Evaluating college players has always been a crapshoot for NFL teams. To try to improve their chances of finding that diamond in the rough, teams often have turned to additional methods of evaluation, but that may actually be leading them to more questionable decisions.

In recent years, the NFL has assembled as many of the top players as they can get at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Prospects are measured, timed in the 40-yard dash, tested in strength drills and the vertical jump.

Agents for the top players in the draft often advise their clients not to work out at the Combine because they fear a bad 40-time or weak efforts in weightlifting or vertical jumps will hurt their draft status. The agents are right, of course, because clubs often will make decisions based on the drills instead of actual football skills.

	Boller has done a lot of fancy things during drills, but can he excel in the NFL?

The drills also are a way of deflecting blame. Scouts love to tout a player on the basis of 40-times or vertical jumps, but if the player fails, then the scouts can point at the coaches for not developing the player's ability.

As one example of what's going on, look at Cal's Kyle Boller, who was drafted by the Ravens with the 19th pick of the first round. I saw a lot of Boller in college because I'm a Cal alum and I live close to the Berkeley campus, so I saw him through good times and bad.

Boller was highly recruited out of high school because of his strong arm. I once saw a video of him from a high school game in which he threw the ball 70 yards to hit his receiver in stride. Cal coach Tom Holmoe was so impressed with Boller that he wouldn't offer a scholarship to Ken Dorsey, who wanted to go to the school and whose parents are both Cal alumni.

Dorsey, of course, went to Miami (Fla.), where he posted a record of 38-2 as a starter. Boller's path was much more rocky. He played for three different offensive coordinators in his four years, and the team was horrible during his first three seasons. Boller took a terrible beating because of a lack of protection from his offensive line. He made bad decisions, and his passing percentage was well below .500. If he would have entered the draft following his junior year, he might have been drafted in the sixth or seventh round, purely on potential -- but he might not have been drafted at all.

Then, Cal hired Jeff Tedford to replace Holmoe, and Tedford resurrected Boller's career. In the spring, Tedford changed Boller's throwing motion so that he kept the ball high and released it quickly, instead of holding the ball low and having to wind up to throw it. Tedford also set up protection schemes which gave Boller time to throw. The result? Boller had a much better year, Cal enjoyed a winning record and Boller's stock exploded.

Boller then made a move on his own. He dropped out of Cal and entered Thomas Weatherspoon's Performance Enhancement for Professional Athletes school in Alameda, Calif., on the abandoned Naval Air Facility grounds.

There are several operations like this now, places where players go to improve their speed and athletic ability. Weatherspoon has been running the school since 1986, when a Washington running back, Junior Tautalatasi, asked Weatherspoon to help him improve his speed. Tautalatasi was drafted in the 10th round by the Eagles and spent three years in Philly.

Weatherspoon improved Boller's speed enough to the point that he was the fastest quarterback at the Combine and impressed scouts and general managers with his overall athletic ability.

But did this make him a better quarterback? Not really.

		A team would have been better-served by evaluating Boller's decision-making, and even last year, when he and his team were both so much better, Boller didn't always make good decisions. He still doesn't seem to see the field well, as a successful quarterback must.

There have been some quarterbacks who just looked like great athletes. John Elway was one. Steve Young another. Young was fast and such a good runner that he actually played running back for a time with the Los Angeles Express of the long-defunct USFL.

But there also have been great quarterbacks who didn't look the part. Johnny Unitas, whom some believe was the greatest quarterback ever, had a sunken chest and sloped shoulders. Joe Montana, another candidate for best ever, was so slight that then-49ers coach Bill Walsh constantly worried that Montana's career was just one big hit away from ending.

Unless a quarterback depends on his running ability to succeed, as Mike Vick does, speed isn't as important as quickness in evading the rush. Boller has never been a quarterback for whom running was an integral part of his game, and I doubt that he will become a running quarterback even with his improved speed.

Even quarterbacks who run often and effectively must eventually learn that their running can be counter-productive. Young ran much more early in his career, but he didn't become a great quarterback until he curtailed his running. At that point, he told me, "I decided I'd rather pass the ball for a five-yard gain than run it for that much because the pass involved everybody. It wasn't just about me."

A team would have been better-served by evaluating Boller's decision-making, and even last year, when he and his team were both so much better, Boller didn't always make good decisions. He still doesn't seem to see the field well, as a successful quarterback must.

There are always some players who don't have great times or vertical jumps but make plays; Jerry Rice was downgraded by many scouts because of mediocre 40 times, but he has turned out all right. Conversely, there are players who impress the scouts physically but never seem to make the plays.

As long as teams rely so heavily on results of non-football measurements, they're going to get stuck with players who look better than they play. I suspect Boller will be that kind of player.

Glenn Dickey is a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Material from Pro Football Weekly.
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