On the ground in the heartland, with your Tuesday notes, and a reminder that I’ll be pumping out notebooks from the NFL combine all week …
• If you’re looking for someone to “win” the combine, I’ve got a couple names for you.
One would be Kentucky Wildcats cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who came in at a touch over 5' 11" and 179 pounds at the Senior Bowl, and turned in a fantastic week in Mobile, Ala. It sounds like he’ll run in the 4.3-second range in the 40-yard dash at the very least, and perform well in the jumps. Right now, he’s probably a Day 2 guy. Maybe the Wildcat ballhawk can start to change that this week.
Another would be Texas Longhorns receiver Isaiah Bond. He transferred from Alabama a year ago, and is still best-known for his mind-blowing, game-winning touchdown in the 2023 Iron Bowl on fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard line. Bond wound up being a complementary piece for the Longhorns, with fellow transfer Matthew Golden emerging as the No. 1, but there’s still a lot of talent to work with—and UT folks are telling NFL teams he’ll run in the 4.2-second range in Indy.
Want some more guys to watch? Iowa State Cyclones cornerback Darien Porter is one of just six guys to hit 22 mph on the GPS tracking in Mobile over the past seven years. Four of the previous five ran a 4.35-second 40-yard dash or faster in Indy, and the two who actually hit faster times on the field than Porter did (Riq Woolen, Carlton Johnson) clocked in under 4.3 seconds at the combine.
Along those lines, Florida Gators linebacker Shemar James was the seventh-fastest guy on the GPS tracking (via the Zebra system) at the Senior Bowl, behind four corners and two receivers. James is a 20-year-old and excelled in coverage, steeling belief among teams that he could be a three-down player in the pros. And if you’re looking for other freakish front seven players, Georgia’s Jalon Walker and Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell should light up the 40. Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart and Oregon’s Jordan Burch should bolster their reps as “traits” guys by performing well in the 40 and jumps. And word is South Carolina Gamecocks linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. could clock in around 4.5 seconds.
Among the running backs, Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson could really help himself in the three-cone, and Texas’s Jaydon Blue is expected to fly in the 40. The safety class isn’t great, but Georgia’s Malaki Starks could run under 4.4 seconds, and supersized South Carolina star Nick Emmanwori might have an 11-foot broad jump and 40-inch vertical. As for big guys, expect Michigan Wolverines defensive tackles Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant to do really well on the bench press.
• One thing I really like about talking to Daniel Jeremiah and Todd McShay about the draft before the combine—you can see the story I did with them on the site now—is that they have context for how they see players that can only be built over years of doing it.
All draft classes aren’t created equal. The fifth pick this year might’ve been the 15th pick last year. The fourth-best player at a certain spot this year might’ve been the best at his position two years ago. And so on and so forth. So I always ask the guys for some statistical anomalies from their grades. McShay gave me a couple good ones.
"The average running backs drafted is around 20 and we're looking at 30, 32 guys that'll get drafted,” he said. “The edge class is really what stands out. You do a three-year analysis, it's [an average] of like 29 guys drafted overall at edge, and I got 20–22 this year that could go in the first three rounds. Defensive tackle, you go back to 2021, it was 19, 2020 it was 18. I got 16 guys that could go in the first three rounds."
So like we said in the aforementioned column, that’s one area where teams can emulate the champion Philadelphia Eagles.
• The GMs and coaches made their way through press conferences Tuesday, and maybe the most notable thing said was Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard swinging the door wide open to a quarterback competition, telling reporters that he plans to add someone who’ll fight Anthony Richardson for the job to the room.
Who could that be? Indy was high on Justin Fields in his draft year, so he could be a possibility. There are also options in the draft—though it’d be risky to wait until then.
I do like the idea. The Colts got a positive reaction last year from Richardson after he was benched, with the young QB showing more fire at that point than he had since he was drafted. So this, in my mind, would be a way of trying to accelerate the decision-making progress on whether Richardson is the team’s future.
• Second most notable thing: Cleveland Browns GM Andrew Berry saying he sees Travis Hunter as a receiver first. Cleveland was set to meet with the Heisman winner Tuesday night, and that opinion from Berry would certainly put him in the minority—with most teams, for a variety of reasons, believing the best plan for Hunter would be to start him as a full-time corner and moonlight him on offense.
• Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor conceded Tuesday that the team plans to make Ja’Marr Chase the highest-paid nonquarterback in the NFL. Why would he put his cards on the table like that? Well, maybe because Cincinnati offered to do that before the 2024 season even started, so that’s a mere baseline for the negotiation.
• I’m gonna side with the Eagles on the Green Bay Packers-proposed tush push ban. I don’t think rules should be put in to stop a play that’s unusually successful, if that success rate is only happening for one team. It’d be different if it worked for everyone. And in this case, you can look back and see that there are plenty of cases where Eagles teammates don’t even have to push Jalen Hurts for him to glide past the line to gain.
• The Harbaugh Coaching Academy has a suite at the Indianapolis convention center. And I love the work Jim and John Harbaugh are doing to give back to what really is their family business. Good for them for investing in the future.
• Buckle up—NFLPA report card day is tomorrow.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Combine 2025 Notes: Predicting Fast-Rising Prospects.