Terrelle Pryor's 40 speed: Someone call Snopes

And that's actually exaggerating. Rice's best 40 time at the NFL combine was a 4.71. That's right, the greatest reciever in history was 4.7 40 man. And he shall forever be Exhibit A when pointing out how meaningless 40 times can sometimes be.

 

On the flip side there were lots of guys who ran like the wind and sucked. Like James Jett.

 

There's two guys on that list I believe: Bo and Darrell Green

 

40 times are often suspect, a tool for p.r. use. or just an inaccurate portrayal of how a man plays.

jerry rice, of course, is the classic example of a guy who never timed well -- i think his combine time was in the high 4.5's or higher -- while laveranues coles is on ther aforementioned list with utterly inhuman times. he came to the nfl with the rep for being Trouble with that cap T and ungodly fast.

neither turned out to be true. he's never been anything beyond a possession-receiver type.

so proceed with caution on 40-time nonsense. i mean, obviously pryor is plenty fast. but judge his speed more on how he plays than how he allegedly times. i mean, was the track super fast? was there a wind at his back? if it was an indoor time, what was the surface? etc. etc. etc.

 

Don Bebe a 4.12?

 

that's an exaggeration. but the point is right on.

 

Hmm. I would.

 

I'm guessing the NFL's all-time leading rusher had a pretty sad time in the 40 as well.

 

Like what has been said, you have to see Pryor at field level to understand how fast he it. He looks like he is jogging from up high, but down low it's amazing how fast he's moving.

 

I believe it was worse than that, I know I've read several times that Rice failed to crack 4.7 at the combine, and a quick google search seemed to confirm that (although, admittedly through questionable wiki type sources).

Emmett Smith, btw, is another guy who had woeful 40 times. If the all time leading runner and the all time leading reciever didn't need blazing 40 speed, you gotta wonder how important it actually is.

 

Like Billy Beane...could care less about the stats or physical attributes, just wanted to know if the player could play the game. 40 speeds are overrated. Shuttle times. Reps with 185 pounds. Etc. Really, how did these things become so important to the point where a player's draft stock could rise or fall dramatically based on how he did in these pointless tests?

 

indeed. emmitt was a 4.65. i still recall rice being in the 4.6's -- very slow -- which is why he fell behind eddie brown and al toon, who was no speedster himself. a great player, too, though.