A total of 337 players have been invited to participate in the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis Feb 24-March 1.
The annual event at Lucas Oil Stadium features medical evaluations, interviews with team personnel, media sessions, testing and on-field workouts for most of college football's best talent entering the NFL Draft in April.
LSU leads the way with 16 invitees, followed by Michigan and Ohio State with 11 apiece and Alabama and Georgia with 10. In all, 101 schools will send at least one athlete to this year's Combine. The SEC has 93 players total, followed by the Big Ten (57) and Pac 12 (47).
The Combine is an important week in the offseason schedule for all 32 teams, and usually the entire Lions contingent of coaches, front office personnel and medical staff are Indianapolis for the event. It's the first time they get real measurements on the underclassmen, and the medical evaluations on all 337 players are critical. Then, obviously, comes the testing, highlighted every year by the 40-yard dash. The NFL has changed the schedule this year to feature the on-field workouts on primetime television.
Lions general manager Bob Quinn is on the lookout to add playmakers on both sides of the ball this offseason. Detroit has some immediate needs along their defensive line, in the secondary, along the offensive line and at wide receiver. Quinn said right after the season all players will be in discussion at pick No. 3.
"Yeah, obviously with where we're drafting, we're going to have to pay attention to everybody," he said. "I think previously when we were drafting in the teens and 20's you can really not spend a lot of time on the top seven or eight because with what it would cost to get up there, you would really never do it.
"So I think this year with where we're drafting, we're going to have to take a closer look at everything and just know really from A to Z, 1 to 250 the draft, rather than not focusing on just the guys we're going to be picking."
This draft has some star power at the quarterback position with Heisman Trophy winner and national champion Joe Burrow, along with Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa, whose medical evaluations at the Combine will be a key storyline early in the week.
Defensively, this draft is talent rich with names like Chase Young (Ohio State), Jeff Okudah (Ohio State), Derrick Brown (Auburn) and Isaiah Simmons (Clemson) that will draw the interest of Lions fans throughout the course of the week.
Quarterbacks, tight ends and wide receivers will be the first players to arrive and will be available for interviews starting Tuesday, February 25. They'll be followed in groups by offensive linemen/specialists/running backs, defensive linemen/linebackers and then the defensive backs to close out the week.
Click here for a full list of all the players invited to this year's Combine.
