What are the big things that matter from Day 1 of the 2020 NFL Combine? The quarterbacks, receivers and tight ends had their day.
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2020 NFL Combine Prospects: What To Look For
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | OTs | OG & C
DEs | DTs | OLBs | ILBs | CBs | Safeties
Pre-Combine Top 250 Players
The 2019 NFL Combine is underway with the offensive linemen and running backs getting a workout. In general, the O linemen were a pleasant surprise and the running backs were underwhelming, but the big story of this whole thing continues to be around a short quarterback, and now …
5. The athleticism continues to be phenomenal at this thing
This is all fun and games to watch these college stars workout and try to show off what they might be able to do in the NFL, but we’ve all become a bit numb to just how amazing these athletes are.
Remembering that all of these prospects are elite of the elite football players – throwing their toughness into the equation, too – beyond their skill, they’re doing athletic things at the highest of levels in any sport.
For example, at the latest NBA Combine, no one had a standing vertical leap higher than 36″ and only six prospects were able to come up with any sort of leap higher than 39″.
It was just the first day of the NFL Combine, and seven prospects blasted through the 39″ mark on the standing vertical leap, and six guys got over 40″.
Obviously football a different game than basketball requiring an entirely different body type and sets of tools, but 14 NBA prospects were able to come up with more than ten reps on the bench and three came up with more than 16. Among just the wide receivers, 16 was the norm – Wisconsin’s Quintez Cephus jacked up 23.
Ready for crazy? Hawaii QB Cole McDonald’s 36″ vertical would’ve tied for the highest among the NBA prospects.
Jake Fromm was getting dogged on social media for not looking or being quite as athletic or as impressive as some of the other prospects. His 30″ vertical would’ve put him in the middle of the NBA Combine pack.
And these guys can all take a hit, too.
NEXT: Jordan Jefferson and Chase Claypool
4. Jordan Jefferson and Chase Claypool
At the 2007 NFL Combine, Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson came up with one of the freakiest workouts ever.
Not only did he punch in at 6-4 and 239 pounds – massive for a wide receiver – but he ripped off a 4.38 40 and later at his Pro Day powered up a 42.5″ vertical leap.
No other receiver that big had ever come up with numbers like that before or since.
On Thursday, 6-4, 238-pound Chase Claypool became the second wide receiver prospect of that size to come up with similar numbers …
… and come up with a 40+” vertical, too.
No one’s predicting Claypool to be a top three overall prospect like Johnson was – he went second overall to the Lions – but with this workout and his good college production – catching 66 passes for 1,037 yards and 13 scores last year – he might have just moved into the second round in what’s turning into one of the deepest receiving classes ever.
There’s no questioning Justin Jefferson’s final year at at LSU with a team-leading 111 catches for 1,540 yards and 18 scores. JaMarr Chase might have been flashier and a bit more decorated, and Joe Burrow got all of the national love, but the gushing about Jefferson’s role – mainly from Burrow – has never stopped.
The 6-1, 202-pounder is known as a physical player who grabs everything that comes his way. Get the ball in his area code, and he’ll go get it.
And then in Indianapolis he ripped off a 4.43 in the 40.
If you think 40 times don’t matter, this one did. He was faster than Jerry Jeudy (4.45), CeeDee Lamb (4.5), Jalen Reagor (4.47), Laviska Shenault (4.58), and Brandon Aiyuk (4.5) – all receivers expected to be taken before Jefferson.
But this 40, combined with his LSU production, probably just pushed Jefferson into the early second round.
These guys could move, but …
NEXT: Henry Ruggs is really, really, really fast
3. Henry Ruggs is really, really, really fast
How do you know someone is really, really, really fast?
He doesn’t run all that well, he’s sort of a disappointment, and his 40 time is the second-fastest among all wide receiver prospects – and tied for fourth-fastest among all prospects – over the last 15 years.
It was the Thursday buzz – could the Alabama star receiver break the 4.22 mark set by former Washington receiver John Ross back in 2017?
Ruggs wasn’t able to get there, but his 4.27 was more than good enough.
Oh yeah, and he came up with a 42″ vertical, too.
He’s not all that huge, and he can be pushed around a bit, but you have to get your hands on him first.
A part of the incredible Bama receiving puzzle, he caught 40 passes for 746 yards and seven scores – averaging 18.6 yards per pop – with fantastic hands to go along with his world-class wheels. That all would make him the No. 1 receiver off the board in most classes, but not in this one.
This year, he might be third or fourth on the list, but he proved he’s a top 20 pick that every offensive coordinator is going to want. He looked the part, and …
NEXT: Jalen Hurts looked the part. Jake Fromm …
2. Jalen Hurts looked the part. Jake Fromm …
Jake Fromm was more than fine.
He was dogged on social media partly for his comparatively sluggish 5.01 in the 40 – although no one expected anything much better than that – the smallish sub-9″ hand size, and for not quite looking the part next to the other star quarterback prospects.
However, he didn’t have to labor making any of the throws, and considering the expectations, he did what was needed to stay in the range of a possible early third round pick.
No one thought Fromm was going to walk into Indianapolis and rip up the drills like Andrew Luck. As long as Fromm didn’t fall flat on his face, he was going to be fine.
On the flip side, the pressure was on Jalen Hurts to look the part of an NFL quarterback.
Whatever that is.
After Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson, the idea of a pro quarterback needing to be a 6-4, 225-pound slinger is gone. Everyone wants a smart, unflappable, baller of a quarterback who could be the face of the franchise, and Hurts checks all of those boxes.
Even with the amazing season at Oklahoma, Hurts isn’t in the same mix as the last two Sooner quarterbacks to go No. 1 in the draft. He’s not the same passer, and he’s more of a runner who isn’t going to hang around the pocket, but … who cares? Can he play?
He made all the throws without a problem, he looked smooth, and more than anything else, he looked like he belonged.
Oh yeah, and he ran a 4.59 and tied Kelly Bryant for the longest broad jump at 10’5″.
He’s probably a third-rounder, but everyone is going to want him on their team – being an early Day Two pick is more than possible.
NEXT: Jordan Love vs. Justin Herbert
2020 NFL Combine Prospects: What To Look For
QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | OTs | OG & C
DEs | DTs | OLBs | ILBs | CBs | Safeties
Pre-Combine Top 250 Players
1. Jordan Love vs. Justin Herbert
There are still about a gajillion things that have to happen before the quarterback situation in the 2020 NFL Draft gets figured out.
Where’s Tom Brady going to land? How about Jameis Winston, Cam Newton, Phil Rivers and Teddy Bridgwater?
Does Las Vegas really want to get rid of Derek Carr? Does Detroit really want to move on from Matthew Stafford?
Cincinnati (1), Detroit (3), Miami (5, 18, 26), LA Chargers (6), Carolina (7), and Indianapolis (13) are the teams that have to address the quarterback situation either through free agency or in the draft. Jacksonville (9, 20) and Chicago (2nd round) could use another option, and New Orleans (24) has to find a real option for the future that’s not Taysom Hill.
Joe Burrow is a lock for the Bengals at the No. 1 pick – unless Miami gives away a ton of its drat picks to move up. For now, assume Burrow is the one.
The Redskins take Chase Young, Detroit waits on a quarterback with so much talent up top, New York Giants either trade down or go for a weapon for Daniel Jones at the 4, and then it’s up to Miami at the 5.
All the early medical evaluations on Tua Tagovailoa’s hip are positive, but is it worth the risk?
It was up to Justin Herbert and Jordan Love to look so good that a team won’t want to take the chance that Tagovailoa can’t last, and they did exactly that.
Herbert and Love were fantastic in Indy.
Herbert cranked out a special workout. The 6-6, 236-pounder ran a 4.68, blasted a 35.5″ vertical, looked exactly the part of a modern day franchise quarterback. The tools are there.
Love wasn’t quite as amazing physically, but he’s got the arm, he’s got the resumé when it comes to reading a defense and make the pro throws needed, and at 6-4 and 224 pounds, he looked exactly the part of a modern day franchise quarterback, too.
Jacob Eason was solid in the workout – he could be a first rounder – and others were terrific, but now the NFL knows what it’s working with after the free agency dust settles.
Burrow is the 1, Tua, Love and Herbert will all go in the top seven, there will be a drop to Eason, there will be another drop to the Jalen Hurts, Jake Fromm area, and then comes another drop.
But first. TB12 has to decide what he’s going to do.
