NFL Combine
2/20/25
9 min read
2025 NFL Combine: Biggest Questions Entering This Year's Event
The NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis draws a ton of attention for athletic testing, but it's also an opportunity to answer some of the biggest remaining questions for prospects ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Whether it's measurements during weigh-ins, health concerns, or simply getting a better idea of their overall athleticism, prospects can answer all kinds of questions during their busy week in Indianapolis. Let's dive into the biggest questions that we're hoping get answered during the week-long event.
NFL Combine's biggest questions
How Healthy are the top cornerback prospects?
Travis Hunter and Jahdae Barron come into the Combine with clean bills of health, but other top-tier cornerback prospects have major health concerns that medical staffs need to address in Indy.
Benjamin Morrison's health might be under a bigger microscope than any prospect in this year's draft. Initially considered a potential top-15 pick, Morrison suffered a season-ending hip injury at the start of the year for Notre Dame. It's unclear how severe the injury is and if he can make a full recovery, but a hip issue for a star cornerback is one of the worst injuries a player at that position can deal with.
Benjamin Morrison is LOCKDOWN.
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) January 27, 2025
Started all three years at Notre Dame and has a career 44.1 passer rating allowed with 12 PBUs and 9 picks.
He’s physical at the catch point with good ball skills and his play strength makes him effective in the run game.
Possible 1st rounder 👀 pic.twitter.com/unfIf8x33W
There are also some questions about East Carolina's Shavon Revel, who tore his ACL at the start of this season. As long as his knee checks out, he'll have a strong case to be a first-round pick. Even Will Johnson out of Michigan has some questions that need answering after suffering shoulder and toe injuries this past season.
It's a weird year to want a top-tier cornerback, given all of these injuries, but the combine should give teams better clarity of the risks associated with each player, especially with Morrison's hip.
Who has the length to play Offensive Tackle?
The 40-yard dash times and vertical jumps get a lot of media coverage, but probably the most important test or measurement at the combine is an offensive lineman's arm length.
Scouts and front offices value longer arms for offensive tackles because that length allows players to latch onto pass rushers outside of their frame more easily to lock them out and prevent counter-rush moves. The threshold tends to be 34-inch arms for tackles, and while teams are willing to bend the rules based on the player, it's still an important measurement that teams will value when stacking up similar players.
There are a handful of offensive linemen to monitor for arm length this year, most notably with Ohio State's Donovan Jackson. A 5-star guard out of high school, Jackson was an interior lineman his whole career before an injury to Josh Simmons forced him out to left tackle during the team's national title run. Jackson ended up thriving at LT and, with sufficient arm length, could talk teams into playing him there at the pro level.
Fully caught up on Donovan Jackson’s tape & the shift he made in the playoffs was incredible.
— James Foster (@NoFlagsFilm) January 21, 2025
W10-14 when he first moved to LT was an admirable performance from someone playing out of position. Last 4 games was legitimately shutdown tackle tape. Verified 36-in arms in HS btw pic.twitter.com/317jxT7CQj
Other names to keep an eye on include Grey Zabel, Wyatt Milum, and Jonah Savaiinaea.
How Will Travis Hunter's Athletic Testing STack Up at each position?
Arguably, there hasn't been a prospect like Travis Hunter since the NFL Scouting Combine.
Hunter, a full-time two-way player, is expected to undergo defensive back drills instead of wide receiver ones in Indianapolis. However, assuming that he goes through the athletic testing, teams will use those scores and compare them historically to successful receivers and cornerbacks.
Hunter's primary position at the next level continues to be a hotly debated topic. The majority seems to believe Hunter would thrive as a full-time cornerback who could play sub-packages on offense. However, others view him as a potential superstar at receiver, with The Ringer's Danny Kelly even recently comparing his movement skills to Justin Jefferson on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show.
OK this is sick. Shedeur on the run to Travis TD. Great stuff after the catch by 12 pic.twitter.com/LmX5yEJGh2
— Billy M (@BillyM_91) December 29, 2024
Scouts will have their own internal databases to compare Hunter's testing, but fans of the draft will also be able to use sites like MockDraftable or RAS.football to do their own positional comparisons.
Hunter's testing will be under a larger microscope than most prospects, but fans can only keep their fingers crossed to hope that the two-way star will actually go through most drills.
Who Will Separate Themselves in the Day 2 EDGE Group?
It's a good year to be looking for help on the defensive front.
There's a significant uptick in the number of defensive linemen and EDGE prospects heading to this year's combine, and there are more than a few pass rushers who are all struggling to separate from each other in the Day 2 tier. The consensus board features 16 EDGEs in the top 100, and six of them rank between 27th and 52nd.
Those six EDGEs feature all types of play styles, from power rushers like Jack Sawyer and Landon Jackson to bendy speed rushers like Donovan Ezeiruaku and Princely Umanmielen.
Some Ole Miss Edge Princely Umanmielen highlights https://t.co/Ie7VJ7TqJn pic.twitter.com/yzsdUXlHFu
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) February 10, 2025
One of the best ways to separate when closely graded prospects at the same position is with athletic testing, medical evaluations, and team interviews. If one of these guys can shine when speaking to teams, and tear up the on-field drills, fans will quickly hear about it through media outlets as sources start to hype them up.
Who will be the fastest-rising Wide receiver?
The consensus appears to be that this isn't the strongest class of wide receivers. The good news for prospects attending the combine is that the lack of depth will give them an opportunity to skyrocket up draft boards with a strong on-field performance.
Matthew Golden, out of Texas, should quickly climb up boards after dominating in the postseason, particularly in the SEC championship against Georgia. His explosiveness and twitch could allow him to test extremely well, solidifying Round 1 draft status.
While Golden's stock has already climbed significantly, other prospects could make strong cases as first-round or top-50 picks. Iowa State has a pair of wideouts in Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, who could quickly climb draft boards. Higgins is an explosive, big-bodied outside receiver, while Noel is a slot with excellent vertical speed and agility to break in and out of routes.
Perhaps the biggest wide receiver name to keep an eye on is TCU's Savion Williams.
Savion Williams is an INSANE athlete.
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) January 12, 2025
Led all WRs with 43 total missed tackles forced (next best was 32!!) while taking snaps at RB and WR.
Verified at 6’4, 220lbs with a 73.5% career contested catch rate. Projected to run 4.4s with a 40+ inch vertical. Drops are a concern. pic.twitter.com/gMvHLT3ZeN
A dual-threat weapon who saw significant action in the running game, Williams is 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, with excellent explosiveness, speed, and enough wiggle to be one of the biggest winners of this year's combine.
Can Anyone Break the 40-yard dash record?
Xavier Worthy shocked everyone in attendance at last year's combine by breaking John Ross' 40-yard dash record, running the drill in just 4.21 seconds.
Can anyone beat that this year?
If he runs, Hunter is an underrated name to watch out for after reportedly running a 4.2-second 40 time back in high school. However, he's likely bulked up since then, and there's a non-zero chance that he avoids running any drills to preserve his status as a top-five pick.
Tez Johnson is the other name to monitor. Despite weighing in at just 156 pounds at the Senior Bowl, he tore up practices down in Mobile, easily burning past just about every defensive back he faced in 1-on-1 drills. His ultra-light frame and quick-twitch playing style could have him making a run for a 40 time in the 4.2-4.3 range.
Georgia's Arian Smith is probably the most overlooked player with a chance to make history. On top of being a wideout at a top SEC program, Smith was also a track and field athlete for the Bulldogs, setting a career-best 100-yard dash time of 10.1 seconds.
WATCH: Arian Smith (@ArianSmith2) was on our radar going into last season as one of the fastest players. 🔥
— Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) June 21, 2024
Clocking in at 20.4 mph and with high praises this offseason, we anticipate his significant impact on the #UGA offense. 👀 #ReelSpeed
🔗 https://t.co/UFKB2eWAzC pic.twitter.com/Sv4XRcfTcN
Of all the players coming into the combine, a track star with blazing speed and an understanding of how to get the best jump coming out of his starting stance could help Smith make a real push at the 40-yard dash record.
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