NFL Pro Day in Glick Fastest 40s

Devin Funchess running the 40-yard dash #ProDay pic.twitter.com/sXF6zjI3oH

— Michigan Football (@umichfootball) March 12, 2015

but they released a wolverine behind them onto the field right before they started.

But the wrong direction.

Nobody can pick up -40 yards faster than Gorgeous Borges.

Because the 40 time is largely misunderstood.

First, running 40 yards with no equipment on doesn't replicate the game. Sure, everyone has to wear the equipment, so the handicap is equivalent. However, the fact of the matter is, the faster the 40m time, the more the equipment will affect the player, as eifficiency of motion increases, the hindrance/slop of equipment will play a more significant role. Similar to how aerodynamic drag becomes is relitvely linear at low speeds and exponential at high speeds.

Additionally, the 40m time is not nearly as important as the 10m and to a lesser extent, 20m splits. For a vast majority of plays, most players will never A) hit the gas pedal and run straight, or to a lesser extent than but still vast majority, B) never run 10m without deviating.

Next comes the act of evaluation. What they are looking for is flaws. And it's not necessarily a deal-breaker if they find them. It helps them put together player profile. Much like a detective would. These players are potentially, and picking, or NOT picking (missing out on a 5th round future pro-bowler for example), can be a loss off TENS of millions of dollars, winning, trade-options, team-building, franchise-deals, profit, etc. Thus it doesn't matter how much anyone loves football. There's hundreds of millions of dollars on the table, so there's a lot of analysis.

Thus it's a hunt for false positives, and re-evaluating false-negatives if some sort of "physical freak" shows up. Aaron Donald would be a great example from 2014, and maybe, say, Sammy Coates from 2015. To be honest, while the scouts might care as they have a bias and natural inflation to their exact job, no one gives a rats ass if someone runs a 4.3 or 4.4 or even 4.5 40m, as a WR or DB, so long as you run in that range. Of course, TEs and LBs slower, OL and DL even slower, and for QBs, it depends on what type of QB you are.  Now, of course, if you "stand out" in your class, then you might get a boost, like say, run a 4.5x 40m as a 260lb DL, like Clowney did. But it's not all that matters. Because once pads go on. Once each sides play is called. If you're in the first ten minutes of the game, first play of the drive, or at the end of a long drive in the fourth, and that ball is snapped and now everyone is flowing, all those track measurements go out the window.

Of course this is not even to mention vision and ball skills.

I'm going to wrap it up here, I've already gone on at length, I could write way more about how much misplaced precision fans have placed on combine #'s, as well as not taking into account/understanding all the factors (combine is more like a double-check than anything else) that go into evaluating players, etc.

And say this, football is played on the field. Speed means nothing if he can't coral the ball in. Speed means nothing if he has no vision. Speed means nothing if he can't cut. Speed mean nothing if he can't follow blocks. Speed means nothing if he can't take a hit and hold onto the ball. Speed means nothing if he can't do all this while having 11 monsters crashing down on you and losing your sh*t in front of 110,000+ people.

Sorry to be so long-winded, I just get very frustrated with media sometimes.

Because what I'm trying to say, is media has over-hyped 40m times, because they can sell a video and a seemingly objective number and form an hierarchical evaluation of a player, when in fact, it's anything but a meaningful number or objective evaluation, especially to the pro's in-the-know, who's job it is to do just that.

media know very little, no different than gossip. all the 3-D animated intros, fancy camera-pans, suits, hand clasping, and nfl-trumpet audio loops are to disguise that the info these guys are pedalling is actually meaningful or any more professional than b.s.-ing about it while waiting in line at the register.

The professionals are the ones "in the know".