Long, rambling math strategy post
The Combine is one of my personal favorite parts of the #nfl but I also believe this year’s rules around how to “measure” players will lead to two main positive changes:
1. A better, more useful Combine in future years
...

2. Smart teams, with great staffs (whose names we don’t necessarily see in the media) have a huge edge and maybe this will lead to more forward-thinkers getting higher-ranking jobs sooner (because they’ll be able to be judged by their work output and not external factors)

A little more on the edge...
Assumptions:
1. Bi-directional luck is a factor. Let’s just assume that’s “even” for each team
2. Interviews, body measurements, medical will be normalized, maybe later than normal, but these are also constraints that equally impact all teams

Ok now the good stuff:
1. All of the most predictive performance info on players has already occurred - game metrics like speed, burst, fatigue are all on film. CV doesn’t lie - same measuring stick for each player and far outweighs anything a 40-time or cone-drill can project

2. Teams are basically forced to construct their own paradigms of evaluation instead of fall victim to group-think to judge players

3. Teams who measure the “right” things have a far better chance to draft the “right” fit in any season.

Articulating those attributes, which sometimes can feel like such a simple task that it gets overlooked (“we’ve always done it this way”), will now have to be deeper conversations than vitals like heights, weights and speed which will realign priorities (for good teams).

Best teams edge restated: Constraints of this off-season drive better communication and articulation of expectations/needs helps drive better evaluation constructs which means more accurate “measurements” which leads to better draft and FA selections

...which drives a higher caliber team, and thus higher odds of winning games.

Bad teams: (complain and get worse...)

The end. Thanks for sticking around.