NFL To Hold FIrst Ever NFL Veteran FA Combine

You can officially add another combine to the NFL's offseason schedule.

NFL director of football development Matt Birk sent out a memo on Thursday informing all 32 teams that a Veteran Combine for free agents will be held in Arizona on March 22.

Birk said that the new combine was created because the free agent current process is "inefficient."

"There's a void there," Birk told the Associated Press. "There was nothing for that guy out there who has one or two or three years in the league and is not with a team and is at the mercy of when the phone rings or when his agent gets him a workout. This will be a forum for these guys to showcase their talents and a service for our clubs instead of [what had been] an inefficient process."

The March 22 date of the Veteran Combine isn't an accident, the event will correspond with the March 22-24 NFL owners' meetings in Phoenix. The combine will be held at the Cardinals' team facility.

"This will allow teams to get a look at the guys, and if they want to dive deeper, they can bring the players in for a physical with their own doctors, and do the interviews," Birk said. "This is whether the players pass the eye test on the field."

The Veteran Combine will likely help guys who don't expected to get sign right away when free agency starts on March 10.

The NFL is expected to invite about 100 players to attend and any player interested will have to fill out an application and pay a $400 participation fee if invited.

The Veteran Combine now joins the Scouting Combine and the regional combines on the NFL's offseason schedule. The annual 2015 Scouting Combine is scheduled for Feb. 17-23 in Indianapolis.

The NFL will also hold five regional combines, which will take place in various cities between Feb. 7 and March 7. The regional combines will culminate on March 21 with the Super Regional Combine in Arizona.