Each year hundreds of college football players take the NFL's Wonderlic Personnel Test, a 12-minute standardized test with 50 questions designed to measure cognitive ability. The exam is given to college players during private interviews with teams, visits to college campuses or at the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis. The burghsportsguys blog published an interesting article written by Sam Walker of the Wall Street Journal that explains why the NFL gives the exam to prospects as part of its scouting process; the article also provides a summary of the Wonderlic score averages for the NFL's 32 teams based upon average scores of players currently on each team's roster for drafted players who entered the league in the past seven years (The NFL's Smartest Team 9/30).
When you look at a sampling of the types of questions presented on the exam, one has to question its usefulness in scouting a player's ability to catch a ball or knock an opposing player on his can:
1. When rope is selling at $.10 a foot, how many feet can you buy for sixty cents?
2. RESENT and RESERVE -- Do these words: 1) have similar meanings; 2) have contradictory meanings; 3) mean neither the same nor opposite.
However, some teams do in fact place a high priority on Wonderlic exam scores in scouting college players for the draft. Walker highlights the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which placed 4th among all teams: "[I]f you're wondering why Tampa Bay is second in the NFL in rushing yards, here's a possible explanation: The average test mark for the offensive line is a 30 and for guards a 34, which is four points higher than a typical attorney's score. 'I'm not surprised,' says Buccaneers general manager Bruce Allen. 'I trust my guards more than most attorneys.' "
Walker notes that NFL teams are less interested in raw athleticism than a player's ability to line up correctly and follow the proper dance steps:
If the coach calls "zero type wing ride," for instance, each player has to know instantly what to do, where his teammates will be going and how to adjust to the other team's behavior. In this environment, low test scores can be a sign that a player may be a "repetition guy," who needs to see something over and over before it sinks in. "You need to 'get it' quick," says Mr. Allen of the Buccaneers. "We don't have a lot of patience in the NFL right now." Floyd Reese, the general manager of the Tennessee Titans, says players who score high on Wonderlic are often better suited to carry out his team's complex defense. Over a period of years, he says, the playbook has grown thick with coverages, combinations and alignments, some of which haven't been used in a year. "Woooh, it's thick!" Mr. Reese says. "I don't know if I could memorize it now. Out of college, no way." In general, Mr. Reese says he prefers smart players who might lose the occasional physical battle over gifted athletes who struggle to learn the system and make silly mistakes.
"We've made a religion of it in the last few years," says Rams coach Mike Martz [The Rams scored the highest of all NFL teams]. "So long as he plays at a high level, we'll always choose a guy that is smarter." To make this offense tick, lineman have to master multiple protection "packages" and some receivers have to learn four positions. It's so complex that the Rams don't even have a playbook: Mr. Martz calls it a "system book" instead. "It's like algebra," he says. "Once you learn the equation, you can solve problems." It seems to work. In six years this offense has led the team to two Super Bowls, set an NFL record for total yards in a season and produced three MVP awards.
I can see how the Wonderlic test could be useful to NFL scouts because it measures a player's cognitive ability -- an important tool for any player in any sport. Contrast the NFL's Wonderlic exam with the Athletic Motivation Inventory (AMI) exam given to baseball prospects and provided by the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, which, to me, is highly suspect in terms of its usefulness for scouting purposes. It attempts to measure such qualities as leadership or trust solely in athletic terms. The AMI exam poses a series of statements with multiple-choice responses ("always, sometimes, never" or "true, false, in-between"):
I always do exactly what the coach tells me to do.
In athletics one must "either push or be shoved."
I can put up with a conceited fellow athlete fairly well.
During competition it's easy for me to really hate my opponent.
I get tired just thinking about a long, hard practice session.
Athletic competition started just ten years ago.
I enjoy getting into arguments about athletics.
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