Hearing that he will be a safety based on what he ran in the forty, its quite laughable really. I didn't see not one great forty time posted by corners or safeties. I believe Davis and 2 others were shy from 4.5. I don't understand why scouts put a huge emphasis on the forty its too mechanical you can train to run a forty but that speed doesn't always translate on the gridiron. I would be looking how fast they are reaching 10, and 20 yards than busting out of their formation and full sprint. Hell Jenkins had the best 3 cone drill which for a corner that drill is quite important. Now on Ohio St's pro day I guarantee Jenkins runs faster than he did today its usually always the case players running better. The drill is very overrated IMO.
For reference Jenkins ran a slower 40 than the top 6 safeties. And who cares about his pro day time, when he ran on the same surface as everyone else he finished was way down there overall (forgetting about the numbers themselves). I'm not saying he will or won't be an an NFL cb or that his official 40 time mattered, but finishing like 20th or whatever it was out of all the DBs says a lot.
Was it just me or did the DBs as a collective group seem to turn in 40 times that were much slower than in recent years?
yea they did. and i thought Jenkins was a top 3 CB in the draft and usually dont put much into these numbers, but there were already questions about whether he could turn and run with NFL WRs. and his 40 didnt put that to rest. i think 40s for corners are more important than any other position.(not that its to important either way)But with CBs not only do they have to run with WRs, but they also have to turn their hips and run while sometimes the WRs are just running straight. i dunno at this point, we shall see.
So there are other players than can run in a stance without football pads down 40 yards good for them. Jenkins can run with the best, he will be the first Corner taken. But its not in football pads its not even a accurate way to measure how fast someone really is. On the football field there are to many variables.
I don't think 40 times are the end-all for determining safety vs. CB but it's one consideration. I think Jenkins can make a good CB but he could be a great FS. Definitely has the hips to be a good CB.
it wasnt just the 40....his footwork in drills looked average....hes defintley not top pick worthy imo.....and i can absolutley see him being a safety in the nfl....another ohio state over rated player.....
In my opinion, I think the forty yard dash solidified my worry of his long speed. I don't think he has the speed to run with wide receivers. I think he excels at jumping routes though and breaking on the ball, which is why you see him being mentioned as a possible free safety. I don't think he's the best cornerback in this draft class, in my opinion at least.
Maybe his long speed is a concern, but if the WR has the time to get 40 yards down the field with no safety help over the top I think you have other concerns, such as getting pressure on the QB.
Pass rush is possibly a problem for that team but my point is that Malcolm Jenkins, at least in my opinion, should not be running down field with receivers and playing man to man coverage. He should be breaking on the ball with the play in front of him, which is why I think he would be a good free safety. Now don't get me wrong, I think he could be a good cornerback in the league but I wouldn't be shocked if he was a better player at Safety than he is/was at Cornerback.
? i mean, to be honest, alls it takes is for the QB to have 3 seconds to be able to complete a pass over 40 yards. so pressure might not get there. no, its not a completely way to measure speed. but they do it for a reason. it can give an idea of straight line speed. if you have a CB that ran a 4.6 at a combine matched up with a 4.3 guy, you would expect for the 4.3 to beat him running a straight go. which like it or not, does happen in the NFL
Overblown. Only two CBs in the entire draft cracked a 4.50 in the 40 this year. Only two. LaDarius Webb ran a 4.46 and Vontae Davis ran a 4.49. Toss out Webb's position best 4.46 and Kevin Akins' position worst 4.9, and the difference between Vontae Davis and Cary Harris was a mere 0.15 seconds. That's it. And the difference between Davis and Jenkins was 0.12 seconds. That's it. Someone go watch that Rich Eisen 40 yard dash video on NFL.com. In addition to being hilarious, at the end they simulcast him versus himself and the faster time is only 0.13 seconds better than the slower time. That's what it looks like. Barely a step. Malcolm Jenkins ran the 4th best cone drill any cornerback has done this decade, at 6'0" and 204 pounds. Yet, because from a three-point track stance, the shorter and lighter Vontae Davis got one step on Malcolm Jenkins in this race...Vontae Davis is a cornerback and the best cornerback in college football is a safety. Sorry, I don't buy it.
Yeah but how much seperation is 4.3 compared to a 4.6? Sure he might get beat deep, and even assume the QB has time to throw, it still needs to be a pretty much perfect pass. Even on fly routes most WR don't just run straight. They make a move at the line to try and gain extra seperation. If Jenkins has the hips to counter that fake he's fine. ALSO a corner covering a guy with blazing speed starts with a cushion anyway, that makes up for the time.
honestly, whens the last time a CB has ran a 4.6 at the combine and had a successful career? also, im not sure why its OK for the #1 CB to run a 4.6 because the rest of the CBs ran slower as well.
It suggests that there is either no CB in this draft at all, or that there was something up with the times. The RCA Dome times had become too fast, anyway. Obviously there's been a correction and now people are having trouble with this correction, IMO.
They did. Which is why I posed the question as to whether the CB class as a whole seemed to have a slower average time in the 40. I felt that way about the RB position as well - due to switching from the RCA dome to the Oil Drum. I'd be really interested to see what DHB ran in the RCA dome if he's busting out 4.30's in Lucas Oil.
you may be onto something, although as already pointed out, they didnt run at the RCA Dome. however, even BEFORE the DB times i thought for the most part(outside of Heyward-Bey) the 40 times seemed slower all around. i was thinking less and less players may have been taking PES. however, thats just speculation. ill wait to reserve judgment until pro days......
You guys misunderstood me. I was saying that over the years, the surface at the RCA Dome where the Combine HAD been held had gotten faster and faster to where the 40 times were better than they should have been. Now that they are running the 40 at the Lucas Oil Dome, it's possible that the new track is not nearly as fast as the Indy track which had become super fast...and so it's making comparisons from year to year difficult. IMO, the comparisons should be from prospect to prospect. At the RCA Dome, Heyward-Bey very likely would have challenged Chris Johnson's super fast 40 time (wasn't it 4.24?). But at the Lucas Oil Dome, DHB's official time I believe was a 4.33.
I agree, it seemed lots of times werent quite as good as they had been in previous years at the RCA. DBs were the most dramatic, but alot of people didnt run well that we thought would burn. See Macklin, Jeremy.
