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View Full Version : Matt Jones 40 time...WTF?!?!



jalbre6
02-28-2005, 04:42 PM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/02/28/bc.fbn.nflcombine.jones.ap/index.html

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Matt Jones certainly didn't look like a quarterback to those with the stopwatches at the NFL Scouting Combine on Sunday.

The former Arkansas quarterback ran the fastest time ever for a quarterback at the annual pro football meet market.

Jones, who worked out Sunday with the quarterbacks but could end up going to the NFL as a wide receiver, was unofficially clocked at 4.41 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

After Jones, there was a huge drop-off among quarterbacks. Louisville's Stefan LeFors was second-fastest at 4.62, and Sam Houston State's Dustin Long was next at 4.67. But all three were faster than running back Maurice Clarett, who was slower than 4.7 on Saturday.

Scouts at the combine have been known to move skilled players around, as they did with Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antwaan Randle El when he had finished his career as a quarterback at Indiana University.

Like Randle El, Jones switched to receiver for the first time in the Senior Bowl. He caught a touchdown catch in last month's game, a losing effort for the South all-stars.

"I don't remember a guy in my lifetime that's doing what he's doing," Jon Gruden, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach and Jones' coach at the Senior Bowl, said leading up to the Jan. 29 game. "Here's a guy who starts in the SEC on a good team, goes to bowl games, and he comes in here and doesn't even take a snap at the position he played. I'm really fired up about him. I'm really impressed.

Jerome Mathis, who played at Hampton in Virginia, turned in the fastest overall time this year at the combine with an unofficial 4.32 on Sunday. But longtime combine veterans Bill Parcells and Gil Brandt said he was officially clocked at 4.25 -- faster than Deion Sanders.

Mike Williams was the biggest surprise. The former Southern Cal wide receiver had said Friday that he wouldn't run this weekend, but after watching some other top receivers run, Williams changed his mind.

Williams ran two 4.59s, but was not among the five fastest receivers.

After Mathis, Indiana's Courtney Roby was next at 4.36 and South Carolina's Troy Williamson was third at 4.38.

Ballcox
02-28-2005, 05:12 PM
DAMN!! Jones runs a 4.41? That's freakin' amazing for a QB/WR his size. Now it makes more sense to me how he continued to elude my Longhorn defenders the past two seasons. I was at the game in Austin two years ago where they beat Texas and I couldn't understand how Jones just continually made these runs-breaking out of the pocket, he just didn't look that fast to me on the field. Seeing his 40 time puts things in focus a little more. Also, if I remember correctly he's a big son of a gun, somewhere in the 6'5/230 range I think. Damn, if I was running an NFL team I would give some serious consideration to just keeping him at QB, he's got a good arm, combined with that speed? Sounds like a great QB prospect to me.

respect the 'fro :fro