INDIANAPOLIS — The dark cloud hanging over the 2011 NFL season extends to this week’s annual scouting combine, too.
Because of those ill winds of labor discord, it doesn’t promise to be a particularly happy group of college prospects — or the agents who represent them — descending on Lucas Oil Stadium for pre-draft workouts, interviews and all-important medical exams through Tuesday.
Cam Newton’s planned audition at the combine is certain to provide intrigue. But the controversial Auburn quarterback and his fellow draft hopefuls will show their wares this week knowing that the financial gravy train for NFL rookies is likely over — and that their group will be the first to miss out.
The assistant coaches and scouts watching them probably won’t be in a good mood, either, in light of promises by the Jets and other teams to start furloughs or layoffs should the lockout begin, as expected, in early March.
“The emotions are going to be a lot more intense than they usually are for these things, and that goes for everyone,” a veteran AFC general manager told The Post this week. “It’s usually a pretty laid-back deal, but there’s so much uncertainty this year.”
For the prospects, their enthusiasm is likely to be tempered by the owners’ continued demand for an immediate rookie wage scale that would make Sam Bradford’s $50 million signing bonus as the No. 1 overall pick last year a relic.
Not only that, but the owners also want to require rookies in the next CBA to sign unbreakable four- or five-year boilerplate contracts that wouldn’t allow for individual negotiation. That desire appears to double as a broadside at agents, many of whom would be forced out of the business because the average NFL career lasts just three years.
Considering the NFL Players Association hasn’t really put up much of a fight when it comes to rookie contracts, invitees this week know they can count on making a lot less right out of college than the players who preceded them less than a year ago.
No wonder veteran agent Jack Bechta wrote this week that Friday’s annual agent meeting with union leaders could be “the most important agent meeting in the history of the union.”
On the field and in the interview rooms, however, the combine won’t lack for interesting storylines to keep fans interested and take everyone’s mind off the eye-glazing labor wars.
Newton said this week that he plans to throw passes here as well as participate in interviews. That is good news for the NFL Network’s round-the-clock TV coverage, though personnel executives already know about Newton’s athletic skills and will be much more interested in picking his brain.
“It’s a matter of diving deeper into his background,” ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said of Newton. “One GM I talked to recently said, ‘Our team is not in the quarterback hunt right now, but if we were, I’d be in this kid’s hip pocket every day between now and the end of the draft.’ ”
Other headliners this week will include two other quarterbacks — Washington’s Jake Locker and Ryan Mallett of Arkansas — and 2009 Heisman winner Mark Ingram, as well as Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley.
Ingram will have to answer questions about his durability, and Fairley will face as many skeptics as his teammate Newton when it comes to maturity level.
The combine also will have a distinctly powder-blue hue, as North Carolina’s scandal-plagued program landed a whopping 12 invitees — by far the most of any school this year. Scouts say that at least six of those Tar Heel prospects could be taken in the first three rounds in April.
Closer to home, Connecticut had a school-record six players invited, and Syracuse will have four. Rutgers will follow up its banner 2010 draft success by sending just one player to Indianapolis — defensive back Joseph Lefeged.
The sense of foreboding, meanwhile, will be everywhere.
