NFL Combine 2026: What’s your favorite position to watch in drills?

Welcome to NFL Combine week, everyone.

If you are a football fan, and also like watching feats of athleticism that will blow your socks off from some of the largest human beings in existence, this is the week for you.

During a draft season that can sometimes drag on and on at a snail’s pace all the way up to the actual event, the combine and pro days really help make it speed by. This is also the first event where we can start ingesting new data about the draft class and those invited. We’ve watched the film and grinded the tape, but now is the week in which coaches, scouts, and fans can start putting quantifiable data up against what they’ve been watching.

This week’s column is unsurprisingly geared towards this week’s big event. RJ Ochoa and I are about to discuss our favorite parts of the week and maybe even fit in a little humblebrag about our own physical capabilities (or lack thereof).

Welcome to The Skinny Post. Let’s jump in (pun very much intended).

RJ:

I’ve reached the point with the Combine where I enjoy the super-fast dudes more than anything. Maybe I am the low-hanging fruit.

Once upon a time Chris Johnson’s record for the fastest 40-yard dash seemed unbreakable. It stood for almost a decade until John Ross broke it in 2017, but since then two more people have surpassed Johnson and one even blew past Ross himself (Xavier Worthy).

This is my thing. I love it. Let me have it.

Michael:

By a long shot it’s the offensive lineman. While most people would say it’s the skill positions or pass rushers, I’m going to zag where they’re zigging.

There’s nothing like watching mountainous athletes move like men 100 pounds lighter. Seeing 300-pounders running sub 4.90 seconds in the 40-yard dash will never get old. But even better than seeing just how fast they can run is how well they’re able to move laterally and explode off the ground. The pro agility shuttle and vert/broad jumps are must-watch television, in my opinion.

The defensive lineman are a close second because they can be equally as large, but nothing beats offensive lineman because they’re the most important and unheralded position in the league.

Michael:

The sad part here is that it’s tough to say anything other than the 40-yard dash because they don’t air all the tests equally and the 40 truly gets all the spotlight before the on-field drills. The 40 is a ton of fun to watch, but if I could pick any of them to put on screen, it would be the pro agility shuttle and/or the three-cone drill. Both show off a player’s ability to move laterally and are major indicators for success at the next level in regards to specific positions.

RJ:

Ultimately all athletic testing is a bit weird, right? None of these drills really have anything to do with football, but they have some merit and value.

I’d say my favorite is the three-cone drill. I like watching the athleticism and precision required. It feels advanced enough that it should require professional athletes, but it also feels reminiscent enough of PE class when we were all kids. We all think we can do it. We are all wrong.

Give me more.

RJ:

The only NFL Combine test that I could measure well in would be the podium. I would fail dramatically at everything else.

Really though, that is such a fascinating part of the whole process. It is so interesting getting to see how players react to different questions and prompts. The NFL Combine is not the Super Bowl, but it has reached some levels of absurdity with regards to the questions that these players field.

Let’s get weird.

Michael:

I’m going to attack this thing from the perspective as if I were still an above-average athlete. I’m a washed up player now so I wouldn’t excel in any of these tests in my current state, but back in the day, I was much better in agility drills than straight-line speed. So similar to the drills that I prefer to watch, I would excel the best in the shot shuttle and the three-cone. Bench press wouldn’t be too bad, either, when I was at my peak. I think my best was 22-24 reps of 225 pounds. Pretty decent in hindsight and it’s been fun to compare against these NFL prospects each year even though I am well aware that they could run circles around me even when I was in playing shape.

RJ:

I love to think about the blitzing questions that prospects give, and more than that I love to think about how I would differentiate my questions if I were the one in charge of asking them.

I’d certainly be interested to see how prospects and young people in general would do with things like “is a hot dog a sandwich”, but I’d want to get more expansive in thought.

I’d love to ask a prospect… “what is the one question you want everyone to ask you here” to see what they would say. It would be a backwards way of checking what they are most confident in with regards to how they can sell themselves.

Michael:

Dang, I really like that question, RJ. Very original and I wish I would have thought of it.

Mine would be “this or that” questions revolving around everyday stuff.

“Mexican or Chinese food?”

“Single-ply or double-ply toilet paper?”

“Coffee or energy drink?”

“Sing in the car or sing in the shower?”

“Summer or fall?”

Anything that would help paint a more realistic picture of these guys to become more relatable to fans. No one likes to shout “Hey, they’re just like me!” more than the fans.