What we learned from the XFL Combine live stream

The XFL Combine is now complete. The league streamed parts of the event on Facebook and YouTube over two days. Here is some of what we learned:

The XFL took this Combine seriously

For the first time, the XFL has teams that will carry over players from the previous year. Those rosters are expected to be supplemented by NFL training camp castoffs later this fall. It was fair to wonder, then, how necessary the Showcases this summer and the culminating Combine were in the player procurement ecosystem. Last year, in building teams from the ground-up, you could understand the league wanting to leave no stone unturned. Now, to some, those same events seem somewhat superfluous.

XFL management clearly didn’t share those sentiments. The Combine was an all-hands-on-deck proceeding, with owners Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia making appearances. All eight team directors of player personnel were there as was every head coach but Anthony Becht (who recently experienced a death in the family and was absent for that reason). League player personnel folks like David Dykeman and Doug Whaley were also in attendance. The XFL will likely want to make the Combine an annual event and players who may be invited in the future will know that this is not just a token workout.

Sam Acho and KJ Sails shined as hosts of the live stream

Being on-air for three continuous hours at an event like this can be tedious, but ESPN’s Sam Acho and DC Defenders CB KJ Sails, co-hosts of the live stream, kept things entertaining. They had to juggle talking to coaches, DPPs, players, giving away prizes, monitoring the chat, all in the smothering Texas heat. Acho has been trained for this working for ESPN after his gridiron days ended. Sails hasn’t, making his performance all the more impressive.

The duo were gregarious, engaging, and kept things moving from one segment to the next. Their genuine enthusiasm for meeting players from their past, coaches they’d competed with and against, and generally getting this opportunity to emcee was infectious and made what could’ve been a relatively staid viewing experience anything but.

If you were looking for NFL-like Combine coverage, you may have been disappointed

Some in the chat during the live stream were frustrated that more attention wasn’t being paid to individual drills, or players participating weren’t identified on-screen by name. If you watch even parts of the NFL Combine each winter, you know that it has become made-for-TV in ways that it wasn’t previously. Fans are used to that kind of Combine coverage, of which the XFL’s version was not.

In some ways, there were similarities. Acho and Sails being on the field, randomly pulling players and coaches to talk to is a lot like the NFL Network stationing former players on the field during drills to get a perspective on how those drills apply to certain positions – and yes, occasionally talking to players and coaches. Many of the drills were the same. That’s about where the similarities end.

The XFL hasn’t been keen on giving away the names and numbers produced from the Showcases and Combines. This Combine did bring a little more transparency, as the XFL’s website listed the top testers in various innovative technologies that were utilized. With more than 200 players going through on-field workouts over two days – and likely wanting to limit the time the live-stream would be on-air – there was simply no way for the league to duplicate the NFL’s extensive Combine coverage.

The XFL is proud of its technological testing – and rightfully so

Perhaps the most fascinating segment over the two days was one in which Sails and XFL Director of Player Performance Sean Hayes demonstrated some of the off-field testing players did that incorporates unique technology into the evaluation process. Those included VALD Forcedecks (jumps), VALD Dynamo Metrics (grip strength) and Vitruve Bar Speed Metrics (bench press).

There are several advantages in using these metrics: One, it allows teams to compare a player’s numbers against the rest of his position group, just as one would with a three-cone drill or 40-yard dash time. Two, these are tests that measure what in some ways were previously unmeasurable on-field skills. For example, the grip technology allows scouts to see grip strength, which for receivers and running backs could translate to ball security, and for offensive linemen could translate to how well they can stick on the defender across the line of scrimmage from them. And three, it gives the player performance staff a baseline for each athlete should they get injured; that data can then be used to tell if the player is back to full strength or if they need further time to recover.

Part of the XFL’s mission since it was first created in 2001 was to be the technological leader in the sport. At the time, that meant how the product was presented on TV. While the mission remains, it has evolved into areas like the application of data to the scouting and rehabilitation processes.

The league is finally living up to its promise to bring fans closer to the game

Inside every XFL press release is a section dubbed “About the XFL.” The first way in which the league identifies itself is as being “fan-first.” We’ve heard that refrain from Garcia constantly, yet it doesn’t feel like they’ve always lived up to that moniker. The presentation of this Combine via live stream, something unlikely to have been done last year, is a step toward giving fans the kind of access ownership always talks about but rarely delivers on.

The ability for Acho and Sails to interact with every head coach in attendance over the two days, plus numerous DPPs and league staff who don’t usually get interviewed, like Hayes, Dykeman, and Senior Director of Equipment Operations Bobby Monica, felt like a peek behind the curtain. While the delivery wasn’t perfect, this was presented in a professional, yet entertaining manner where every fan could walk away from watching feeling like they learned something about the league and/or team they follow. More events like this will only grow the fan base in number and intensity, something ownership should be considering with each step in the off-season process.