Notre Dame football:Breaking down Chris Finke’s combine results

Notre Dame’s Chris Finke was viewed as a late-round draft pick or potential undrafted free agent heading into the combine. Would his combine impact that?

Prior to him participating in the NFL Combine, most draft experts had Notre Dame wide receiver Chris Finke pegged as a late-round draft pick or an undrafted free agent. A former walk-on with the Irish, Finke showed persistence and determination, working his way to eventually become a starter for the Irish and even earning himself a football scholarship.

Finke represents a player with the intangibles and the drive to make him a productive player, rather than someone who possesses elite athletic ability. The most common comparison to a current NFL player that Finke has drawn is to Hunter Renfrow formerly of Clemson University and now of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Both Renfrow and Finke exhibited the uncanny knack for being able to come up with the big play when needed, despite having physical limitations. Both are smaller wide receivers who are not overly explosive, Renfrow is 5’10” and 185-pounds and Finke is 5’9″ and 183-pounds.

Both Renfrow and Finke were known for their excellent route running abilities and for their ability to return punts. There are a number of striking similarities between the two players, which is why it is such an easy comparison to make.

The Raiders drafted Renfrow in the 5th round of last year’s draft with the 149th overall selection. With current projections showing Finke being drafted in the 6th and 7th rounds or being claimed as an undrafted free agent, he had to hope for a good showing at the combine in order to move up the draft board.

Unfortunately for Finke, he suffered a hamstring injury in the East-West Shrine Bowl and was only able to participate in the 40-yard dash and the vertical jump events, as his hamstring injury is still lingering and wouldn’t allow for him to participate in drills that involved lateral or directional movements, only linear runs, and jumps.

One has to wonder if the hamstring injury impacted Finke’s 40-yard dash time. There were rumblings that he may surprise people by running a time in the 4.3’s. However, he turned in a less than impressive official time of 4.57 seconds in the event. That said, Hunter Renfrow’s 40-yard dash time was officially 4.59, so the 4.57 isn’t the end of the world.

Despite his 40-yard dash time being somewhat unimpressive, Finke was able to perform well in the vertical jump, posting a 40″ jump. The jump was good enough for a fifth-place tie among all participating wide receivers.  Donovan Peoples-Jones paced the field with an insane 44.5″ jump, but Finke was just 2″ off of Jalen Reagor of TCU and Henry Ruggs III out of Alabama and only a half-inch off of his Notre Dame teammate Chase Claypool’s recorded jump. His jump was 5″ higher than that of Renfrow’s in 2019.

The bottom line is that Chris Finke did not hurt his draft status with his performance. If the comparison is to a former 5th round selection in Renfrow, Finke outperformed his combine from last year. Granted, it was a limited showing due to the injury, but Finke will look to impress when he performs at the Notre Dame Pro Day in March.

Truth be told, Finke likely stands to impact his draft status more with a strong showing at the Pro Day, due to the fact that teams know he is battling the hamstring injury. Interested teams will surely be showing up to see what he can do when fully healthy. For now, Finke can take solitude in knowing that he has not hurt his current draft stock with the combine performance.