The 2024 NFL Combine All-Fun Team

There's a bunch of lists of Combine winners and losers based on their projected performance in the NFL. This isn't about that.

Photo of Tyler Owens from Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, Photo of “space” from Getty/Stock

The NFL Combine is meant to be an event that allows general managers to better understand the prospects eligible for the NFL draft – a swath of medical, psychological and physical tests are given to incoming rookies so that teams can be more comfortable with their evaluations.

Sure, that’s fine. There’s some chance that the NFL Combine may be dying in that regard, which I wrote about here, but that’s not what this piece is about.

It’s also not about finding the most valuable performances at the combine from a projection perspective. If you want data-based analysis on that, check out Kevin Cole at Unexpected Points (WRs and RBs, OL, DBs and TEs, DL and LBs) and Tej Seth at Sumer Sports (there’s no list of players, but there is a list of workouts for each position), whose models are surely much more finely tuned than mine are at this point.

The combine can also be a lot of fun. The NFL knows it, which is why they made the decision to invite fans into the stadium after sealing off the workout area for decades. They moved the combine to primetime in order to maximize viewership and they’ve begun treating it like a competition in itself.

So long as the prospects continue to play ball, there’s no issue with that either.

Let’s be a part of this. Which prospects were the most fun?

Offense

Quarterback: Joe Milton III, Tennessee

It’s hard to ignore Joe Milton’s incredible deep ball, shot with the cool confidence of a player who knows who he is. This video from Lance Zierlein should make my case for me.

Running Back: Isaac Guerendo, Louisville

The ability to run a 4.33 40-yard dash is fantastic by itself. Isaac Guerendo had the fastest time among all running backs, which is worth noting by itself. But good lord, he did it at 221 pounds! We actually haven’t seen a back with a Barnwell speed score, which accounts for both weight and 40-yard dash time, this high since 2020 – when Jonathan Taylor, A.J. Dillon and Antonio Gibson all managed the feat. Before that, it was 2016 with Keith Marshall and 2013 with Knile Davis.

Guerendo also happened to light up the other metrics, with a 41.5-inch vertical leap, 10’9” broad jump, 4.15-second short shuttle (!!) and 6.94-second three-cone. There aren’t many models that tell us that these things matter, but mattering isn’t what matters here.