LOOK: Texas A&M draft prospects post bizarrely slow 40 times
After a blazing fast set of 40-yard dash times at the 2022 NFL Combine, the Texas A&M Pro Day served as an unsettling reminder that not all players move that fast. With one last chance to impress scouts with a combination of speed and skill, it appears many of the prospects fell short.
Led by projected first-round pick Kenyon Green, a versatile offensive lineman, the Texas A&M Pro Day featured plenty of big names but not much speed in the 40-yard dash. Even those expected to perform better, like running back Isaiah Spiller, safety Leon O’Neal and tight end Jalen Wydermyer turned in disappointing results. Defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal rounded out a group which saw three of five finished over five seconds.
With the slowest time of the day, Green can be excused as an offensive lineman who was likely to work in the trenches as a guard anyway. However Leal and Wydermyer doing over the five-second mark shocked many and raised questions about their explosiveness and speed at the next level.
The performance on the day was so bad for Wydermyer, once considered the top available tight end, that NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein projects he will now go undrafted.
Isaiah Spiller’s combine injury
Texas A&M running back Isaiah Spiller was apparently dealing with an injury when he participated in the NFL Scouting Combine. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Spiller went through workouts while nursing a strained abductor muscle.
Shortly after Schefter broke the news, Fred Spiller, the father of Isaiah Spiller, responded in a quote tweet.
“He wanted to compete because that’s who he is, but I begged him not to run because he was not 100%,” he wrote.
Isaiah Spiller took part in both the vertical and broad jumps at the NFL Combine, but did not rank among the top running backs in either jump. He opted not to run in the 40-yard dash.
The 6-foot-1, 215-pound running back was a three-year starter for the Aggies from 2019-21. He finished just shy of 1,000 yards rushing as a freshman but would go on to surpass that mark in both his sophomore and junior seasons. Spiller ended his career at Texas A&M with a total of 2,993 yards rushing and 25 touchdowns.
The 2022 NFL Draft is set to begin April 28 in Las Vegas and will conclude on April 30. CBS Sports’ most recent mock draft did not have a running back selected in the first round. Isaiah Spiller will attempt to change that with a big showing at the Aggies’ Pro Day later this month.