By Terrance Turner
March 5, 2022
The NFL Scouting Combine concludes tomorrow. It’s a multi-day showcase in which quarterbacks, wide receivers, lineman, linebackers, and tight ends show their skills for NL scouts (and a few select fans). The tasks include bench catching/throwing drills, bench press, broad jump, vertical jump, and the 40-yard dash. There have been several standouts thus far — none perhaps more impressive, though, than defensive lineman prospect Jordan Davis and tight end Jelani Woods.
Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis kicked off Day 3 at the NFL Scouting Combine with a stunning display of speed. At 6’6″ and 341 pounds, Davis ran a 4.78-second 40-yard dash, creating a stir at Lucas Oil Stadium and beyond with a freakish display of speed for a player of his size. His first run was unofficially clocked at 4.82 but the official time was even better. Not surprisingly, he decided not to run a second attempt, according to NFL.com.
His time is the fastest in the NFL Network era (since 2003) for a combine participant of 310 pounds or more, per Next Gen Stats. NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said he received a text from an NFL general manager that said, “Wow!” (Jeremiah, who ranked Davis as No. 17 in the draft prospects, says: “Davis is an enormous defensive tackle prospect with surprising quickness and athleticism.”)
According to Yahoo! Sports, Davis put up “terrific numbers during his four seasons at Georgia […] He had 11.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks in 41 college games.” You may recall that the University of Georgia Bulldogs ended up winning the College Football Championship, thanks in large part to Georgia’s stalwart defense. (The featured image is that of Davis holding the championship trophy, since WordPress told me that the combine photo was too small and then forced me to cycle through 3-4 badly cropped results from Google Images.) You can watch the dramatic footage of the run below:
Additionally, Davis jut set the all-time record broad jump for a player over 300 pounds:
Two days ago, Virginia tight end Jelani Woods stunned observers by posting 24 reps on the bench press, the highest of all the tight ends at the combine. According to Sports Illustrated, “Woods then ran a stunning 4.61 40-yard dash, which, according to NFL Research, is the fastest 40-yard dash ran by a tight end of Woods’ height since 2003.”
Woods (6’7″, 259 lbs) is coming off a season that saw him garner First-Team All-ACC honors with 44 receptions for 598 yards and eight touchdowns.
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