Wonderlic test is much ado about nothing

There are many tests at the combine. There arethe throwing drills, the 40-yard dash, the bench press, and the Wonderlic, among many other things.

Many of those things are not reliable predictors of NFL success. The Wonderlic test falls among them.

For those of you who don't know what the Wonderlic is, it is a test used by many occupations (not just the NFL, they just have more publicity because they reveal it to everyone) to assess the aptitude of potential employees in a variety of situations. It has 50 questions and must be completed in 12 minutes. Scoring is determined by how many questions are answered correctly in a span of 12 minutes. A score of 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence.

But it's not a reliable indicator of NFL success. Joe Flacco had an average score on the Wonderlic test. Dan Marino and Terry Bradshaw had scores of 15 and 13, and they both became Hall of Famers. Frank Gore had a score of six. Johnny Manziel had the highest score out of all the other 2014 rookie QBs, a 32, and he had the worst year out of all of them. Blaine Gabbert had a score of 42. Ryan Fitzpatrick had a 49. Donovan McNabb had the lowest score of any quarterback in the class of 1999, a 14, but had the longest and best career out of any of them.

A study by David B. Lyons in 2009 found that the Wonderlic failed to positively and significantly predict NFL success, and in some cases, higher Wonderlic scores were indicators of bad performance in the NFL.

Of course that's not saying the test is invalid completely.

Jeff George, Vince Young and Morris Claiborne had scores of 10, 6 and 4, respectively, on the test, which by the Wonderlic's interpretation means that George was barely literate while Young and Claiborne are illiterate.

Guys like Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady had scores of 37, 35, and 33, respectively, on the test. So it is sometimes useful as an indicator of success. But you also have to remember that Romo was undrafted and sat behind Drew Bledsoe and Vinny Testaverde for the first three seasons of his career. Rodgers spent three seasons learning from Brett Favre. Luck was as sure as it got and Brady was a sixth-round pick who worked incredibly hard to get where he's gotten. The only perfect score was recorded by punter Pat McInally.

I took a sample Wonderlic test and scored 36/50. Which of course means that Joe Flacco, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady should watch out.

You can take a practice Wonderlic as well by CLICKING HERE.