Considering some of the nutty questions and requests that are sometimes asked of draft prospects at the NFL Scouting Combine, the use of a deck of cards by Browns offensive line coach Bob Wylie isn't too outrageous.
But it is unique, and after former Indiana guard Dan Feeney mentioned Wylie's card game at the combine, the coach on Thursday got a chance to explain his method, which he called the MRT test in detail.
"So you take cards, 1 through 9, I just use a deck of cards because it's easy and everyone thinks I was doing magic tricks, I wasn't," Wylie said. "You take a deck of cards and you put the numbers face up, three across the top, however order you want to put them in, then the player or the prospect, he has to remember the numbers in so many seconds, say it's 15 seconds, and then I turn them face down. Then I tell them, pick up all the even cards, low to high. Pick up all the odd cards, high to low. Pick up two cards that equal to six. Pick up another two cards that equal to six. Pick up three cards that equal to 11."
According to Wylie, a prospect's performance with the cards correlates to how well, and how quickly, they can process information on a football field. If the prospect fails the exercise badly enough, "the red flag goes up," Wylie said.
"A lot of the colleges run those spread offenses, they've got four running plays and two protections, well, they get it done," Wylie said. "Over here, we may have 21 protections and 25 runs and the defense has 17 different coverages they're showing you in one game, so it's a little different. That's what that was for."
It's not clear how well Feeney performed, but his draft fate ultimately took him elsewhere as a third-round pick of the San Diego Chargers. The only offensive lineman the Browns selected was Florida State tackle Roderick Johnson in the fifth round. Along with being the Jacobs Trophy winner as the ACC's best blocker the last two years, we'll assume he knows his way around a deck of cards, as well.
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