Some time ago there was a discussion about what makes a fast middle linebacker, this eventually lead to the topic of the average speed for each position. Now this Some Clarification is in Order will be much shorter and to the point, simply it will answer that question: What is the average 40 time by position?

I won't make this long but I should say this obviously not perfect since some players don't test well on their 40 times and some are faster than others over 20 or 60 yards but since the 40 yard dash is actually a fairly good measurement of a player's overall speed, I'll stick with it, especially since that is the most often mentioned and measured at the combine as well as here at Mile High Report.

I got these numbers by researching the 40 times of every player in the NFL, though I did exclude scout teams for a few reasons, the two biggest being many didn't have recorded 40 times or they were impossible to track down. Overall I had over 100 data points for every position so it's a fairly large population. To make it bigger I went back to every draft since 2000 and included players who may not still be active but played in at least fives games to improve the overall population size. I excluded the offensive line positions for a few reasons, many offensive lineman don't record 40 times or they actively don't hustle on those drills.

*This is a sortable table*

Position

Average 40 Time

QB 4.93 RB 4.49 TE 4.70 WR 4.48 DE 4.80 DT 5.06 OLB 4.65 MLB 4.76 CB 4.48 FS 4.53 SS 4.55

Well there you have it, dig in.