The 50-question, 12-minute cognitive ability test has been used to evaluate NFL draft prospects for four decades now ... but does it work?
The Wonderlic test score results for NFL draftees aren’t supposed to be public, but somehow, year after year, they are. “We do not release test scores to anyone,” a Wonderlic employee told me, “except the NFL Combine representatives. Any Wonderlic test scores reported by the media are not official and could be inaccurate.”
Nonetheless, everyone pays a lot of attention to the Wonderlic score leaks this time of year, if only to argue about their merits. Just a few days ago, the sports press rushed to report that of this year’s crop, the three top running back prospects – Christian McCaffery, Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook – respectively scored 21, 11 and 11 of a possible 50. Immediately, speculation began on whether or not this would boost McCaffery’s stock when the first-round picks are called in the NFL draft on Thursday night.
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When thinking about the combine and the NFL draft, I cannot help but see many parallels between the challenges faced by medical schools and pro sports teams in figuring out who will be a star and who will fall by the wayside. All of the students at Harvard have grades that go through the roof, just as the combine invitees have extraordinary athletic skills. But do they have those other factors that will help them become the next great surgeon? Do they have that other something that makes the more likely to become the next Peyton Manning rather than the next Ryan Leaf?
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