Predicting Future Quarterback Performance in the National Football League: Effective Use of Cognitive Assessments

For years the National Football League (NFL) has been assessing the physical and mental abilities of NFL prospects through the NFL Scouting Combine. With football being one of the most popular sports in the world, significant amounts of money are on the line for NFL organizations to make the right pick when it is time for the annual NFL Draft, and the quarterback position is the most important selection. NFL organizations will use a variety of methods to scout NFL prospects to gather as much information as they can on their potential multimillion-dollar investment. However, there does not seem to be an exact formula for how NFL organizations can make the right pick based on past tests that have been administered. Due to the high stakes investments that NFL organizations make with drafting prospects, we hope to evaluate the different assessment tools that have been used to assess a quarterback’s cognitive abilities and how they translate to on-field performance. We will do so by assessing current cognitive assessments that have been utilized by the NFL in their annual draft analysis, along with discussing new testing mechanisms that have been recently developed.

Keywords: Cognitive Assessment, Football Quarterbacks, Wonderlic Personnel Test, Athletic Intelligence Quotient.