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Speed... Does it kill or just thrill?
March 13th, 2010 By Patrick Green
Just imagine, in the time it would take the average person to read this statement, Deion Sanders would have completed a running of the 40-yard-dash and been en route to the shower. Try typing this sentence and one might even find Sanders out of the shower and signing autographs for adoring fans smaller than the authentic jerseys they shoulder.
That was the 1990 version of Prime Time. But twenty years later, speed continues to wow the masses, scouts and general managers not removed.
The latest to burn up the run way include former Clemson receiver Jacoby Ford, LSU return man Trindon Holiday, California running back Jahvid Best, and Clemson running back C.J. Spiller. All ran at the NFL Combine in April; all helped their cause, unequivocally.
There, Ford was the most sensational, scathing through the electronic tape in 4.28 seconds. Holiday (4.34), Best (4.35), and Spiller (4.37), though trailing the All American track and field star, marked themselves as road runners with their performances.
How will that impact their Draft positions? As well, does success generally follow such a showing?
Last year, it was Maryland’s Darrius Heyward-Bey (4.30), Abilene Christian’s Johnny Knox (4.34), and Florida’s Percy Harvin (4.37), who blazed through the NFL Combine’s Broadway event. Heyward-Bey’s effort surprisingly catapulted him in the Draft above Harvin, Michael Crabtree, and Jerry Maclin, as he was taken with the seventh overall pick by Oakland. The Raiders, most disappointingly, did not see the initial return, for the Terrapin caught just nine passes last season for 124 yards and one touchdown. On the contrary, after spotting Heyward-Bey five games, Crabtree hauled in 48 receptions with San Francisco for 625 yards and one score.
As for Harvin, he was taken by Minnesota with the 22nd overall selection and had a resounding rookie season with 60 receptions, 790 yards, and six touchdowns. True, Harvin played all over the field for the Gators and Heyward-Bey competed against ACC corners. Knox, however, didn’t fully sale himself simply on his speed. Perhaps it was not enough to compensate for the fact that he played for a Division II school in the Lone Star Conference. While his 40-time didn’t propel him into Draft supremacy, Chicago thought enough of him to take the former Wildcat in the fifth round. Relatively speaking, if not for an eye-popping sprint, it is conceivable that Knox might not even have signed on in the League as a free agent.
And Knox, thus far, has proven that he wasn’t just a safe pick and a Combine wonder. The Houston native in his 2009 rookie season caught 45 passes for 527 yards and five touchdowns. Along the same lines, former Brigham Young receiver Austin Collie also had a more than respectable rookie session, snagging 60 passes for 676 yards and seven touchdowns with NFL title contender Indianapolis last season. Collie’s outcome challenges the thrill of the sprint, considering he ran a turtle-like 4.63 in the same Combine as Knox.
Did the paltry pace negatively impact Collie’s Draft status? At BYU, Collie set multiple Cougars records, had 11 consecutive games with 100-plus yards receiving, and after an All-American junior year in which he hauled in 106 passes, 15 touchdowns, and more than 1,500 yards, Collie entered the Draft. The Canadian-bred record setter was deemed to be a high pick, but after the Combine his stock diminished and he slipped to the fourth round and the 127th pick overall.
So what does this say for Ford, Holiday, Best, and Spiller?
Recent history for the better part offers a promising glimpse. The man who still owns the fastest Combine time ever, former East Carolina running back Chris Johnson (4.24), has proven to be somewhat productive. The Tennessee Titan led the League in rushing this past season, amassing a mammoth 2,006 yards and 14 touchdowns on 358 carries.
But if football is as some say ‘a game of inches,’ why is the 40 so relevant? Really, how often do players get to demonstrate that gift in live play?
In Johnson’s case, the answer is - frequently. Not only did the Orlando native average a formidable 5.6-yards per carry, but he had break out runs of 85 yards against Arizona, 91 on Houston, 89 against Jacksonville, and 48 and 41 against New England and San Francisco, respectively. Seemingly, every time he touched the ball he was a threat to reenact his 40 performance.
Moreover, Knox might be illustrative of why the 40 is a credible forecast. This past season, the Houston native replaced an injured Harvin in the Pro Bowl for the NFC after finishing second in the NFL in kickoff returns with a 29-yard average. Knox gave all who may have missed his Combine exploits a Sunday school lesson when he measured the field for a 102-yard kickoff return in Week Four against Detroit. Equally, the aforementioned Harvin averaged 9 yards per carry on 15 attempts and in the receiving game had a long of 51-yards, including three plays that went for longer than 40 yards. Also, the former Gator had 12 plays go beyond 20 yards.
The strongest case is probably found in California product DeSean Jackson, who clocked in at 4.35 at the 2008 NFL Combine. Speed didn’t completely disguise the fact that Jackson stood at just 5-9, and the Pac-10 standout fell to Philadelphia in the second round with the 49th overall selection. Nothing, however, has been slow for Jackson since the arduous wait to be selected.
Last season, the second-year pro averaged an eye gouging 18.6-yards per catch en route to 1,156 yards receiving and nine touchdowns on 62 receptions. Flamboyantly, Jackson showcased his ability to separate from much slower secondary defenders and score easily, with receptions covering 48, 64, 71, 60, 51, 59, and 57 yards through the course of the season.
And though Jackson consistently displays his foot speed advantage, players like Wes Welker dispel the notion that acceleration is the only map to success. True, the New England receiver had just three plays go longer than 40 yards last season. Regardless, the Texas Tech alum led the League with 123 receptions, compiled 1,348 yards and is considered a premiere possession receiver. Welker didn’t exactly set the track on fire after his career as a Red Raider. In fact, the Oklahoma City native ran a pedestrian 4.65-40 and went undrafted in 2004.
After being spurned by San Diego in 2004, Welker caught on with Miami, and contributed commendably with the Dolphins before taking off with the Patriots. The 5-9 Welker, though the owner of 346 receptions in the past three seasons, only has 15 touchdowns covering the same span. Speedier receivers such as former Miami receiver Andre Johnson don’t catch as many balls, but gain more yardage, score twice as much, and usually make a more immediate impact. For instance, the Houston wide out last season posted a League-high 1,569 yards, for a 15.5 average per catch, with nine touchdowns. The Texan surpassed 50-yard gains seven times, including plays that accounted for 62, 64, and 72 yards.
Ford could very well be this year’s DeSean Jackson, with Spiller and Best possibly vying for the role as Chris Johnson. All proved to be game breakers in the college ranks. Spiller alone had scoring plays of 80 or more yards an amazing seven times in his career at Clemson.
Defensively, similar results are often visited in the secondary. Champ Bailey, who ran a Combine 4.28-40 in 1999 coming out of Georgia, was considered the premiere lock down corner in the League for much of the last decade. Pittsburgh alum Darrelle Revis, for many, currently holds that distinction. The New York Jets corner was speedy on his Pro Day with a 4.38-40 and has been out racing receivers in the NFL since.
This year, Florida’s Joe Haden is hoping to counter this trend after a miserable 40 showing at the Combine where he didn’t finish in the top-10 among corners and posted an unofficial time of 4.57. And while the Gator has expressed that the result of his run is a minor setback, where he lands in the Draft depends on whether or not most general managers agree. And if Haden damaged his stock, Southern California’s Taylor Mays put some juice in his. Sure, the Trojan safety logged in at 4.43 (adjusted from an unofficial 4.24) but at 6-3 and 230 pounds, that kind of speed is alarming.
Certainly, speed kills. Sanders demonstrated countless times that such a commodity doesn’t hurt when manning the secondary or pulling the rear on special teams. He also thrilled in the process. But individuals like Deion Sanders create a deception with their talents. Onlookers are sometimes so enamored with the dramatics of speed that they often forget that the same players that appear to move beyond the laws of physics are equipped with a skill set that is either complimented by the speed or enhanced by it. And then the deception is in some cases reversed, when the speed is so blinding that spectators fail to identity the lack of skill set in a particular player until Sunday afternoon exposes it.
Either way, don’t be so fast to fault the 40; instead, fault the decision makers who don’t have the 20/20 to see beyond it.
- Patrick Green, DraftNasty.com staff writer, has been writing professionally for more than a decade. He is the author of two novels, Josie’s Missing Syllabus and Son Down; and while both works deal with topics beyond the athletic landscape, each exposes a social scope involving sports as an underlying theme. Green has covered high school, college, amateur, and professional football during his career, having written for newspapers in Augusta, Ga., and Charleston, South Carolina. To learn more about Patrick Green, visit www.greeninkpub.com.
Got an item? Please send an email to PR@draftynasty.com
March 13th, 2010 By Patrick Green
Just imagine, in the time it would take the average person to read this statement, Deion Sanders would have completed a running of the 40-yard-dash and been en route to the shower. Try typing this sentence and one might even find Sanders out of the shower and signing autographs for adoring fans smaller than the authentic jerseys they shoulder.
That was the 1990 version of Prime Time. But twenty years later, speed continues to wow the masses, scouts and general managers not removed.
The latest to burn up the run way include former Clemson receiver Jacoby Ford, LSU return man Trindon Holiday, California running back Jahvid Best, and Clemson running back C.J. Spiller. All ran at the NFL Combine in April; all helped their cause, unequivocally.
There, Ford was the most sensational, scathing through the electronic tape in 4.28 seconds. Holiday (4.34), Best (4.35), and Spiller (4.37), though trailing the All American track and field star, marked themselves as road runners with their performances.
How will that impact their Draft positions? As well, does success generally follow such a showing?
Last year, it was Maryland’s Darrius Heyward-Bey (4.30), Abilene Christian’s Johnny Knox (4.34), and Florida’s Percy Harvin (4.37), who blazed through the NFL Combine’s Broadway event. Heyward-Bey’s effort surprisingly catapulted him in the Draft above Harvin, Michael Crabtree, and Jerry Maclin, as he was taken with the seventh overall pick by Oakland. The Raiders, most disappointingly, did not see the initial return, for the Terrapin caught just nine passes last season for 124 yards and one touchdown. On the contrary, after spotting Heyward-Bey five games, Crabtree hauled in 48 receptions with San Francisco for 625 yards and one score.
As for Harvin, he was taken by Minnesota with the 22nd overall selection and had a resounding rookie season with 60 receptions, 790 yards, and six touchdowns. True, Harvin played all over the field for the Gators and Heyward-Bey competed against ACC corners. Knox, however, didn’t fully sale himself simply on his speed. Perhaps it was not enough to compensate for the fact that he played for a Division II school in the Lone Star Conference. While his 40-time didn’t propel him into Draft supremacy, Chicago thought enough of him to take the former Wildcat in the fifth round. Relatively speaking, if not for an eye-popping sprint, it is conceivable that Knox might not even have signed on in the League as a free agent.
And Knox, thus far, has proven that he wasn’t just a safe pick and a Combine wonder. The Houston native in his 2009 rookie season caught 45 passes for 527 yards and five touchdowns. Along the same lines, former Brigham Young receiver Austin Collie also had a more than respectable rookie session, snagging 60 passes for 676 yards and seven touchdowns with NFL title contender Indianapolis last season. Collie’s outcome challenges the thrill of the sprint, considering he ran a turtle-like 4.63 in the same Combine as Knox.
Did the paltry pace negatively impact Collie’s Draft status? At BYU, Collie set multiple Cougars records, had 11 consecutive games with 100-plus yards receiving, and after an All-American junior year in which he hauled in 106 passes, 15 touchdowns, and more than 1,500 yards, Collie entered the Draft. The Canadian-bred record setter was deemed to be a high pick, but after the Combine his stock diminished and he slipped to the fourth round and the 127th pick overall.
So what does this say for Ford, Holiday, Best, and Spiller?
Recent history for the better part offers a promising glimpse. The man who still owns the fastest Combine time ever, former East Carolina running back Chris Johnson (4.24), has proven to be somewhat productive. The Tennessee Titan led the League in rushing this past season, amassing a mammoth 2,006 yards and 14 touchdowns on 358 carries.
But if football is as some say ‘a game of inches,’ why is the 40 so relevant? Really, how often do players get to demonstrate that gift in live play?
In Johnson’s case, the answer is - frequently. Not only did the Orlando native average a formidable 5.6-yards per carry, but he had break out runs of 85 yards against Arizona, 91 on Houston, 89 against Jacksonville, and 48 and 41 against New England and San Francisco, respectively. Seemingly, every time he touched the ball he was a threat to reenact his 40 performance.
Moreover, Knox might be illustrative of why the 40 is a credible forecast. This past season, the Houston native replaced an injured Harvin in the Pro Bowl for the NFC after finishing second in the NFL in kickoff returns with a 29-yard average. Knox gave all who may have missed his Combine exploits a Sunday school lesson when he measured the field for a 102-yard kickoff return in Week Four against Detroit. Equally, the aforementioned Harvin averaged 9 yards per carry on 15 attempts and in the receiving game had a long of 51-yards, including three plays that went for longer than 40 yards. Also, the former Gator had 12 plays go beyond 20 yards.
The strongest case is probably found in California product DeSean Jackson, who clocked in at 4.35 at the 2008 NFL Combine. Speed didn’t completely disguise the fact that Jackson stood at just 5-9, and the Pac-10 standout fell to Philadelphia in the second round with the 49th overall selection. Nothing, however, has been slow for Jackson since the arduous wait to be selected.
Last season, the second-year pro averaged an eye gouging 18.6-yards per catch en route to 1,156 yards receiving and nine touchdowns on 62 receptions. Flamboyantly, Jackson showcased his ability to separate from much slower secondary defenders and score easily, with receptions covering 48, 64, 71, 60, 51, 59, and 57 yards through the course of the season.
And though Jackson consistently displays his foot speed advantage, players like Wes Welker dispel the notion that acceleration is the only map to success. True, the New England receiver had just three plays go longer than 40 yards last season. Regardless, the Texas Tech alum led the League with 123 receptions, compiled 1,348 yards and is considered a premiere possession receiver. Welker didn’t exactly set the track on fire after his career as a Red Raider. In fact, the Oklahoma City native ran a pedestrian 4.65-40 and went undrafted in 2004.
After being spurned by San Diego in 2004, Welker caught on with Miami, and contributed commendably with the Dolphins before taking off with the Patriots. The 5-9 Welker, though the owner of 346 receptions in the past three seasons, only has 15 touchdowns covering the same span. Speedier receivers such as former Miami receiver Andre Johnson don’t catch as many balls, but gain more yardage, score twice as much, and usually make a more immediate impact. For instance, the Houston wide out last season posted a League-high 1,569 yards, for a 15.5 average per catch, with nine touchdowns. The Texan surpassed 50-yard gains seven times, including plays that accounted for 62, 64, and 72 yards.
Ford could very well be this year’s DeSean Jackson, with Spiller and Best possibly vying for the role as Chris Johnson. All proved to be game breakers in the college ranks. Spiller alone had scoring plays of 80 or more yards an amazing seven times in his career at Clemson.
Defensively, similar results are often visited in the secondary. Champ Bailey, who ran a Combine 4.28-40 in 1999 coming out of Georgia, was considered the premiere lock down corner in the League for much of the last decade. Pittsburgh alum Darrelle Revis, for many, currently holds that distinction. The New York Jets corner was speedy on his Pro Day with a 4.38-40 and has been out racing receivers in the NFL since.
This year, Florida’s Joe Haden is hoping to counter this trend after a miserable 40 showing at the Combine where he didn’t finish in the top-10 among corners and posted an unofficial time of 4.57. And while the Gator has expressed that the result of his run is a minor setback, where he lands in the Draft depends on whether or not most general managers agree. And if Haden damaged his stock, Southern California’s Taylor Mays put some juice in his. Sure, the Trojan safety logged in at 4.43 (adjusted from an unofficial 4.24) but at 6-3 and 230 pounds, that kind of speed is alarming.
Certainly, speed kills. Sanders demonstrated countless times that such a commodity doesn’t hurt when manning the secondary or pulling the rear on special teams. He also thrilled in the process. But individuals like Deion Sanders create a deception with their talents. Onlookers are sometimes so enamored with the dramatics of speed that they often forget that the same players that appear to move beyond the laws of physics are equipped with a skill set that is either complimented by the speed or enhanced by it. And then the deception is in some cases reversed, when the speed is so blinding that spectators fail to identity the lack of skill set in a particular player until Sunday afternoon exposes it.
Either way, don’t be so fast to fault the 40; instead, fault the decision makers who don’t have the 20/20 to see beyond it.
- Patrick Green, DraftNasty.com staff writer, has been writing professionally for more than a decade. He is the author of two novels, Josie’s Missing Syllabus and Son Down; and while both works deal with topics beyond the athletic landscape, each exposes a social scope involving sports as an underlying theme. Green has covered high school, college, amateur, and professional football during his career, having written for newspapers in Augusta, Ga., and Charleston, South Carolina. To learn more about Patrick Green, visit www.greeninkpub.com.
Got an item? Please send an email to PR@draftynasty.com
