WR Breshad Perriman Unleashes Speed at UCF Pro Day, Improves Draft Stock

http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2015/3/25/8291591/wr-breshad-perriman-unleashes-speed-at-ucf-pro-day-improves

A few days ago, I wrote our 2015 NFL Draft profile of early entrant Breshad Perriman. Here's where I landed then:

Unfortunately for Perriman, he missed the combine with a hamstring injury. It’s too bad because he could have benefited with a strong performance given the concerns some have articulated about his drops. We’ll how he does working out at UCF on March 25. It ought to be illuminating and may perhaps establish him as a first round pick in the eyes of NFL scouts. Having watched him closely for three years, I'm inclined to think that he has the talent to be drafted that early -- we will see how teams' needs stack up.

Then came UCF's Pro Day. And, uh, things continue to look OK for Perriman:

A few days ago, I wrote our 2015 NFL Draft profile of early entrant Breshad Perriman. Here's where I landed then:

Unfortunately for Perriman, he missed the combine with a hamstring injury. It’s too bad because he could have benefited with a strong performance given the concerns some have articulated about his drops. We’ll how he does working out at UCF on March 25. It ought to be illuminating and may perhaps establish him as a first round pick in the eyes of NFL scouts. Having watched him closely for three years, I'm inclined to think that he has the talent to be drafted that early -- we will see how teams' needs stack up.

Then came UCF's Pro Day. And, uh, things continue to look OK for Perriman

...

The football end of the Twitterverse started exploding with bullish estimates of just how fast Perriman ran that 40. And by any of those estimates, Perriman was extremely fast. UCF estimated estimated his 40-yard dash time between 4.22 and 4.27 seconds.  Yahoo's Eric Edholm cautiously reported a text from a "via a trusted NFL scout,"indicating that the scout

[...] wrote that UCF wide receiver Breshad Perriman just ran a 4.15-second 40-yard dash at his pro day on Wednesday.

Not a misprint. Four-one-five. That's Bo Jackson/Deion Sanders speed if true.

And those are the key words: if true. We suspect that the time was not accurate, that his finger clicked the stopwatch a tenth of a second slow, with UCF not apparently having electronic timing at their facility.

Timing the (above) Vine of Perriman's 40 yard dash electronically, Edholm landed at 4.22 seconds (consistent with the fast side of UCF's report).

Perriman's agent Drew Rosenhaus initially put Perriman's time at 4.26, before noting that several teams had timed him even faster:

But let's be skeptics for a moment. And let's assume that the most 'true' time is the slowest end of the reported estimates: 4.27 seconds. That's still faster than the quickest 40 yard dash time from this year's NFL Combine -- UAB WR J.J. Nelson ran his 40 in 4.28 seconds (by the way, we've got a draft preview of Nelson over here). I guess there's a reason why Perriman is happy this afternoon:

You'll still see Perriman's hands questioned as we get closer to the draft (though I feel compelled to point out that Holman never really mustered up the ability to throw a pass with touch and so wasn't usually doing Perriman any favors here). But his performance at UCF's pro day ought to make his stock rise. For my part, I'm more solidified in my view that he ought to be drafted in the first round.