Looking at the combine 40 times for QB’s, WR’s, and RB’s, it seems that the QB’s are not as fast as might have been perceived.
Of the QB’s only 2 ran the 40 in sub 4.6, Cole McDonald of Hawaii ran a 4.58 and Jalen Hurts ran a 4.59. Two guys ran a 4.68, one guy ran a 4.69, one ran a 4.71, one ran a 4.74 and the rest were 4.8 or higher.
There were some really fast guys at WR with Henry Ruggs III clocking 4.29, Darnell Mooney (Tulane) and Denzel Mims (BU) ran 4.38, A. Gibson (Memphis) and Duvernay (UT) ran 4.39 and a bunch of guys between 4.4 and 4.5 slot and a bunch more in the 4.5 - 4.6 range.
The RB’s had one guy J. Taylor (Wisc) that ran 4.39, after that there were 5 guys in the 4.4-4.9 range and most in the 4.5-4.7 range.
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theant
(College of Technology Grad 1981, Bring back REAL Shasta!!!)
2
Per google, Greg runs a 4.58 (NFL Combine) and D’erik 4.69 (ESPN). I bet Greg ran a faster time at his pro day. King’s time is from high school so he’s probably faster now. Both of these guys are twitchy athletes so the shuttle time is more appropriate to measure comparisons.
Just from the eyeball test I always felt like King had better straight line speed, Ward was more shifty. Ward has a more effortless running style though so maybe that’s deceiving.
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theant
(College of Technology Grad 1981, Bring back REAL Shasta!!!)
6
Yea, quicker than fast. Maybe a 10 yard dash, heh. Shifty… crispy
theant
(College of Technology Grad 1981, Bring back REAL Shasta!!!)
9
He always slides around the 35 mark so…
xsmithcoog116
(Redbull gives you delusions, not wings)
10
Are we all going to ignore the fact that Tune has a 36 inch vertical? That would put him in the top 15 of 2020 NFL combine participants. He has a sneaky explosiveness about him.
His 4.7 would be 6th in the combine this year among QB’s and only 2 hundreths of a second behind 2nd. Compare that with Kevin Kolb who ran a 4.89 in the combine. Kolb was plenty fast enough.
The fact is, if your offense depends on a lightning fast QB, you have a bad offense. The offense should depend on the speed of the WR’s and RB’s, not the QB who only needs average speed in a good offense.
Look at Ward, his speed was not of the burner variety, but when he got open, it was really hard to catch him. That’s because it takes a long ways for a guy with 4.5 speed to catch a guy with 4.6 or 4.7 who has about 4 or 5 yards on him. A guy running a 4.5 covers 8.88 yards per second. A guy running a 4.7 covers 8.5 yards per second. So every second the 4.7 guy covers 8.5 yards, the 4.5 guy gains only .38 yards which amounts to 1 foot 1.68 inches which means he could gains 2.5 yards after the slower guy ran 80 yards. Thats why a slower guy that breaks into the open can beat those faster guys to the endzone on long runs.
I would also comment that Hudl times are self reported
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xsmithcoog116
(Redbull gives you delusions, not wings)
13
Agreed. There was previous talk about 4.4 guys being more valuable at the WR postion. I suggested it was a bonus, while another poster said it was ideal. I then went on to suggest even Quez could be caught given the right angle and it was just as, if not more important to be in position in football than it is to have speed. The other poster said something along the lines of Dunbar would have never broke free on short catches like Quez did this year.
Exhibit A-this is what a 4.79 in perfect position can do:
Ad nauseam, salivating at speed will get you out-recruited, out-coached, and beat. The DB on this play probably ran a faster 40 than Dunbar but gave him a free inside release and could never recover. Gotta love football.
They were talking about how teams really look at the 10 and 20 yard times more than 40. I wouldn’t be surprised if teams weren’t timing routes for WRs in the drills too. That would be a better way to figure out if a WR is going to get open.
Yep. That’s why Jerry Rice, the GOAT, was so good while only running a 4.6 forty which is average for a WR.
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xsmithcoog116
(Redbull gives you delusions, not wings)
19
Honestly thought Bonner was going to be the next Jerry Rice. Call be crazy but he had the best combo of good separation and consistent hands I’ve seen since TJ Houshmandzadeh(spelling).
I love old school blue collar WRs. They might not be the most physically gifted but they go to work every day!