How Relevant Is the Senior Bowl? MOBILE, Ala. -- Many football fans openly question the value of college all-star games in pre-draft evaluation. Some writers who cover the event every year have similar questions. As it often does, Monday morning's weigh-in prompted a tangential discussion among those in attendance and those readers following on Twitter. Setting aside the indignity of a process in which over 100 players parade across a stage in their underwear in the football community's perverse version of Fashion Week, there are valid questions about just how relevant the Senior Bowl is. Is the value of an All-Star game diminished when many of the best senior prospects decline an invitation? Though there are always talented players ready to accept the roster spots made available by players who decline their invitation, the caliber of competition suffers when 24 players - nearly 25 percent of the roster this season - choose not to participate. It's clearly a worry for teams hoping to evaluate seniors against their peers. And it was certainly on the mind of the Senior Bowl Senior director Phil Savage, who opened the weigh-in by candidly presenting his concern that players and agents had begun to see controlled pre-draft workouts as more important than the competitive Senior Bowl environment. There isn't much that can be done about those players who elected not to play this year, but look for Savage and the N.F.L. to find ways to make the Senior Bowl more attractive to prospective players in future seasons. How much do player measurements really contribute to player evaluation? If you follow only a handful of beat writers and draftniks on Twitter or watch the NFL Network in the weeks leading up to the draft, you will be flooded with height and weight measurements reported to the tenth of an inch and comments on the hand size, arm length and wingspan of any prospect with a chance to be drafted in April. But how much do those fractions of an inch really matter? Will a team move a prospective offensive tackle to guard because of a below average arm length measurement? How far down the big board might a linebacker who measures less than six feet tall and below 230 pounds fall? The answer, of course, is, "It depends." Though a player personnel department will not write off a player they've evaluated favorably on tape because of poor measurables, history tells us that players who succeed despite limitations in size or frame are the exception rather than the rule. And it's not just the raw numbers that interest scouts and coaches. They're also watching (and commenting) on how confidently a player carries himself during the weigh-in process. Though the numbers aren't as critical as the immediate and often overwhelming media coverage suggest them to be, there are good reasons that the weigh-ins in Mobile and at the combine are heavily anticipated and attended. Ignore the shallow comparisons (e.g. Margus Hunt reminds me of J.J. Watt) and dogmatic arguments (e.g. Russell Wilson is too short to be an elite quarterback) that often follow an outlier and you'll feel better about the measurement process. Is too much emphasis placed on a limited practice and game environment? The depth and immediacy of media coverage of the Senior Bowl would suggest that teams and writers place more importance on these practices than they should. A team isn't likely to discount a large sample size of film study after a handful of disappointing practice snaps during Senior Bowl week. But neither would it be wise to ignore a small sample of practice and game snaps against the noticeably higher level of competition players see this week. Players are also being evaluated off the practice field. Teams expect players to be accountable and forthcoming during interview sessions. Players need to show that they can learn simple playbook concepts and apply what they've learned on the field. These off-field evaluations are as important to this week's process as the padded practices and live game action. There are limitations with the structure and execution of the Senior Bowl. But there's still a benefit to observing players in a highly competitive and stressful environment. The weigh-in, practice and interview processes all provide useful layers of information as teams try to answer the only truly pertinent question: Can he play?