At the Scouting Combine, there were multiple examples of players whose unofficial and/or team-measured times were faster than the “official” number attached to the player. For example, USC safety Taylor Mays and Clemson running back C.J. Spiller both seemed to run faster than the “official” numbers indicated.
At the Pro Day workouts, the numbers are more likely to favor the players, since the schools have an obvious interest in making their players look as good as possible.
In the case of Illinois receiver Arrelious Benn, we’ve confirmed that the “official” time registered by the school was 4.36. Per a league source, one team had Benn at 4.43 seconds, twice, in the 40-yard dash.
That said, some scouts had Benn at 4.38 seconds, only 0.02 above the official time.
There’s also a potential issue at the Pro Day workouts regarding the surface on which the running is done. If the surface is regarded as faster than the FieldTurf at the RCA Dome Lucas Oil Stadium, teams will add time to the result. In Benn’s case, the run occurred at an indoor practice facility, on FieldTurf. Thus, no adjustment will be made.
downhill runner got new meaning
What is up with Benn? He drops passes, stumbles. Yeah he had a poor qb, but when the ball hits your hands, you catch it, no matter who threw it. I think he is a major bust in waiting.
The RCA Dome? Are you sure? Is that where the Baltimore Colts play?
ZOMG!!! Several hundredths of a second off!!! What does it matter if every coach/scout/GM/Peter King/Mike Florio disregards the underwear olympics anyway?
Benn’s a risk, to the point that I wouldn’t spend a first-round pick on him, but the talent is obvious and great enough that someone should take a change in the 2nd-3rd IMO.
Are these guys measured by dudes with stopwatches? Can’t we get some Olympic-style Swiss timing measurements up in these places? Some of these number discrepancies are ridiculous.
who the hell cares? 40 time has little to do with whether or not someone is a good football player.
i dont think he ever had the right coaches. nobody ever said that ron zook could coach. thats for sure. the guy can recruit like few, but there is a reason urban meyer won a national championship with zook’s leftovers.
with a name like that can we confirm that he is not actually, in fact, a gladiator? It would be bad for the league to have someone go run a post route and sever the DBs head and throw his sword, then, into the crowd.
Florio, jump out of the Hot Tub Time Machine…the Colts play at Lucas Oil, not the RCA Dome.
Word is that Benn is like Braylon Edwards, great athlete, can make some great catches but not vey reliable hands. Maybe he will be able to work on that and improve but I’m not sure he can teach a guy how to have soft hands.
Maybe they kept the turf from the RCA Dome. They put in in the street and let them run on it. At least he didn’t say the Hoosier Dome. Cutting edge Florio.
Mike please read and pass along. We can solve this issue of inconsistent times. With all the technology out there why are we relying on stop watches when we can easily have something like an infrared laser pointed by the start of the track and another one at the end and the total time would always be correct. No human intervention, also the players can start running whenever they feel comfortable, no false starts.Mike please read and pass along. We can solve this issue of inconsistent times. With all the technology out there why are we relying on stop watches when we can easily have something like an infrared laser pointed by the start of the track and another one at the end and the total time would always be correct. No human intervention, also the players can start running whenever they feel comfortable, no false starts.
Florio: 4 things that you believe 1.) Global warming is real, just ask Al Gore. 2) Men never really walked on the moon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4
3.) They never really razed the RCA Dome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZVqBg7SsME
4.) Yes your Rolex is real. Keep telling yourself those things and they will be fact.
What is the real world difference between 4.36 and 4.43?
We’re talking about a 0.07 of a second difference.
What is that in a 40 yard dash? The length of a stride? An arm length? Is it the length of a football?
Well… lets take the entire 40 yards and divide that into inches… there are 1440 inches in a 40 yard dash.
At 4.36 speed a player covers 3.30 inches per second.
At 4.43 speed a player covers 3.25 inches per second.
So if they were racing the slower player would lose to the quicker player by … wait for it … slightly more than 1/5 of an inch (0.23).
I think I did my math wrong above. Could someone clever with math (obviously not me) help me out?
That said, some scouts had Benn at 4.38 seconds, only 0.02 above the official time.
This makes sense, because, if you ask any track and field athlete/coach/official, .17 seconds is added to any handtime due to human error.
Ah… found the error of my math. It isn’t 3.25 inches per second… its 3.25 inches per hundredth of a second.
So in the time player A covers 1440 inches. the slower player covers 1417 inches.
Okay…. that is like a 2 foot difference. That’s quite a bit of difference.
its 330 and 325 inches per second. over 9 yards per. it’s .36 of an inch difference.
3.3 inches per second would take 436.36 seconds to go 40 yards.
The point is still that the difference is very slight.
Topher- or its the difference between an 80 year old pushing the button on a stopwatch or a 30 year old.
I doubled-checked my original math too, and you’re right, two foot difference. I quit pft for the day.
i would complain that the fractions of fractions of seconds are stupid and this is a stupid article, but unfortunately those fractions of fractions of seconds that result from how fast a scout hits a stopwatch more than how fast a player runs can and will be the difference between millions of dollars for a player each year. which is a shame. the combine is a joke.
Can someone please explain why we don’t use electronic timing?