4th Round: Marvin White

[duus]

Ronnie Lott, talking about teammate Jerry Rice and the fact that he ran the 40 in about 4.6,

"Jerry may have been a 4.6 or a 4.7, but he was a 4.2 on Sundays."

That says it all. All I care about is how he looks at gametime.

[The PatternMaster]

Ronnie Lott, talking about teammate Jerry Rice and the fact that he ran the 40 in about 4.6,

"Jerry may have been a 4.6 or a 4.7, but he was a 4.2 on Sundays."

That says it all. All I care about is how he looks at gametime.

Excatly, when players run their 40 at the combine it's hard to simulate the adreniline and other factors that are going on while they are playing. I think they should have someone chasing the guys trying to knock their heads at the combine, that would be a more accurate measure of how fast a guy is.

Besides there are guys who run a 4.2/40 who are on practice squads, so what does that tell you about 40 times.

[DontPushMe]

Ronnie Lott, talking about teammate Jerry Rice and the fact that he ran the 40 in about 4.6,

"Jerry may have been a 4.6 or a 4.7, but he was a 4.2 on Sundays."

That says it all. All I care about is how he looks at gametime.

Thats the exception, not the rule. Whenever people diss the 40 time they call out a few players who have succeeded without having a good 40 time, as if a few cases of that make it something that will always happen. There are exceptions to every rule, still though the 40 time is a very efficient way of determining how a guy will play. Its not the end all, but no GM makes it out to be, only people who like to diss the 40 will do that. Generally its just if a guy runs in a certain range its this much more likely that he will succeed. A 4.53 for a safety is fine. Theres nothing to be worried about with his 40 time.

[HairOnFire]

Speakig of 40 times, I loved the remark by Dwayne Jarrett, after being passed over by San Diego, about how he should have spent his time running track instead of playing football well enough to set the Pac-10 record for TD's....with a year of eligibility remaining.

[derekshank]

40 times, while a helpful tool to judge a player, is not the best indicator of his speed. As Hair mentioned, players who have a history of running track are going to be better in the 40, because getting out of the box is so vitally important for such a short run.

40 times are worth something, but they are not the only or probably even the best indicator of good speed.