Unearthing football’s hidden gems.
By: NFL Operations
The path to an NFL career is different for each player. For those not invited to the National Invitational Combine — and for those pros with less than three years’ NFL experience who have recently been waived — the NFL hosts the Regional Combine Invitational.
In 2018, the NFL introduced the Regional Combine Invitational, a two-day event that brings together NFL talent evaluators and players looking to showcase their abilities. The Invitational takes place in Tampa, March 24-25, in conjunction with the league’s Annual Meeting.
Similar to the National Invitational Combine held in Indianapolis in February, prospects participate in physical, mental and medical assessments and have their talents evaluated by pro scouts.
Innovation
The Regional Combine Invitational provides an opportunity for the league to test new innovations that may assist pro scouts with evaluating prospects.
Sparta Science tests prospects’ balance and force with their patented force plate technology. Players launch themselves from Sparta’s portable force plate system, which crunches thousands of data points to calculate three actionable variables: Load, Explode and Drive. Data generated in under 90 seconds measure an athlete’s ability to start, transition and finish a movement. Sparta Science’s platform uses this information to predict and optimize outcomes, by comparing prospects to hundreds of NFL players in its database.
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