The Wide World of Dirt

Since the beginning of American football, coaches, scouts, executives, and fans have always tried to find out which players are the fastest.

It’s a grade-school concept in a way; kids footrace at recess. The fastest kid on the schoolyard? They’re always the first to be selected by captains for pickup games.

There’s this sense that the fastest people are naturally the most athletic, and in the world of professional sports, that still holds true today.

How do I know the 40’s importance? Let’s briefly visit the 2009 NFL Draft.

The consensus top receiver in that draft was Michael Crabtree. One of the most well-rounded prospects at his position, Crabtree left Texas Tech as the first player to win two Biletnikoff Awards in a row.

Everyone expected the paltry Oakland Raiders to draft their next franchise wideout, and maybe it was optimistic to think Al Davis would do what anyone expects.

When Oakland went on the clock, Crabtree was still available. I imagine he was fixing himself up, ready to shake Roger Goodell’s hand and hold a silver and black jersey.

When Goodell took the podium, the name Darrius Heyward-Bey was announced as the player going to the Bay Area, not Crabtree.

A second-team All-ACC player, Heyward-Bey shocked onlookers at the combine when he laid down a blistering 4.30 40-yard dash time.

For those who kept tabs on the Maryland standout, his coaches claimed Heyward-Bey ran a 4.23 40-yard dash as a redshirt freshman, so he could’ve left some milliseconds on the table for all we know.

Crabtree was the opposite, declining his invitation to the combine in favor of healing a Jones fracture in his left foot. That means Crabtree didn’t run the 40.

That small shred of doubt, that fear of the unknown was all that it took for Al Davis to lean into what his gut was telling him: take the fastest guy.

Crabtree would eventually be taken by the 49ers with the 10th overall pick, and he experienced a solid 11-year career that saw him put up a 1,000-yard season with two separate teams and pull in 54 career touchdowns.

Heyward-Bey would not be as successful. The former Terrapin nearly missed out on a 1,000-yard season in Oakland in 2011, but a regression the following season led to Oakland releasing him in the offseason.

The fastest receiver in that draft just couldn’t catch on as a consistent contributor to any of his future teams, and despite a long stint in Pittsburgh, he only caught more than 20 passes in a season once before losing his roster spot after 2018.

Funny enough, Michael Crabtree did get to hold a silver and black once he inked a free agent contract with Oakland in 2015. His three-year stint with the team saw the reliable pass catcher turn in the most productive years of his career.

Even funnier, Crabtree (2,543) actually outgained Heyward-Bey (2,071) over their time in Oakland where Heyward-Bey had an extra season on Crabtree.

I say all of this to say speed is still a super important trait teams are looking for in the current day, just as much as they did when the game itself began to take shape.

A more modern and infamous example than Crabtree and Heyward-Bey is drafting Ezekiel Elliott (4.47) over Derrick Henry (4.54) in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Baffling enough as it was to pick a runningback 4th overall, it was the Dallas Cowboys selecting Elliott, and to be fair, he’s had great success in Jerry World.

Derrick Henry got snatched up by the Titans in the second round, and he has taken the league by storm since December 2017. Henry has outgained Elliott on the ground for their careers while also amassing an historic 2027 rushing yards in 2020.

Not only that, Henry has somehow found the endzone more in rushing and total TDs, all while playing for teams anemic to passing the football. Even at his best, Zeke has always relied on Dak Prescott, a guy better than any Titan QB since Steve McNair.

What exactly made Zeke a better prospect than Henry?

This answer might surprise you because frankly, I don’t know! Henry was more accomplished at a school of a similar tier to Zeke’s. Henry played in a harder conference. Henry showed no signs of injury concern, and Zeke did.

But Dirt, you must consider that Ezekiel Elliott was exactly .07seconds faster than Derrick Henry, so that makes Elliott the better prospect.

I disagree, but I want to see if the numbers back me up.

From now until the NFL Draft in late April, I will be taking the top-5 40-yard dash times from every position and analyze their careers.

After analyzing their careers, I will feel more confident in saying whether speed actually does translate to NFL success.