Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon didn’t get a chance to run the 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine last week. He ran it today at his Pro Day workout in Oklahoma.
A source on the scene says Mixon covered the distance in 4.43 seconds. Teams often will adjust the times to account for the differences in surfaces between the Scouting Combine and other locations; Mixon ran on a synthetic surface similar to the field at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The other complication is that electronic timing rarely occurs at Pro Day workouts; most prospects are hand-timed in the 40. Thus, the numbers will vary. Still, it’s clear Mixon ran fast.
As Mike Mayock explained on Tuesday’s PFT Live, fast guys run fast and slow guys run slow. It’s only news when those expectations aren’t realized. For Mixon, the stew of factors is complicated by his off-field misconduct from July 2014, and his ultimate draft stock will depend in large part on the information obtained about whether what he did was an aberration or whether it was part of a trend.
Still, his speed and skills more than justify the effort to learn more about Mixon before the time comes to write his name on a draft card.