Xavier Worthy's 40 time

Worthy came to Indianapolis from Texas at 5-foot-11 1/4 and 165 pounds. His first 40 was a 4.25. On the second the unofficial clock read 4.22, matching John Ross's record, and the official time came back 4.21. NFL.com noted that Ross had been 23 pounds heavier when he set the old mark in 2017.

His splits were 1.49 at 10 yards and 2.42 at 20 yards. That means he covered the last 20 yards in 1.79 seconds, an average of about 22.9 mph over the back half of the run. The same day he jumped 41 inches in the vertical and 10-foot-11 in the broad jump.

Since 1999 the Combine has started the 40 clock by hand and stopped it with a laser at the finish. Every time on the Combine's all-time list since then was run the same way, so his 4.21 compares fairly with Ross's 4.22 and Chris Johnson's 4.24 from 2008. It doesn't compare cleanly with Pro Day times or with the hand-timed 40s from before 1999.

Averaged over the full 40 yards, a 4.21 is 19.4 mph. Next Gen Stats tracking put his peak during the run at 24.41 mph, the fastest of any player at the 2024 Combine. The converter on this page estimates a higher peak because it works from the 4.21 itself, and a hand-started 40 reads fast.

Game speed is lower. Next Gen Stats measured him at 18.45 mph on his first NFL touch, a 21-yard end-around touchdown against Baltimore on 5 September 2024. On 29 September 2024 he reached 21.46 mph on a 54-yard touchdown catch against the Chargers, which ESPN reported as the second-fastest ball-carrier speed on a touchdown that season at the time.

Neither is close to the Next Gen Stats era record, Tyreek Hill's 23.24 mph kick return in 2016. Game speed depends on the play: a receiver who catches the ball already at full speed with open field ahead gets a higher number than one tackled after 15 yards.

Worthy ran track at Central High School in Fresno, California, but only through his sophomore season. MileSplit lists a wind-legal 10.65 for 100m and a wind-aided 21.41 for 200m from 2019, his sophomore season, when he reached the CIF state meet. An SBLive list of California's fastest 2019 times has him at 10.55 on 8 May 2019, with no wind reading given, so we treat the 10.65 as his legal best.

He did not run track in his last two years of high school or at Texas. Our model turns a 4.21 40 into a 100m of roughly 9.6, and a 10.65 100m into a 40 of about 4.60. Two things explain the gap: the 10.65 is from his sophomore year, and a football 40 starts on the runner's own movement with no gun to react to.