The Jaguars are skipping the Scouting Combine.
Well, not everyone. Coach Liam Coen and G.M. James Gladstone won't be there.
They're joining the small minority of high-level team officials to skip the annual convention and mass player evaluation session.
The various events of the Underwear Olympics are taped and can be reviewed whenever, wherever. The biggest sacrifice is the direct access to players, primarily through the 15-minute speed-round sessions at night.
As explained by Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com, the Jaguars plan to do no face-to-face visits with players at the Combine or at the team's facility through the so-called "top 30" visits.
"Well, the Jaguars don't want to conduct any of those, and they don't want to conduct any top 30 visits either because they don’t want their opinion of a player to be changed or altered in any way based on a 15-20 minute visit," DiRocco wrote, via Paul Bretl of USA Today. "This is a system that the Rams use, and they've used it quite successfully, as you can see by their success over the last decade or so."
There's still value in sitting down with a player. Even if the answers are prepared and rehearsed, there's a benefit in talking to someone directly.
The decision not to speak with them puts greater emphasis on the research they'll do about the player's overall reputation and approach in the college programs where he played. (Nowadays, it seems like it's more than one for the vast majority of players.) It also ensures that no one will be able to make guesses as to which players the Jaguars may be targeting in the draft.
Which allows them to get the players they want, or to act like they got the players they wanted all along.
Regardless, the fact that some teams make the strategic decision to skip the Scouting Combine shows it's not the end-all, be-all that it's painted as. Of course, it's sold that way because nothing else is going on in the NFL, making it one of the league's few offseason tentpole events.