By ZACH LYONS, Stacking the Inbox

If you’re like most normal people, you did not sit on your couch, or in front of a TV, and watch the combine in its entirety. I do not blame you. It was the right choice. However, just because you shouldn’t have to sit and watch the “Underwear Olympics,” doesn’t mean you should discount the importance of the event.

That’s why you have a nerd like me. My name is Zach Lyons, and I am addicted to the combine. I love everything about it. The pressers, the social posts about formal meetings, and yes, the athletic feats. Luckily for you, I enjoy it so much that I collect all of the data for you and give you a one-stop shop for all things combine.

While this is the first year you, a paid subscriber to PaulKuharsky.com, gets access to the fruits of my addiction. It is my third year in a row compiling all this. In just a moment I am going to introduce you to my combine tool. After I take you on a tour of the tool, I am going to give you a few prospects that you should get familiar with, Because I surmise the Titans will be doing their due diligence on them as the process goes on.

The Combine Tool

Wrapping up some combine thoughts after five days in Indianapolis, starting with a few categories…

Best podium sessions I was in on…

Rome Odunze: An absolute delight. He will be an absolute media darling wherever he goes. That was apparent as he stepped onto his podium platform and was quick to greet social media guys from Washington. 

Jackson Powers-Johnson: While the Oregon center stopped short of letting us hear how he can sing both alto and tenor in his gospel choir he talked about being part of it with the same passion he has for football. Also loved the way he spoke about being in command of an offense from the moment he takes the field.

INDIANAPOLIS – Starting Monday, PaulKuharsky.com will add a new content element during free-agent and draft build-up that I'm sure you will love while anticipating what the Titans might do.

Zach Lyons writes a terrific Titans’ newsletter called “Stacking the Inbox.” He is especially good at providing comparative looks at players the team and its new decision-makers have signed and drafted in the past and finding comparable players in the free agent and draft pools.

He will share his spreadsheet and offer what we’ll call Lyons’ Titans – players he sees in the free agent and draft markets who he believes line up with what the team wants. He’ll show you why they’d fit, explaining their physical characteristics, draft value, financial and cap costs and other pertinent details while using a mix of analytics.

INDIANAPOLIS – Oh, the parade. Talented receiver after talented receiver took the three steps up to the podium platforms at the NFL scouting combine Friday.

Headliner Marvin Harrison Jr. skipped it.

But a loaded class with plenty of other big names forged ahead, making a lot of good impressions and cases for while they will be high-quality additions to teams around the league. 

It’s hard to imagine any are more receiver-needy than the Titans, who’ve got uncertainty after DeAndre Hopkins and lack the speedy and explosive playmakers they need to take advantage of Will Levis’ quick release and big arm. Both Ran Carthon and Brian Callahan spoke early in the week about receivers and sounded committed to solving a long-term issue.

Many receivers spoke of what they think differentiates them from the field.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A day after breaking ground on new Nissan Stadium, an official from Nashville and another from the Titans are here as part of a group hosted by the NFL to discuss the possibility of hosting the scouting combine.

Four cities were part of the visit, as Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Phoenix joined Nashville while Indianapolis will try to retain the event. Things are in the very preliminary stages.

"The league has decided they want to take a look at is it worth moving, they've invited several cities to Indy this week to look at it and of course, we raised our hand and said we'd love to tag along and take a look and hopefully have a shot at doing something with it," said Butch Spyridon, former president and CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation who is representing the city as a consultant.

"The new stadium is critical to it and it's another example of what the new stadium opens up as new opportunities for us."

Adolpho Birch, the Titans senior vice president and chief external and legal affairs officer, was also with the group.

INDIANAPOLIS -- For this week's edition of The Paul Kuharsky Podcast, I recruited three smart friends with great views on the draft and beyond for chats.

You don't want to miss Pete Prisco of CBS, Dane Brugler of The Athletic and Ben Solak of The Ringer.

Prisco covered the Jaguars for a long time before he became a national guy. He sees interesting times ahead for the AFC South with a division better stocked at quarterback, where he's a big Will Levis believer.

Brugler has recently mocked Olu Fashanu to the Titans at No. 7 and sees a realistic scenario where the left tackle vs. wide receiver decision could be made for them. He can envision Marvin Harrison, Jr., Malik Nabors and Rome Odunze all selected in the first six picks.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NFLPA's second annual survey of players reveals the Titans are particularly unhappy with two significant categories.

For the second year in a row, they gave the team an F for travel accommodations and they graded the team's treatment of families as a D+ a year after it was a B-.

NFLPA president JC Tretter was able to offer details on the travel grade, but checked the file and had no specific events that contributed to the decrease in the family treatment category.

"They offer roommates, they don't like the travel schedule itself, they don't have enough personal space on the plane, they scored low in all of it," he said.

As for the treatment of families, the report offers two notes, one negative and one positive: "They are one of 12 teams that do not provide a family room during games" and "They provide daycare on gameday."

I know they've had a family room in the past across from the locker room and I've seen action near it. Apparently, it's not been functional since Covid.

"If there is a reason for the drop, I highlight the reason it got worse," Tretter said. "If it was just we now change the way the grades are done, they are now harsher grades, or there are tighter bands of grades, I did not highlight a reason, the grades are just more spread."

The Titans were tied for 16th with a B- in the category in 2022 and are 17th in 2023 with a D+.

I spoke with one member of the team who gave me significant feedback on multiple categories.

By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

The NFL Combine’s roots trace back to 1982, when team owners recognized an opportunity to collect top talent in a centralized location to gather medical information and organized the National Invitational Camp (NIC). Today’s combine has – like almost everything the league does during the offseason – turned into a made-for-TV event featuring the drills and events we all recognized today over the past 20 years.

The core of the combine remains the medical evaluations, but those don’t attract nearly the attention that the rest of the events do for obvious reasons. Reactions to combine test results range from those who completely dismiss the “underwear Olympics” to those who obsess over tenths and hundredths of seconds as differentiators between the next star and the next stooge.

The reality is that combine results – and athletic testing in general – carry far more weight for some positions than others and not all drills are of equal importance across the board. If an edge rusher turns in a horrible combine, that should be a major red flag for their potential to become a top-of-the-line sack artist at the NFL level, regardless of his college production. However, history says that poor athletic testing is less likely to be a disqualifier for inside linebackers or interior offensive linemen.