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It's finally here. The week-long event that over 300 young men have been waiting for since their college football career ended at the end of the 2015 season (whether they chose it to be over or not). Now is the time for the NFL Combine, one of the most highly-publicized career fairs on the planet.
Over the course of the next five days, players will be poked, prodded, measured, tested, and drilled. No stone will be un-turned by NFL scouts, coaches, and GM's in an effort to find out exactly which of these 300 players those NFL staff want to bring in to their organization later in April.
Cody Whitehair and Glenn Gronkowski will be looking to make sure their names are called on that weekend in April. The former Wildcat stars continue a streak that has seen at least two Wildcats invited to the event in Indianapolis since five were invited following the 2013 Big 12 Championship season.
Whitehair will be first up, as the event for linemen culminates on Friday with on-field drills. Cody has been making waves since his stellar showing in the Reese's Senior Bowl, and has many draft experts rating him as the #1 guard in the draft, and one of the top linemen overall. A strong showing this week could very well lock him in to the first round of the draft.
Gronkowski will have some more work to do at the combine to keep him on draft boards. Glenn's last name may be enough for a team to draft him on pure potential, but his actual numbers at K-State were never eye-popping (mostly for reasons outside his control). A strong showing could move him into the 3-5 round range, while a poor showing could drop him off boards entirely. He will likely work out with the RB/FB's after failing to impress during pre-combine workouts at TE, a position that was tried due to his older brothers' success there. The backs are in the early group, and will also finalize their combine on Friday.
The NFL Network will have live coverage of all the on-field workouts. You can also keep up-to-date on combine happenings at SB Nation's Combine portal, as well as at the official NFL.com Combine page.