Every year in the middle of February, personnel from NFL teams obsess over the performance of young men in a series of obstacles that, more often than not, don’t translate into NFL success.

The series of obstacles? Well, that would be the weeklong NFL Scouting Combine.

Combine week is when scouts and general managers talk excitedly about someone’s 40-yard dash time, vertical jump height and Wonderlic Test scores.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg potential NFL players go through at the Combine. Aside from various physical tests of agility, speed and power, there are player interviews testing how passionate a player is about the game, physical measurements presumably indicating how good an NFL player will be and drug screening to see if a player has taken illegal substances.

The excitement over the Combine even carried over to the UW.

On the gohuskies.com home page, center Juan Garcia is featured in the “Top Dawg Spotlight,” which says he was tied for second-best among offensive players in the bench press at the Combine.

But how successful is the Combine at predicting good NFL players?

For every Combine darling that goes on to star in the NFL, there’s an over-hyped player that turns into a bust.

In recent years, quarterbacks Philip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers and Jay Cutler of the Denver Broncos both entered the Combine coming out of mediocre college programs and rose to first-round status due to great performances there.

Former Delaware quarterback Joe Flacco also took that route and wowed talent evaluators with his cannon arm. Flacco went on to be drafted 18th overall by the Baltimore Ravens and led them to the AFC Championship game this past season.

But there’s a flip side to the Combine as well.

Personnel from the New York Jets were smitten with former Ohio State linebacker Vernon Gholston after last year’s Combine, selecting him as the seventh overall pick.

One season may be too early to label him a bust, but Gholston has certainly not performed up to his lofty draft status.

The media circus surrounding the NFL Scouting Combine and its subsequent hype continues to this day.

Much was made last week about the fact that potential No. 1 draft picks Matthew Stafford, a quarterback from Georgia, and Andre Smith, offensive tackle from Alabama, missed out on parts of or the entire Combine.

Some NFL columnists believe Stafford’s decision to drop out of major passing drills shows a lack of confidence. But Stafford elected to showcase his skills during Georgia’s pro day because he could throw to familiar receivers.

With Smith, it’s an entirely different story. The opinions about him now range from his being selfish to lazy to being dispassionate about football.

It’s still too early to predict whether Stafford or Smith will be selected No. 1, much less be productive pro football players, but all the talk seems to suggest that their absence from the Combine hurt their chances.

That’s just not fair considering the Combine is just a set of meaningless tasks that have no effect on whether a player is ready to play in the NFL.

Reach columnist Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.