It’s become commonplace for quarterbacks to elect not to throw at the annual NFL Scouting Combine. The quarterbacks, and their representatives, don’t want to risk looking inaccurate by throwing to unfamiliar targets, making throws they don’t normally attempt to different types of receivers they just met before the drills.
However, at least one prominent NFL decision-maker thinks they should take advantage of the opportunity.
Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes brought up how impressive it can be when a quarterback does compete in the less controlled environment of the combine. Holmes brought it up in the context of Jake Fromm, a quarterback who earned his way onto the Lions practice squad by virtue of a two-drive performance at the end of the final preseason game.
Fromm, a fifth-round pick in 2020 out of Georgia, has bounced around in his young NFL career. He looked ready to bounce out of Detroit too. Brought into Lions camp only when Hendon Hooker suffered a concussion in the first preseason game, Fromm didn’t get a single rep in practice the entire week leading into Detroit’s preseason finale against Pittsburgh. In over two weeks of practices and training camp after signing, Fromm didn’t get more than 20 total snaps in team drills.
He wasn’t even expected to play, but Fromm took over and seized his moment. He was poised, accurate and confident despite the extremely limited preparation. That impressed Holmes and the Lions–enough that they opted to cut veteran Nate Sudfeld and keep Fromm on the practice squad instead as the third QB, behind Jared Goff and Hooker.
Holmes expounded upon how impressive that small glimpse can be, and why quarterbacks should try and prove themselves at the NFL Scouting Combine.
“I guess the best thing I can say is — and I tell young kids all the time, the kids at the combine, speaking to the quarterbacks, some guys, they don’t want to throw,” Holmes said in his end-of-summer press conference. “They don’t want to work out because they’re not working with their guys. They want to wait until their orchestrated pro day and all that. And same with all-star games, to an extent, too. But when a quarterback can go out there and operate and be accurate for guys that he has not been working with, that’s impressive.”
