Notre Dame football: Breaking down Troy Pride Jr.’s combine
By Matt Clark
NFL Draft experts were extremely excited to see Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr. put his elite speed on display at the NFL Combine.
A lot of Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr.’s draft stock was predicated on his speed. Pride Jr. was projected to be one of the fastest players to participate in the 2020 NFL Combine with some believing that he could post a time that fell in the 4.2-second range.
Prior to participating in events like the 40-yard dash, Pride Jr. received his official measurements. He was measured at a height of just over 5’11” and a weight of 193-pounds. In addition, he had a hand size of 9″, arm length of 30 5/8″ and wingspan of 74″. All of Pride Jr.’s measurements fell within the range of the average NFL cornerback.
In the highly anticipated 40-yard dash event, Pride Jr. would disappoint by missing expectations, despite still posting an extremely fast official time of 4.40 seconds in the event. The time would be good for fourth-best amongst participating defensive backs and fell over a tenth of a second short of leader Utah’s Javelin Guidry’s time of 4.29 seconds.
In the broad jump event, Pride Jr. would post a distance of 119″, which placed him ahead of only Myles Bryant of Washington, who jumped only 115″. His 13 reps in the bench press event were good enough for the middle of the pack finish but lagged well behind the 22 reps that Kindle Vildor of Georgia Southern and Reggie Robinson II of Tulsa paced the defensive back group with.
In the vertical jump, Pride Jr. would jump 35.5″, which was good for 14th-best among participating defensive backs. Ohio State phenom cornerback Jeff Okudah led all defensive backs in the event with a jump of 41″.
In the twenty-yard shuttle, Pride Jr. would post a respectable time of 4.26 seconds, which was good for seventh-best among participating defensive backs. Penn State’s John Reid led all defensive backs in the event with a time of 3.97 seconds.
The former Irish cornerback would excel at the three-cone event, with Pride Jr. posting an official time of 6.94 seconds, which was good for fourth-best in the event. Myles Bryant would lead the field of defensive backs with a time of 6.81 seconds.
While his 40-yard dash time may have been disappointing in comparison to the lofty expectations coming into the combine, the 4.40 second time that Pride Jr. posted is still indicative of the elite speed that the cornerback possesses. There is a good chance that he will be able to best that time when he participates in the Notre Dame Pro Day later this month.
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The overall performance by Pride Jr. was extremely solid, as he did nothing to hurt his draft stock. Currently projected by most draft analysts to be selected between the third and fifth rounds of April’s NFL Draft, Pride Jr. may find his stock rising if he is able to post a Pro Day 40-yard dash time in line with the initial expectations coming into the combine.