Combine Winners and Losers: Wide Receivers and Running Backs

Sunday was the day of fast 40 times as the running back and wide receiver group were testing. The 40 yard dash isn’t the end all be all, but for the WR position it’s a big one. If teams are spending a first round pick on a player they don’t want there to be questions about their speed. For me the important thing about the 40 yard dash are the times that are much faster or much slower than I expected. A fast player like a Joe Adams running fast does not mean anything, Mohamed Sanu running a less than stellar 40 yard dash also does not mean much to me.

Quarterbacks also worked out on Sunday, but who cares. I think you can learn essentially zero about a quarterback at the combine so I’ll leave them out of this though I will say Kellen Moore did not throw well when he was throwing in drills.

Winners:

Wide Receivers:

Stephen Hill Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech is a massive target who ran a terrific forty yard dash with an unofficial time of 4.30 seconds, and an official 4.36 forty yard dash. For a player that is 6’4 215 pounds that’s impressive. He also looked agile in and out of his breaks. Good day for Hill.

Devier Posey, WR, Ohio State

Posey was apart of the Ohio State scandal, but he showed off his athleticism and soft hands and separated himself from the second tier pack a bit. Maybe enough to be drafted on day two.

A.J. Jenkins, Illinois

Jenkins showed off the speed that is evident on the film, and had one of the fastest 4o yard dashes. I think Jenkins put himself on the radar of draftniks more so than he did for NFL scouts.

Chris Owusu, Stanford Cardinal*

This is depending on his medical check. Owusu ran much faster than I thought he was. He’s an intriguing late round WR prospect who has a history of concussions, but on Sunday he ran a 4.36 40 yard dash, tied for the fastest among Wide receivers with Travis Benjamin and Stephen Hill. I knew Hill and Benjamin would run fast, but the speed of Owusu was surprising to me.

B.J. Cunningham, Michigan State

There are still issues with Cunningham and he isn’t going to be drafted until day three and he has small hands which hurts, but he ran a good 40 yard dash with a 4.59 second 40 yard dash showing a little more speed than people expected.

Running Back

Robert Turbin is absolutely jacked. 5’10 222 pounds ran a 4.5 forty yard dash.

Doug Martin, Boise State

Looked great today. He’s draw comparisons to Ray Rice and with his performance on Sunday he showed that it’s a fair comparison. Martin can return kicks, catch the football and showed a little giddy-up today. Solidified himself as a round two prospect.

Losers:

Kendall Wright, Baylor.

I’ve consistently had Kendall Wright out of my top 25 and finally feel justified here. Wright ran much slower than anyone expected with a 4.6, but I’ve felt all along that he’s short and doesn’t play fast like a DeSean Jackson type player. He’s a good football player, but a fringe first round prospect (where he should have been all along) not a top 10 prospect.

Rueben Randle-Randle has average to below average college production for a first round type prospect and didn’t look great in drills or in the 40 yard dash. Randle is still a very solid 2nd round prospect, but didn’t separate himself from the WR’s today. It’s not really a bad day, he just didn’t move himself into the first round like he hoped.

Greg Childs, WR, Arkansas

Dropped a few passes in the receiving drills.

Running backs

South Florida Darrell Scott-

Yikes. Supposed to be much better. He ran a 4.73 40 yard dash and didn’t look good at all today.

Chris Rainey, RB, Florida

For a guy who said he wanted to run in the “4.1” range a 4.45 has to be disappointing. He’s still a playmaker with the ball in his hands, but he’ll probably end up going in day three had he run in the 4.2 range which was possible he might have gone late day two.

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