The 2012 NFL Combine: not so fast!

By Kerry J. Byrne
Cold, Hard Football Facts speed merchant

The 2012 rookie talent pool brings very little speed to the table – at least if the trusty old 40-yard dash is any indication.
 
The 40 is one of the standard ways to take the measure of an athlete. Let the record books show that the fastest known time in the 40 was 2.12 seconds, set by a certain website publisher as a 5-8, 190-pound junior at Boston College.
 
Sadly, those skills are wasted on the NFL: even with our curious mix of keyboard bravado, brazen sexcellence and chug-a-lug-ability, we can’t compete in the football version of the 40, which is apparently a running competition of some kind.
 
The fastest performer in football's version of the 40 here in the 2012 combine was Central Florida cornerback Josh Robinson, with a time of 4.33 seconds.

How does Robinson's effort stack up against recent history? Not well.
 
Thirty-eight players since 1999 were faster in the 40 than the speediest prospect in the 2012 draft.
 
And even then, we had the wait until Tuesday, the final day of the combine, to see the best effort of 2012. DBs like Robinson were featured on Tuesday – DB being another term, like the 40, that means something quite different when applied to the CHFF crew instead of football players.
 
Last year alone, three players ran the 40 faster than Robinson.
 
The slow-footed nature of the class of 2012 draft prospects is evident by the fact that Robinson proved 3/100th of a second faster than the three players who tied for second this year: receivers Travis Benjamin of Miami, Stephen Hill of Georgia Tech and Chris Owusu of Stanford displayed the fastest feet before Tuesday – each clocking in at 4.36 seconds.
 
Hell, we could have finished TWO 40s in 4.36 seconds!
 
Those three, the second fastest guys in the 2012 draft class, tied for just the 79th fastest time since 1999. That’s right – 78 players since 1999 ran the 40 faster than the second fastest guys in 2012.
 
Here’s a look at the fastest 78 players in the 40 since 1999, the guys who ran it in 4.35 or faster.

Keep in mind that there are various sources of information out there for NFL Combine 40 speeds (the record keeping has not always been an exact science). We culled these numbers from NFL.com (the “official” source) when possible and from other sources when needed. There is often a conflict.

LSU track star Trindon Holliday, who had a cup of coffee with the Houston Texans in 2011, is perhaps the most notable example of a conflict.

He was widely reported for a blazing 4.21 40 time. Both The Sports XChange and NFLCombineResults report him with a 4.21 40. But “official” NFL reports say he topped out at 4.34. Jacoby Ford was also reported with a 4.21 40 in some sources but a 4.34 by the NFL. In those cases we went with “official” numbers.

There's another question here looking at the list of speediest prospects: does blazing speed in the 40 at the NFL Combine have much to do with success on the field in the NFL? We'll dive into that topic next. But even a quick look at the list below makes it pretty obvious to the average fan that blazing speed alone does not tell us too much about a player's chances for success at the next level.

78 Fastest Prospects (40<4.36), 1999-2012

	Year	Name	College	POS	Height (in)	Weight	40 Yard
1	2008	Chris Johnson	East Carolina	RB	71	197	4.24
1	1999	Rondel Menendez	Eastern Kentucky	WR	69	178	4.24
3	2009	Darrius Heyward-Bey	Maryland	WR	74	210	4.25
4	2005	Jerome Mathis	Hampton	WR	71	181	4.26
5	2010	C.J. Spiller	Clemson	RB	71	196	4.27
5	2005	Stanford Routt	Houston	CB	74	193	4.27
7	1999	Champ Bailey	Georgia	CB	73	184	4.28
7	2011	Demarcus Van Dyke	Miami	CB	73	176	4.28
7	2009	Mike Wallace	Mississippi	WR	73	199	4.28
10	2009	Johnny Knox	Abilene Christian	WR	73	185	4.29
10	1999	Jay Hinton	Morgan State (MD)	RB	71	200	4.29
10	2005	Fabian Washington	Nebraska	CB	71	188	4.29
10	2008	Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie	Tennessee State	CB	74	184	4.29
14	2009	Mike Thomas	Arizona	WR	68	195	4.3
14	2006	Tye Hill	Clemson	CB	70	185	4.3
14	2007	Yamon Figurs	Kansas State	WR	71	174	4.3
14	2005	Darrent Williams	Oklahoma State	CB	69	176	4.3
18	2011	Edmond Gates	Abilene Christian	WR	73	192	4.31
18	2008	Tyvon Branch	Connecticut	CB	73	204	4.31
18	2002	Aaron Lockett	Kansas State	WR	68	155	4.31
18	2011	Patrick Peterson	Louisiana State	CB	72	219	4.31
18	2004	Michael Waddell	North Carolina	CB	71	187	4.31
18	2009	Deon Butler	Penn State	WR	71	182	4.31
18	2008	Justin King	Penn State	CB	71	192	4.31
18	2009	Tiquan Underwood	Rutgers	WR	73	184	4.31
18	2006	Johnathan Joseph	South Carolina	CB	71	193	4.31
18	2010	Taylor Mays	Southern California	FS	75	230	4.31
28	2005	Chris McKenzie	Arizona State	CB	69	185	4.32
28	2007	Chris Houston	Arkansas	CB	70	185	4.32
28	2002	Tim Carter	Auburn	WR	73	190	4.32
28	2008	Orlando Scandrick	Boise State	CB	70	192	4.32
28	2009	Louis Murphy	Florida	WR	75	203	4.32
28	2006	Chad Jackson	Florida	WR	73	213	4.32
28	2006	Tim Jennings	Georgia	CB	68	185	4.32
28	2010	Akwasi Owusu-Ansah	Indiana (PA)	CB	73	207	4.32
28	2005	Troy Williamson	South Carolina	WR	74	203	4.32
28	2003	Kevin Garrett	Southern Methodist	CB	70	194	4.32
28	2007	Jason Hill	Washington State	WR	73	204	4.32
39	2008	Dexter Jackson	Appalachian State (NC)	WR	70	182	4.33
39	2008	Darren McFadden	Arkansas	RB	73	211	4.33
39	1999	Karsten Bailey	Auburn	WR	73	205	4.33
39	2012	Josh Robinson	Central Florida	CB	70	199	4.33
39	2009	Chris Clemons	Clemson	FS	73	208	4.33
39	2004	Carlos Francis	Texas Tech	WR	69	198	4.33
45	2010	Trindon Holliday	Louisiana State	WR	65	166	4.34
45	2011	Julio Jones	Alabama	WR	75	220	4.34
45	2008	Josh Barrett	Arizona State	SS	74	223	4.34
45	2004	Ahmad Carroll	Arkansas	CB	70	195	4.34
45	2010	Ben Tate	Auburn	RB	71	220	4.34
45	2010	Jahvid Best	California	RB	70	199	4.34
45	2010	Jacoby Ford	Clemson	WR	69	186	4.34
45	1999	Chris Watson	Eastern Illinois	CB	73	191	4.34
45	2006	Willie Reid	Florida State	WR	71	188	4.34
45	2011	Ricardo Lockette	Fort Valley State (GA)	WR	74	211	4.34
45	2005	Domonique Foxworth	Maryland	CB	71	184	4.34
45	2003	Tyrone Calico	Middle Tenn. St	WR	76	223	4.34
45	2004	Dunta Robinson	South Carolina	CB	71	186	4.34
45	1999	Kevin Brooks	South Carolina	CB	69	169	4.34
45	2006	Michael Huff	Texas	SS	73	204	4.34
45	2009	Cedric Peerman	Virginia	RB	70	216	4.34
45	2000	Antwan Harri	Virginia	CB	69	186	4.34
45	2004	DeAngelo Hall	Virginia Tech	CB	70	202	4.34
45	2003	B.J. Tucker	Wisconsin	CB	71	188	4.34
64	2006	Devin Aromashodu	Auburn	WR	75	201	4.35
64	2008	DeSean Jackson	California	WR	70	169	4.35
64	2007	Mike Walker	Central Florida	WR	74	209	4.35
64	2008	Andre Caldwell	Florida	WR	73	204	4.35
64	2007	Calvin Johnson	Georgia Tech	WR	77	239	4.35
64	2004	Bob Sanders	Iowa	SS	69	204	4.35
64	2009	Demetrius Byrd	Louisiana State	WR	73	196	4.35
64	2007	LaRon Landry	Louisiana State	FS	73	213	4.35
64	2009	Lardarius Webb	Nicholls State	CB	70	179	4.35
64	2003	Justin Fargas	Southern California	RB	73	219	4.35
64	2000	R. Jay Soward	Southern California	WR	70	177	4.35
64	2011	Aldrick Robinson	Southern Methodist	WR	70	184	4.35
64	2001	Jonathan Carter	Troy	WR	73	180	4.35
64	2004	Roc Alexander	Washington	CB	71	185	4.35
64	2005	Karl Paymah	Washington State	CB	73	204	4.35

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Read more: 40 yard dash, Central Florida, Combine, Josh Robinson, NFL, NFL Combine