Performance test
Quarterbacks Erik Ainge and Alex Brink boast impressive on-field resumes: Ainge threw 72 career touchdown passes at Tennessee and Brink threw 76 at Washington State.
But this week, the two former Oregon prep stars' college statistics will take a back seat to how they perform during drills, strength tests and intelligence and psychological exams at the annual NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
About 300 players will be at the RCA Dome to work out for scouts, general managers and coaches from the league's 32 teams in preparation for the NFL draft April 26-27.
An invite to the seven-day event, which started Wednesday, is validation for outgoing college stars, whose stock can rise and fall based on differences of inches, fractions of seconds or interview responses.
But in the end, the combine doesn't necessarily supercede other avenues of player evaluations, such as all-star games, pro days and game performance.
"Your body of work, your college career is more important by far," Ainge said. "Dropping back in shorts and a sweatshirt isn't football."
Still, performance at the combine is important, which is why top players from around the country spend weeks at camps set up specifically to train both physically and mentally for the combine.
Ainge, out of Hillsboro's Glencoe High School, wants to raise his stock from a third- or fourth-round pick to a first- or second-round pick. Brink, out of Eugene's Sheldon High School, wants to assure he's drafted at all. Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart, on the other hand, has a chance to convince teams that he's worthy of a top 10 overall pick.
Ainge has been training in Pensacola, Fla., with quarterback guru Edmund "Zeke" Bratkowski, who played in the NFL in the 1950s and 1960s. Ainge, who said he's added another 10 pounds of muscle to reach 230 on his 6-foot-6 frame, wants to do well in the psychological testing and interview process to show teams he has the mental makeup to become a successful NFL quarterback.
"I feel advanced mentally," he said. "What we did on offense at Tennessee wasn't what most colleges do."
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