2026 Pro Days: Standouts At Each Position
The Pro Day circuit is essentially done. Once you account for which workouts matter for each position. which players stood out?
The college pro day circuit has essentially concluded; by the end of March, 1700 players had completed at least one pro day workout, with more adding their pro days to the mix in early April. With that, we have more data on previously undiscovered gems.
The problem is that pro day workouts are often difficult to parse — not just because the workouts offer variable benefits depending on context, but also because pro days themselves have been mystified by the NFL's characteristically opaque nature.
Last year, Wide Left’s Alex Katson broke down how pro days actually operate and debunked a number of myths and misconceptions about them.
What's Wrong With Pro Day Reporting?
When Tetairoa McMillan ran a 40-yard dash at a surprise workout on Arizona’s campus on March 17, a familiar haze of conflicting reporting set in.
For this piece, I wanted to work with the research I had done several years ago about which workouts matter the most for individual positions instead of using composite athletic measures.
I have issues with measures like Relative Athletic Score, which I outlined two years ago. In that piece, I discussed preferring position-specific measures, disliked the compressing nature of eliteness (or lack-of-eliteness) in RAS, how size is accounted for and more.
I’ve done some back-of-the-envelope modeling to work on producing a position-specific measure, and though it isn’t perfect, it might be more helpful. From that piece:
Over the past 15 years, I’ve maintained a database of workout scores from pro days and the NFL Combine and have tested them against NFL outcomes. These are tested both in raw form and in size-adjusted form – it turns out that the raw 40-yard dash matters at cornerback, but size-adjusted 40-yard dash matters at tight end.
The testing hasn’t been updated in the past several years, so while it might over-index for cornerbacks with length or trend towards other NFL fads from a few years ago, it still represents something a bit more precise than composite athletic scores.
I’ve also been able to control for role a little bit. There are two sets of athletic scores at defensive tackle – one for larger DTs, presumed to be nose tackles and one for smaller DTs, presumed to be three-techniques – three sets of tests for receivers that depend on height and separate tests at center, guard and tackle.
This way, we can avoid being impressed by athletes who specialize in skills that have little to do with their projected NFL job. RAS stars like Damiere Byrd and Dri Archer didn’t test well in position-specific scoring while average RAS athletes like Sidney Rice and Malcolm Jenkins are recognized for the high-level positional athletes they are.
Terence Steele had a high RAS but low position scoring while Cordy Glenn was the opposite.
So, with that in mind, and about 2,000 player workouts to account for after ingesting April data and the NFL Combine, who stood out?
Table of Contents:
Offense
Quarterback
I’ve not done any testing for the relationship between athleticism and performance at quarterback, so there’s no model to go off of. Instead, we can identify the most impressive all-around athlete at the position based on pro day testing. That happened to be Jeff Sims from Arizona State (628th on the Consensus Big Board). His uncle, Mike Sims-Walker, was a receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Sims ran a 4.50 40-yard dash and complemented that with a 10’11” broad jump, demonstrating his explosiveness. Doing so at 6’4” and 222 pounds is impressive, though it would have been nice to get agility measurements, too. In his final year at Arizona State, he only started in the second half of the season after starter Sam Leavitt suffered a season-ending foot injury. But in those seven games, he earned over 500 yards rushing.
He’s not had meaningful snaps in college football, so he’s not going to be a quarterback at the next level. But it wouldn’t be surprising if an NFL team looked at him as a receiver or tight end. At the moment, Sims has not
Honorable Mention: Gavin Wimsatt, Jacksonville State
