Iowa, UNI, and Iowa State Football Players Headed to NFL Combine

Between the three state schools, the state of Iowa will be well represented at this year's NFL Combine. Held March 1-7, the combine is an opportunity for former college stars to showcase the physical tools and capabilities they possess to NFL teams that may select them in the coming NFL Draft, which is held in April.

Players go through a variety of drills at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Indianapolis Colts play. The NFL Network typically takes the aforementioned amount of time and covers the event as in-depth as possible.

These Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa State Cyclones, and UNI Panthers will have their own shot at impressing scouts in less than a month.

Though the combine isn't always considered to be the most exciting part of the NFL Draft process, it is incredibly important.

Over the years, there have been a barrage of different football players to come through and blow scouts' and the public's collective mind with their performances. Some may remember when John Ross ran a 4.22 40-yard dash to set the combine record, or when D.K. Metcalf, a 6'3, 228-pound wide receiver from Ole Miss ran a 4.33 40, benched 225 pounds 27 times, had a standing vertical jump of 40.5 inches, and more.

Because of his race into the record books, Ross, who was incredibly productive for the Washington Huskies in college, was selected 9th overall in the 2017 draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. Through five seasons in the league, the wide receiver has played in just 37 games, registering 62 catches for 957 yards and 11 touchdowns, and is now on his second team -- the New York Giants.

He was so unproductive and so unavailable after being selected so high, that NFL teams were terrified of making a similar mistake with Metcalf. He was taken with the 64th overall pick by the Seattle Seahawks. Over his three seasons in Seattle, he's played in 49 games, making 216 catches for 3170 yards and 29 touchdowns.

So uh, yeah. The NFL Combine is important.