By now, it had been decided the Scouting combine, held every year in Indianapolis, wasn't going to look the same because of COVID. It definitely wasn't going to be in Indy. (I had made a late February trip to the city every year since 2001, so it's going to be strange.) Not surprisingly given the weather, Arizona will play a role in the coronavirus version.

The training center EXOS, which is based in Phoenix but has other outlets around the country, announced on their website they will hold a two-day "combine" on Feb. 26-27 at their facilities in Arizona, Texas and Florida. The first day will consist of the bench press, broad jump and vertical jump. The second day will have the 40-yard dash, the 20-yard shuttle, the three-cone drill and position-specific drills.

The idea is that EXOS, which is training around 130 draft hopefuls, can get the data collected, filmed and recorded, and that can be distributed to teams. One-time Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik and former Panthers director of college scouting Don Gregory are running the event.

Without a combine per se, the workouts will be spread out. Some players will just do their drills at their school's pro days, which is a place teams can potentially send scouts or personnel. At events like the one EXOS or another training facility might hold, NFL teams cannot attend.

The teams will also be collecting medical information, but again, since it can't be done in one place in Indy, teams will have to go to players and not all will be available for in-person checks. All the interviews will be held vritually.