NFL draft: Why are so many prospects skipping the bench press at the combine?

INDIANAPOLIS — A group of 15 wide receivers stepped up to the stage, the one erected inside the Indianapolis Convention Center just for this week’s NFL scouting combine, where prospects are tasked with bench-pressing 225 pounds as many reps as possible.

It’s a favorite event during combine week, even if the lift doesn’t give a complete picture of a prospect’s overall strength. But this year feels a little different.

One by one, the receivers stepped up to a microphone and spoke a message to the assembled scouts and coaches:

“I won’t be benching by choice. I’ll bench at my pro day.”

Injuries were given as the excuse for a few, but it was clear many healthy players were choosing not to bench on their own volition.

Only two receivers from that particular pod opted to bench at the combine: Tulsa’s Josh Johnson and Northern Iowa’s Isaiah Weston.

Johnson had fun with the situation that was unfolding, choosing his words very carefully when he eventually stepped up to the bench-press mic to introduce himself.

“Josh Johnson, University of Tulsa, and I will be benching,” he said.

A few observers, clearly seeing what was going on, laughed. Johnson then put up a very respectable 14 reps. Weston followed with a terrific total of 20.

But for this combine, Johnson and Weston are the outliers. Most prospects appear to be forgoing the bench this year in Indy.

“I am telling all my guys not to,” one prominent agent told Yahoo Sports this week. “They can bench at their pro days if they want to.”

Even in an era of players attempting to control their futures as much as possible, this isn’t just a lazy route. It comes for a very good reason, at least in the players’ and agents’ minds.

Agents advising many clients not to bench, but why?

When the original combine protocol was sent out two weeks ago, agents were furious with the conditions their clients were initially being asked to face. The original presence of a “bubble” to keep prospects cordoned off from most of society this week grabbed the headlines, and that was a big part of agents’ disapproval.

Eventually, the league capitulated on most of the living condition issues raised amid the threat of mass combine opt-outs prior to the event. But there was one matter where the agents and their clients couldn’t receive an adjustment: the workout schedule.

Players are being asked here to bench press and do their on-field workouts on the same day at this year’s event. For many, it's a non-starter. In years past, there was always at least one day’s lag time between the bench and the on-field workouts and positional work.

“Too much to ask of these kids,” another NFL agent said prior to the event. “What if you lift and then stiffen up? All of a sudden a guy who isn’t stiff looks stiff. They can get hurt on the bench, and it’s just not smart to make them do all this stuff the same day and expect (peak performance).”

Another agent Yahoo Sports echoed similar sentiments as the first one did, saying he suggested that all six of his combine attendees skip the bench except for one. The one client the agent suggested benching? It’s a prospect who can’t run the 40-yard dash or do jumping drills and on-field work because of an injury they’re rehabbing.

“Not worth it,” he texted.

How this issue relates to the proposed combine 'bubble'

That same agent previously had lamented the league’s bubble idea for the combine, part a group of contract advisors who threatened to have their prospects boycott the workout portion of the combine if certain expectations were not met regarding their room-and-board situation this week, along with a few other fringe elements that ruffled some feathers.

But when the NFL would not budge on changing some of the workout elements — namely lifting and working out on the same day — it became a mini-boycott. The bench press ended up becoming the event that has been most bypassed to this point.

“The combine is completely revolved around the TV aspect, that’s it,” the second agent said previously. “They treat it that way even if the scouts don’t. The scouts are frustrated with it all, too, just go ask them.

“Now they have these (prime time) workouts that run until 11 at night. It makes the day that much longer and you have a worse product because guys will skip events or not perform as well.”

On top of all of that, how did the NFL initially want to force 324 prospects at the combine into fairly stringent conditions … right before the league has apparently relaxed all COVID protocols barring some toxic new variant sweeping the country?

It makes little sense until you realize that the league might have been pushing the bubble idea because it could. The prospects are not yet union members until they sign NFL contracts, so the league essentially was strong-arming the process without any involvement from the NFLPA, the players union that the league office doesn’t mind trying to push around whenever it can effectively.

But the workout matter is starting to affect league work. Now league employees can argue they have a legitimate gripe with the draft process and that it’s not good for what they’re trying to do: get the most accurate, airtight information on prospects — future players who affect the livelihoods of the scouts and teams selecting them.

As of 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, we have only three bench-press totals out of 40 wide receivers attending the combine. (Clemson's Justyn Ross, with 11 reps, was the other receiver to compete on the bench.) Of the 21 tight ends, only 10 opted to bench.

One of them who did, Virginia’s Jelani Woods, did well for himself, too, racking out 24 reps — and later running a scalding 4.61-second 40 … at 6-foot-7. You could argue that some players choosing not to do all the workouts are potentially hurting themselves, although workout numbers on home turf for a pro day tend to generate better results on the whole.

Quarterbacks almost never choose to bench. But the remainder of the positions will have the chance to bench over the next few days. But if it continues going the way it has in the early workout days, don’t expect to see the majority of players opt in.