Mike Mamula is known in the NFL as, “That guy who got drafted in the Top 10 because he had a great Scouting Combine, then didn’t do anything as a pro.” But that’s really not fair.
Mamula did help his draft stock with a great Combine, but he was already regarded as a first-round pick even before the Combine. And although his NFL career didn’t meet expectations, he was a solid player for a few years in the NFL.
Mamula’s big Combine was in 1995, and he says now that he still thinks the Combine is a great tool for NFL teams -- as long as they use it in conjunction with watching what players did on the field.
“I think it’s a great way to judge talent,” Mamula told the Buffalo News. “But you’ve also got to look at film from the previous season and track record. You can’t just look at someone and they do nothing during their college career, then they go out and blow things up at the Combine. I mean, it makes no sense. That’s just one thing that you’ve got to look at.”
Contrary to common perception, Mamula didn’t come out of nowhere at the 1995 Combine. In fact, Mamula says he decided to turn pro in 1995, rather than returning for his final year of NCAA eligibility at Boston College, only after he was told that the Jaguars (coached by Mamula’s old Boston College coach, Tom Coughlin) had a first-round grade on him.
“I had an inside person within Jacksonville, which had the second and 19th picks in the first round, that I had asked, ‘If I was to leave early, you’ve got to tell me, if I’m around at 19, would you take me?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we will take you,’” Mamula said.
Mamula was a great athlete, but he attributes much of his Combine success to the fact that he actually trained for the specific Combine drills. In those days, long before the Combine was ever televised, many of the players didn’t know exactly what they’d be asked to do at the Combine and didn’t prepare specifically for the Combine drills.
“Coughlin’s strength coach, Jerry Palmieri, had winter workouts, and the winter workouts that he put together were all Combine drills. So for a month and a half straight for like two years, I was doing Combine drills and nobody knew it, including me,” Mamula said.
Those drills proved to be profitable for Mamula, who followed a good college career with a great Combine--even if it’s a bit unfair if that’s all he’s remembered for.
