set their draft boards in the first place). Let the offseason begin in earnest.

Take part in some Combine talk with the Cards

The annual NFL Scouting Combine takes place in Indianapolis next week, and the Cards are giving fans a chance to interact with some of the Cards’ front office and personnel men long-distance with three special meetings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday,

At Tom’s Tavern downtown (2 N. Central Avenue in Phoenix), the Cards will host sessions that last about 45 minutes each and will feature live video chats with Cards’ people while they are in Indianapolis. Scheduled to appear on chats are general manager Rod Graves, head coach Ken Whisenhunt, president Michael Bidwill, director of player personnel Steve Keim and scouts Malik Boyd, Dru Grigson and Chris Culmer. In Phoenix, assistant director of pro personnel Quentin Harris will be there in person for the Thursday and Friday sessions.

Former Card wide receiver Frank Sanders (Thursday) and safety Kwamie Lassiter (Friday) are scheduled to appear at Tom’s as well.

The weekday sessions begin at 5:30 p.m. and will be hosted by Paul Calvisi. Saturday starts at 10 a.m. and will be hosted by Ron Wolfley. For details, click here.

It only takes one

Yesterday, I had a Twitter follower by the name of Mykael C. Wright ask me to explain the confusing aspect of all this drafting-a-quarterback talk.

“Is game film (20%), pro day (30%), & potential (50%) to put #’s on draft grade? I don’t get qb movement NOW.” he wrote.

What everyone should understand about player “movement” in draft speculation is that there really isn’t any “movement.” The lists people refer to are not a team list; as I have mentioned a few times the Cardinals have not even started to put together their draft board (The draft room is on the third floor just a short walk from my desk and is a shortcut to the bathroom; trust me, once that path gets shut down to protect the secrets of the process, I am well aware). The lists are educated speculation from pundits like Mel Kiper or Todd McShay or one of hundreds of mock drafts that come out seemingly more often than ever these days.

Realistically, however, you can’t have movement until you talk to a player. The “lists” before the Scouting combine are based on what has been done on the field but also what scouts have let leak during the college season. In the end, though, scouts only have so much of a say, and in the case of the top quarterbacks, no one really has had a chance to interview them until Indianapolis. Those interviews are crucial to the process, since coaches want to see those guys stand in front of a white board and diagram a play or two and explain how to attack a certain defense (I was fortunate enough to sit in for one quarterback’s interview when I was in Indy; fascinating stuff).

So that’s really the first time teams and coaches can fully understand a QB, and opinions morph. And, as those opinions leak, QBs “move” on the lists. More “movement” might happen again after a pro day or private workouts as these teams further scrutinize a player. The background checks are in full swing, and again, that could reveal something to affect opinion. Don’t underestimate reverse physiology either. Are, for example, Andy Dalton (below) or Christian Ponder that good? Or have Gabbert/Newton/Mallett/Locker taken so many broadsides of criticism that to be not one of those guys alone make you more attractive?

Going back to Mykael’s original question though, I’d think game film is still 50 percent of the thought process. Pro day? Maybe 2 percent from on the field (assuming he was at the combine already). The pro day is more important as to talking to the people (trainers, equipment guys, coaches) that had been around the kid. Potential is a huge part of it too, especially for underclassmen like Newton or Gabbert who don’t have a long résumé. So to is fit to what you want to do, and of course, the personal interviews.

“Movement” is a mirage, in many ways. And remember, it only takes one team to love you. If, for instance, the Panthers take Cam Newton first overall, does it matter if the rest of the NFL wouldn’t risk a first-round pick on him?

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Indy doesn’t provide all the answers

As the combine wraps up – at least my portion of it – I think about watching Cam Newton’s workouts today.

Not live. I was there but not there, watching it on TV screens just like you did, if, you know, you watch such things. Then, after Newton ran and he threw, everyone tried to say it was really disappointing or really not. At the airport this evening, I was talking to an assistant coach (not from the Cardinals) and a fellow writer about Cam-mania and taking a risk on him — or any quarterback.

So much was written and tweeted today about the quarterback workouts, Newton and otherwise. People say Ryan Mallett was the best or Jake Locker or Christian Ponder. On the other side, Newton didn’t particularly throw well today. Not that it really matters. Newton’s physical gifts don’t change even if his throwing was errant today and Mallett’s off-field issues can’t be answered by some impressive passes. Somebody on Twitter pointed out the poor 40 times of one running back at the combine a couple years ago – in the 4.55 range – and noted it was Texans back Arian Foster. Foster just happened to lead the NFL in rushing this past season.

In the end, the combine is a piece of the puzzle but only a piece and, in most cases, only a small piece. It’s getting verified numbers in the bench press or the 40 rather than using hearsay. Is any team – say, for instance, the Cardinals – closer to making draft day decisions on any of these players? Maybe a little bit. But that doesn’t mean any team is thinking, “Oh, that’s the QB I want.” Not yet.

Two months until the draft. Still a long way to go.