We already noted that Arkansas Pine-Bluff offensive tackle Terron Armstead ran the fastest 40-yard dash time of any offensive lineman in the history of the Scouting Combine. But many scouts and coaches say that for an offensive lineman, the 10-yard split is more important than the 40-yard dash, because the 10-yard split shows how quickly a lineman gets out of his stance. And on that score, one lineman at the Combine has Armstead beat.
Oklahoma offensive tackle Lane Johnson ran the second-fastest 40 for an offensive lineman, at 4.72 seconds, but he ran the fastest 10-yard split, at 1.61 seconds. So Johnson actually got from the starting line and to the 10-yard line three-hundredths of a second faster than Armstead.
Johnson is an interesting prospect, and surely the only offensive lineman in this year’s draft who started his college career as a quarterback: Johnson was a quarterback at Kilgore College before moving to tight end, then transferring to Oklahoma where they tried him out at tight end and defensive end before he moved to the offensive line, first at right tackle and then eventually becoming Oklahoma’s starting left tackle.
NFL Network’s Mike Mayock ranks Johnson as the third-best tackle in this year’s draft. After a long and winding road to the left tackle position, he looks like a first-round pick.