What it’s like to cover the NFL Scouting Combine, from a Chiefs beat reporter

Last Monday, I arrived in Indianapolis with Star columnist Sam McDowell for the NFL’s annual Scouting Combine.

Having covered the Kansas City Chiefs since 2014, this trip felt a little more significant: This is the first draft cycle since I began covering the team that the Chiefs are picking in the top 10.

From the outside looking in on television, I’d imagine that unless you’re a diehard NFL Draft fan, watching your favorite team’s coaches and decision-makers take notes on non-contact drills could make for a pretty mundane viewing experience. Some of those team reps — such as New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn — may agree with you.

But the combine is way more than just the on-field drills. If March 11 is the start of the new league year, the combine is the New Year’s Eve lead-up.

Behind the scenes during the evening, teams meet with draft prospects both formally and informally. Each team gets 45 pre-scheduled meetings, in which a prospect sits in a room with coaches and personnel staff for 20 minutes. Informal interviews are just that — casual one-on-one chats between a staff member and a prospect.

Every team’s athletic training staff is permitted to conduct medical examinations, which are a critical part of the entire process. Take Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, who the Chiefs may be interested in. Given Tyson’s injury history in college, KC’s medical staff would want to check that box.

The whispers during the combine — both at Lucas Oil and in the bars and restaurants — exchanged among team personnel, agents and media help get the ball rolling for when the “legal tampering” period begins Monday, March 9.

Most reporters, like Sam and I, build their trip around when the general manager and head coach of the team they cover are scheduled to speak. As you likely know by now, Andy Reid didn’t attend this year’s combine due to a knee procedure, so from a coverage standpoint, our primary focus was Tuesday, when general manager Brett Veach took the podium.

That press conference produced several news updates: Veach would be talking to Trent McDuffie’s agents the next day (he’s now a Ram, by the way), the Chiefs were taking a “different approach” with Travis Kelce, and Mike Danna looked like just the first of several looming decisions including Jawaan Taylor and Drue Tranquill. Sam wrote columns on Veach’s offseason focus and on how the Kelce decision is more complicated beneath the surface.

I spoke with respected NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah about a potential trade-back, which he didn’t love. On our final day, while Sam spoke with Miami pass rusher Rueben Bain, I talked with Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey.

So much during Scouting Combine week — both on the record and in the shadows — turns the page and sets the stage for what will become storylines of the 2026 NFL season. It’s not just the drills you see on TV.

Pete Sweeney

The Kansas City Star

Pete Sweeney is The Star’s Kansas City Chiefs insider and beat writer. He has covered the team since 2014.