INDIANAPOLIS — I can’t say I’ve ever been in a football stadium as silent as Lucas Oil Stadium was Saturday morning.

While offensive linemen ran their 40-yard dashes — the first group of the combine to do so — the silence was so deafening that the air conditioners hundreds of feet up along the rooftop made the only noise in the building. I’m talking finals-week-of-college-type silent.

About 200 talent evaluators were in the building, and they never went above a whisper. While some coaches and GMs elect not to watch the workouts first-hand, I spotted several combine regulars — Vikings coach Brad Childress, Giants coach Tom Coughlin, Bills coach Chan Gailey and 49ers coach Mike Singletary.

It’s all business among the talent evaluators, who deploy different strategies for viewing the combine — some sit in the luxury boxes, others alone, and some teams gather in packs.

– Frank Tadych

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