Amphetamines for draft junkies | Cold Hard Football Facts

Amphetamines for draft junkies
Cold, Hard Football Facts for February 27, 2006

A lot of folks lately have asked for our thoughts about speed. We tell them they shouldn't do drugs.

Then they tell us they mean the draft. And we say, "Oh, beer. Yes, we're all for beer."

Sooner or later it dawns on us that they're talking about football. They want to know about the fastest players coming out of college and entering the NFL draft. "Ahh," we say, in our brief moments of amphetamine-free lucidity. "We have that information."

With a little help from the folks at NFLDraftScout.com, we compiled a slow-release capsule of Cold, Hard Football Facts surrounding speed in the 2006 draft, more than enough to give even the most addicted trolls a fact-filled high. It includes a medicine chest full of information for you, the football junkie:

A list of the 25 fastest players in the draft (based on times in the 40-yard dash). The list is led by UCLA running back Maurice Drew, pictured here.
A list of the fastest draft prospects at each position.
Finally, a compilation of Cold, Hard Football Facts surrounding speed and the 2006 draft. This information appears in the story below.

Our lists of fastest players include only top prospects – players likely to go in the first four rounds. There may be a random speedster here and there not on our lists, but for the most part, we're looking at the players you're likely to see in the NFL next season.

(We used NFLDraftScout.com data instead of NFL Combine data for one very basic reason: Not all the top guys are at the NFL Combine. So, if you're the fastest guy at the Combine, it doesn't make you the fastest pro prospect. For example, speedsters like Reggie Bush and Vince Young – top college stars who also made our list of 25 fastest draft prospects – are not working out at the NFL Combine.)

The benefits of speed

Speed is an important attribute that every team and coach covets. As the old saying goes, "you can't coach speed." (The truth, of course, is that you CAN coach speed. If you couldn't, then Olympic sprinters wouldn't need coaches, would they? But the point of the old adage is not lost on us: Speed is an inherent gift, and you either have it or you don't. Coaching will not turn a lumbering troll with a 6.9-second 40 time – the Cold, Hard Football Facts.com employee record, by the way – into a blistering 4.3 speed merchant.)

Speed can mean everything on the football field. Fat, slow, drunk and stupid might have made our hero Flounder famous, but it's no way to go through life on Planet Pigskin. Fast, strong and smart (not to mention sober) is what you're looking for on the football field. Speed on defense makes it tough for opposing offenses to find gaps to attack. Speed on offense shortens the field and gives you big-play capabilities.

Speed also has benefits you may not always consider. For example, fast guys hit harder than slow guys. It's simply a function of Newton's Second Law:

Force = Mass x Acceleration

The faster an object (say, a linebacker) is moving, the more force it can apply on

another object (say, a running back). So, your heavy hitters throughout history – Dick Butkus (pictured here), Ronnie Lott, Rodney Harrison – all had one thing in common: They were fast.

All other things being equal, fast guys hit harder than slow guys.

Our simple list of the speediest 2006 draft prospects turned up some other interesting information.

Small guys run fast

Speed does have its drawbacks. Namely, in the "no duh!" department, the fastest guys on the field are usually among the smallest guys on the field. Take a look at our 25 fastest draft prospects:

15 weigh less than 200 pounds
23 weigh 220 or less
16 are shorter than 6-0
23 are 6-2 or shorter

Physical freaks are highly coveted

While the speediest players are generally among the smallest, there are a handful of guys who do combine great speed with great size. Not so coincidentally, they are among the most coveted players in the draft. Here are six true physical freaks among the 2006 draft prospects:

Vince Young, quarterback, Texas (6-5, 233, 4.48). Remember the Rose Bowl, when Young looked like a man among boys, running over and gliding past USC defenders virtually at will? Well, there's a reason why he looked a step above and beyond the defenders on the No. 1 team in America: No player in the draft combines speed with size quite like Young. He's the fastest quarterback in the draft and among the 25 fastest players on our list. Young is two inches taller than any other player and one pound shy of being the heaviest speedster. There have been few men in the history of football with Young's combination of height, weight and speed.

Thomas Howard, linebacker, UTEP (6-3, 234, 4.44). Howard is the largest man on our list of the 25 fastest draft prospects. He's slightly shorter, heavier and faster than Young, a proven physical freak. Howard is more than just the fastest linebacker in the draft: He's the fastest defender who doesn't play cornerback. His 4.44 40 time makes him as fast as the speediest prospect at safety, Ohio State's Donte Whitner, who measures in at a mere 5-11, 205 pounds.

Marcus McNeill, offensive tackle, Auburn (6-8, 335, 5.05). The true freaks are found on the offensive and defensive lines. McNeill is the freakiest of the freaks: a mammoth human being who's also the second-fastest offensive lineman in the draft. Remember how we talked about Newton's Second Law of physics (Force = Mass x Acceleration) a little earlier? Well, this is what Sir Isaac tells us about McNeill, in scientific terms:

Mass (335 pounds) x Acceleration (5.05 40) = World of Pain

Nick Mangold, center, Ohio State (6-3, 297, 4.96). Over the last 11 years, only two centers have been selected in the first round of the NFL draft. Mangold is likely to become the third. He's the fastest offensive lineman in the 2006 draft and the only one to break the 5.0 barrier in the 40.

Dusty Dvoracek, defensive tackle, Oklahoma (6-3, 301, 4.92). Dvoracek is on the small side for modern interior defensive linemen, but he makes up for it with speed. He is the only 300-pounder in the draft to beat the 5.0 mark in the 40.

Vernon Davis, tight end, Maryland (6-3, 252, 4.58). Davis did not make our list of the 25 fastest prospects, but he is the fastest and one of the largest tight ends in the draft. He's also the strongest. Davis led all tight ends at the NFL Combine by banging out 33 reps of 225 pounds in the bench press. Now that's a freak.

Southern boys run fast

We found this to be an interesting little sidenote to our experiment with speed.

There is a belief among football aficionados that players in the South are generally faster than players in the North. Anyone who admires SEC football, for example, is often impressed by the speed of its games. This belief is supported by something more compelling than a general notion. It's supported by Cold, Hard Football Facts, at least if our list of speediest 2006 draft prospects is any indication:

17 of the 25 fastest players come from schools in Southern states or in Southern California.

The prevalence of speed in the South is evident also when we break down the 25 fastest prospects by conference.

13 played in the SEC or ACC, conferences in which 23 of 24 teams play in Southern states (the ACC's Boston College is the lone team in these two conferences that plays north of the Mason-Dixon Line).

The SEC – the conference that dominates Southern football – leads the list of speed conferences. Eight of the 25 fastest prospects come from SEC schools. Speed is also spread wide throughout the conference. Five different SEC schools send a player into the draft who's among the 25 fastest prospects. SEC power Georgia, meanwhile, joins Ohio State of the Big 10 as the only two schools with three players on our list of 25 fastest prospects.

Here's a breakdown of the 25 fastest draft prospects, based upon their college conference:

SEC – 8
Big 10 – 6
ACC – 5
PAC 10 – 2
Big 12 – 1
Conference USA – 1
Mountain West – 1
WAC – 1

East

South

North

West