NFL Combine: Part 1

With the NFL Draft coming up, this past week is considered one of the most important in the off-season.

Every year, the best collegiate athletes in all the land who are entering the NFL Draft are invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. There, they are put on display in front of scouts from all 32 NFL teams. The athletes participate in events such as the bench press where they show how many times they can lift 225 pounds, the cone drill where they show off their agility, and the flashy 40 yard dash where players put their pure speed on display.

We'll be splitting up my coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine into 3 separate posts, with my first starting with the exciting 40 yard dash drill.

Blazing 40 yard dash times:

Two years ago, Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson dropped jaws running a combine record 40 yard dash in 4.24 seconds. While initially a relatively unknown prospect coming out of an obscure school in East Carolina, Johnson immediately flew up teams' draft boards and ended up being selected by the Titans withs the 24th overall pick.

Fast forward to this year's combine, USC Safety Taylor Mays made serious splashes when it was reported that he tied Johnson's record with a 4.24 second 40 yard dash time. Mays is a big safety who's speed and agility was supposedly one of his weaknesses and this time was going to make a huge impact for his draft status.

Unfortunately for Mays, it was later clarified that he actually ran a 4.43. A time that still should boost his draft status but isn't as jaw-dropping as once thought.

Only 3 players ran in the 4.2s this year. Clemson wide receiver Jacoby Ford who's projected to be a mid-round prospect, Clemson running back CJ Spiller (4.28) who was the consensus best running back prospect in the draft, and LSU return specialist Trindon Holliday who's draft status is hurt by his lack of size (only 5'5").

While as it stands right now Spiller is the only one of the three that is projected to go in the first round, don't be too surprised if Ford and Holliday jump up the boards more than expected as speed is the one thing you can't coach.

Not so impressive results:

While the 40 yard dash can certainly do wonders for a players' draft status, it can also do quite the opposite. A slow 40 time can make coaches question whether or not you should change positions or if you're even fast enough to play at the next level.

Going into the combine, Florida cornerback Joe Haden was considered a top 10 draft pick and heads and shoulders above his peers at the cornerback position. All he had to do was run somewhere in the 4.4 range and his draft status wouldn't be questioned. That's when he flopped.

Haden's first 40 time was an underwhelming 4.57 seconds. Frustrated, he then ran it again and recorded an even worse 4.60 seconds. To put that in perspective, defensive end prospect Dexter Davis was able to run 40 yards in 4 56 seconds. For teams interested in selecting Haden in the top 10, that kind of money being invested into somebody who may not even have the speed to stay with some of the top-end receivers may make them weary.

Another combine disappointment was one of Haden's teammates at Flordia, Carlos Dunlap a defensive end. Dunlap is a potential first round pick and is as athletically gifted a defensive end as anybody else in the draft. His downfall has been his effort and attitude problems. Unfortunately for Dunlap, the combine didn't do much to change his image.

4.71 seconds was Dunlap's fourty time, one of the lowest out of all of the defensive end prospects. With all of the question marks he has, you would think he'd put in the extra effort to make sure he makes general managers and head coaches a little more uncomfortable with spending a 1st round pick on him.

Overall though, Haden and Dunlap were the only real red flag 40 yard dash participants in this years' NFL Scouting Combine. For the most part no players did far worse than expected and there weren't too many surprises either.

That just about does it for the 40 yard dash talk, next up we'll be talking about the bench press drills, the cone drills, and how these drills translate to the gritty battles in the trenches.