1. Leonard Fournette is a runaway freight train
Fournette’s early impressions Friday weren’t great. After showing up to the combine a bit on the heavy side at 240 pounds (water weight, he says), Fournette showed some rather unimpressive burst in the vertical, logging just 28.5 inches.
As a point of reference here, Tom Brady’s vertical back in 2000, when he looked like this, was just four inches lower.
Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.
Then, all hell broke loose when he ran an official 4.51-second 40-yard dash. Jaws hit the floor. Pools of drool were seen collecting at the feet of scouts all over the building. Minds were blown.
Fournette has 94th percentile weight-adjusted speed. 2nd-best speed score for any RB weighing 235+ in last 10 years. https://t.co/ahH3YskSlQ
— Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) March 3, 2017
Former NFL player and current scout/analyst for NFL.com Bucky Brooks put this into some perspective.
Fournette running 4.51 @ 240 pounds will impress a lot of coaches. DBs aren't trying to hit a freight train in the open field..
— Bucky Brooks (@BuckyBrooks) March 3, 2017
Suddenly, Fournette being compared to Bo Jackson and Eric Dickerson doesn’t seem so crazy after all.
Of course, anyone who’s watched Fournette the past couple of years at LSU knows what results from the speed/power combination he brings to the table. And anyone who hasn’t seen the devastation left in Fournette’s wake, be advised, it’s not pretty. But here you go anyway.
https://twitter.com/FootbaIl_Tweets/status/830297403571916802
We’re always told not to take too much stock into 40 times. It’s something that makes sense most of the time.
However, when you consider Fournette was already considered to be the preeminent talent at running back this year, showing this kind of raw speed on top of everything we’ve seen him do at the collegiate level on tape vaults him up that much higher. So much so that an NFL executive reportedly believes more teams will try to move up into the top five this April when the first round kicks off in Philadelphia (more on that here).
Fournette’s ankle appears to be more than healed up after he missed a chunk of the regular season and skipped out on LSU’s bowl game. He appears destined to be a very high draft pick.