It’s the last weekend of April, and that can only mean one
thing: ESPN is taking Mel Kiper Jr. and his excessively gelled hair
out of cryogenic storage. That’s right: It’s draft
time.
The NFL Draft is fascinating for the simple reason that ESPN
makes genuinely entertaining television out of people in a room
getting their names called.
Of course, in order to do this the network has to create a story
line or controversy out of every tiny detail, which it is
astonishingly good at. The NFL Draft is filled with story lines,
such as when the Minnesota Vikings somehow missed their pick in
2003 and got snaked by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
This year is no different. But the biggest story line of all
involved something not many people were aware of: the Wonderlic
Personnel Test.
What is the Wonderlic? The Wonderlic is an administered test
within a variety of professions, most notably in the NFL Draft.
It measures the basic cognitive ability to learn a job,
adaptation to situations and problem-solving techniques. It
consists of 50 mostly multiple choice questions in a 12-minute time
limit. Some of the topics are basic logic, math and analogies.
The Wonderlic test is considered most important in judging
quarterbacks, with a score in the mid-20s considered decent for
that position.
This is why it was so significant when Texas quarterback, Rose
Bowl hero and probable top-five pick Vince Young supposedly scored
a six the first time he took the Wonderlic.
That’s right, a six out of 50. Young retook the test and
scored a 15, which is more acceptable but still considered
poor.
This is the same guy who so gloriously shredded USC, which ESPN
deemed the greatest college football team of all time. Never has
one player so thoroughly demolished an opposing team on such a huge
stage.
The Trojans put up their best defense against Young, yet he
blasted through every defensive shift and tackle. Yet apparently
Young does not have the mental aptitude to run an NFL offense. What
gives?
In light of this, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Scouring the Internet, I got my hands on 15 sample Wonderlic
questions (the company that operates the test will not release the
actual test) and administered them to six people: Charles Proctor,
the editor in chief of the Daily Bruin; Jake Tracer, the Arts &
Entertainment editor; a sports-obsessed friend; two female friends
who barely follow football; and myself. We were each given five
minutes to answer 15 questions.
Tracer scored highest with a 42. Proctor was close behind with a
40, tied with my sports-nut friend. My two female friends and
myself brought up the rear with scores of 37. How do we compare to
some famous NFL quarterbacks? The results may surprise you.
If you were to predict Wonderlic scores based on NFL success,
you’d be in for a rude awakening. Based on some of the
Wonderlic scores that have been released, using this test as any
sort of indicator is a crapshoot.
The highest score I could find was Drew Henson’s 42. All
Henson has managed to do in the NFL is convince the Cowboys to sign
Drew Bledsoe in his place ““ the same Drew Bledsoe known for
throwing woeful interceptions at inopportune times (and owner of a
37 on the Wonderlic).
Other scores are more baffling. Dan Marino, owner of about every
NFL passing record, scored a mere 14 on the test. Three-time MVP
and Super Bowl-winner Brett Favre didn’t do much better,
recording a 20. And the most recent Super Bowl winner, Ben
Roethlisberger, got a 25.
Perhaps most shocking, Peyton Manning, the master of the audible
and the NFL’s most complex offensive playbook, scored a
28.
Upon hearing that Vince Young scored a six on the Wonderlic,
many likely had the same reaction: “God, what an idiot jock!
If I took that test, I’d get a 50 easily!”
But from experience, I can say that the fact that the Wonderlic
is a timed test makes it more difficult than one would expect. In
our version, each of us sped through the first 10 questions, but
two of the last five questions were fairly complex math exercises
involving proportions. Every person I gave the test to initially
skipped the math questions.
In spite of this, we all scored better than the vast majority of
NFL quarterbacks. But what does this prove?
I may have scored a 37, but there’s no way I could learn
even 10 percent of the plays Peyton Manning knows.
Plus, being able to discern which shape doesn’t belong and
how much money “Investor A” saves on his car insurance
isn’t going to make me any more ready to deal with a blitzing
Pittsburgh Steelers defense. If this were the case, Ryan
Fitzpatrick of the Rams (a Harvard grad who scored a 38 and holds
the fastest Wonderlic completion time at nine minutes) would have
been the league’s best quarterback.
If one had to choose between having to get by solely on athletic
ability or on craftiness and intelligence, I believe people in
sports would pick athletic ability and natural gifts over
intelligence every time.
It’s great if you’re able to read a defense quicker
than most, but if you lack the ability to avoid or break a tackle,
it isn’t going to serve you very well.
So come draft day, teams thinking of passing on Vince Young due
to his Wonderlic score would do well to remember this: I may not be
able to plow over Frostee Rucker like a bulldozer, but I can sure
tell a hexagon from a four-sided polygon. If that’s what
makes someone draft material these days, then Reggie Bush and Matt
Leinart have a lot to fear from me.
Humphrey is really waiting for the NBA Draft and its
obsession with length and upside. E-mail him at
mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.