There aren’t many NFL draft events that draw more attention than the 40 yard dash. For good or for bad, that’s what gets the most eyes — just look at last year’s NFL combine workouts on prime time. It’s definitely worth asking how useful this information is, considering there aren’t many situations in games were players sprint an arbitrary distance without wearing pads or helmets. But which Saints players have put up the best results?
To find out, I went through historical combine data at Pro Football Reference before filling in the gaps by researching pro day workout results. I went with combine data when possible because it’s a proven, laser-timed process that doesn’t happen on a fast track (unlike various college pro days around the country), but some players’ numbers still eluded me. There were some inconsistencies here and there, but let’s get real: if it comes down to splitting a tenth or hundredth of a second, it’s ultimately not that serious.
Kicking specialists Wil Lutz and Blake Gillikin never recorded 40-yard dash times; nor did trench players Marcus Willoughby, Derrick Kelly, and Jalen Dalton, so far as I could tell. Chase Hansen missed his pro day workout while recovering from surgery.
Still, I was left with 53 players under contract for 2021. And here they are, ranked from slowest to fastest:
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