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By Joe Kozlowski
Sports Team Lead
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As the annual NFL Combine approaches, prospects will be tested for their strength, speed and even mental capacity ahead of April's NFL Draft. Several outlets, including the Associated Press, have suggested that the NFL phased the infamous Wonderlic test out of the pre-draft process. But that doesn't mean that more ambiguous off-field assessments have completely fallen off the combine's slate.
Enter the S2 cognitive test, which has been thrust back into the spotlight around the 2024 Combine. Last year, C.J. Stroud's score leaked, and, in hindsight, his poor grade seems to be at odds with the fact that he shone as a rookie. That prompted an entire discussion about the score, how it leaked and how we assess potential pros on the whole.
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And while this test is different than the Wonderlic, there's a similar element of mystery involved. While we may hear about the assessment and the scores, things are, again, less understandable than physical performance. What does the S2 test actually entail?
In 2023, The Athletic provided some clarity.
"The S2 consists of eight different tests, testing nine cognitive functions, each of which is graded independently. Its purpose is to measure how quickly and accurately athletes process information; unlike the Wonderlic, which measures general intelligence," Mark Puleo wrote.
He also explained that the test is given "on a specialized laptop and response pad, usually taking about 40 to 45 minutes" and "features tests that record how fast an athlete can identify the missing point on a diamond, or how many objects they can keep track of simultaneously."
And while that may sound pretty important, especially for someone like a quarterback tasked with watching a play develop and making the right read, don't take a single test score as the entirety of a scouting report.
When asked about the S2's ability to predict NFL success, S2 co-founder and Head of Football Operations Brandon Ally insisted that it wasn't really within the scope of a single metric. Instead, it's about knowing as many variables as possible.
"Predicting the future is a wild assertion. While data and analytics can reduce uncertainty, there is no tool on the planet that can predict success," he told Newsweek via email.
"Success as an athlete is always multi-factorial. Just like it is not enough to simply know the physical size of an athlete, it is not enough to simply know an athlete's speeded cognition abilities. An athlete is a combination of physical tools, technical proficiencies, tactical experience and knowledge, psychological scaffolds, and cognitive capacities. Strengths and weaknesses in any of these attributes can enhance or compromise an athlete's ability to be successful.
"Further, one has to overlie the gravity of certain high-pressure situations, the performance of other teammates, and a variety of other factors not dependent on that particular athlete (e.g., does he fit the scheme of his coordinator, does the coaching staff make the right calls etc.)."
But that brings us back to the elephant in the room regarding player evaluation. If the idea of this, or any other combine assessment, is to evaluate professional potential, what do we make of notable misses like Stroud? Can we really praise the test for highlighting Brock Purdy's potential if it undersold the Rookie of the Year?
With that in mind, how would S2 like their assessment to be used for talent evaluation purposes?
"From our perspective, the better question is how does one's capacities for speeded cognition impact a player's ability to adapt to the speed and complexity of the game at the highest level," Ally said.
"In the most extreme situations, small advantages and disadvantages in speeded cognitive processing can have significant effects. In addition to providing some insight into the potential advantages and challenges an athlete will experience at the most extreme level, the S2 is perhaps best suited to help teams identify specific cognitive capacities that fit in their system or best align with the expectations they have for that player's position.
"Just like certain physical skills make a good fit in certain schemes, understanding a player's cognitive capabilities adds another dimension to ensuring a good fit and making sure a player is in the best possible situation to be successful. Finally, equipped with insights about how a player is wired, a coach is in a better position to lean into the player's strengths and either adapt or develop a player to mitigate any processing disadvantages from showing up in play. This is far more prescriptive than predictive."
And, ultimately, that makes sense.
In the world of sports, it's easy to look for magic bullets and then blame them when they don't work. Consider advanced stats—how many times have you heard that a metric is overlooking heart, toughness or some other intangible and is therefore invalid? —as an example of that. The same can be said for player evaluation. Just about every player has had a potential red flag. Some worried, for example, that Patrick Mahomes wasn't capable of evolving past backyard football or that Joe Burrow's small hands would hold him back.
You can add Stroud's S2 score to that list. And whether you think it was leaked to try to take his draft status or not, it's a reminder that a single data point doesn't determine an athlete's entire body of work.
Ultimately, that's where the skill of being a good talent evaluator lies. Anyone can read the data, but it takes a certain amount of intelligence and know-how to parse the numbers properly and make the right pick.
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