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The NFL combine’s 40-yard dash tracker is widely recognized for its precision in timing participants. However, its reliability comes into question when discrepancies arise, particularly concerning top prospects whose times fall short of expectations.
Such was the case recently with Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate. On Sunday, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter found himself in hot water after reporting Tate’s 40-yard dash time. Schefter highlighted a disparity between the league’s official timing and measurements taken by NFL teams, which painted a more flattering picture of Tate’s performance.
According to Schefter, various NFL executives and general managers clocked Tate, a promising 21-year-old prospect, at a time between 4.45 and 4.47 seconds. This contrasts sharply with the official record, which listed his time as 4.52 seconds.
“Ohio State WR Carnell Tate, a potential top 10 pick, was timed by several NFL executives and GMs on Saturday with a 40 time in the range of 4.45-4.47 seconds,” Schefter shared via social media platform X on Sunday morning, sparking debate over the accuracy and consistency of the NFL’s official timing system.
“Ohio State WR Carnell Tate, a potential top 10 pick, was timed by several NFL executives and GMs on Saturday with a 40 time in the range of 4.45-4.47 seconds,” Schefter posted to X Sunday morning.
“Although the combine registers official times, teams always conduct their own timing, and those measurements with some teams were lower than his clocked 4.52.”
Some social media users were quick to heckle Schefter, joking that he must’ve been appealing to Tate’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, by giving the disappointing time a positive spin.
Others criticized the insider for embracing team-measured times over the league’s official mark, which utilizes a standardized, sensor-based process to track every single participant.
It’s unclear where Schefter received the information, and it’s possible he received corroborating measurements from several teams that, to him, sculpted a compelling story.
However, and perhaps most notably, Schefter didn’t report any similar cases regarding the team-measured times of other players varying from their official measurements.
That’s not to say those discrepancies don’t exist — or that Tate’s numbers didn’t reflect a sizable gap between teams and the league.
But it’s certainly curious that the only publicized case surrounds a presumed top 10 pick who fell below expectations.