NFL Draft 2011: Scouting Combine Could Turn Out to Be a Waste

The NFL Scouting Combine has officially begun. The cameras are flashing, the stop watches are clicking and football fans are checking the web for updates from Indianapolis.

Yet the NFL is still without a Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the situation between team owners and the Players Association is just growing more murky with each passing day.

If the CBA issue is not worked out before the start of next season, all this Scouting Combine ballyhoo could turn out to be a big waste of time.

I mean, if you think about it, it is the rookies that will suffer the most from a lock out. Without Rookie Mini camps, without training camps, without the coaches guidance through new systems, incoming rookies will be put a step behind.

Worst of all though, they won't be playing football.

A look at some of the most hyped players in the 2011 NFL Draft, such as Blaine Gabbert, Cam Newton, Da'Quan Bowers, A.J. Green, and Nick Fairley, to name a few, reveals they are all juniors. These players could have all gone back to school for one more year, and let this mess with the NFL get cleaned up.

Remember, the best player from this years draft class, Andrew Luck, decided to go back to school for another year‒Maybe that's why he goes to Stanford.

Every college student in the country hears the same thing from their own parents‒the job market is trash right now, stay in school.  

Looks like the NFL is no different.

The underclassmen of the 2011 Draft may end up wishing for that degree they never got.