In an athletic context, power can be understood as the combination of forces and movement. Specifically, power is the product of a force on an object and the object’s velocity. In the example of an athlete, power is the product of force produced by an athlete that translates to the propulsion of that athlete and thus their velocity. The vertical leap is not only one of the core metrics at the NFL Combine, but it is also one of the most popular and easy ways to assess power output of an athlete. As technology improves, there will be more accurate and elegant ways to measure power output. However, currently, these methods of measurement require force platforms, force plate treadmills, time-of-flight measures, and even film analysis. A simple mechanical power formula was devised for both peak and average power using a typical vertical leap (aka counter-movement jump and reach test) by Johnson and Bahamonde (1996). This formula incorporates an athlete’s height, weight, and vertical leap to estimate both peak and average power output.

I’ve been interested in power output of NFL prospects for many years. Data demonstrates that speed or leaping ability in the NFL almost never matters in the absence of body mass. In other words, NFL athletes must have a combination of body mass, speed, agility, explosiveness, etc. in order to be successful. The best players in the NFL are not simultaneously the fastest or highest jumpers in the world. A review of over 3000 NFL Combine invitees revealed a strong correlation between weight and speed; speed was inversely related to body weight.

Based on that data, body weight was able to explain roughly 75% of the variance observed in 40 yard dash times. Using the formula from that relationship, I predicted 40 yard dash times for each prospect. The difference between the predicted 40 time (aka: what they “should” run based on their weight) and what they did run, can be used to identify the fastest “pound-for-pound” athlete to ever attend the combine. Running a full half-second faster than his predicted time, Dontari Poe is the fast “pound-for-pound” combine invitee of all time. The Table below lists the Top 20 All-Time.

What stands out about this list is the number of standout pass rushers and pass protectors. Dontari Poe, Mario Williams, and Von Miller are All-Pro defensive players, while Lane Johnson, Trent Williams, and Terron Armstead have also made All-Pro and Pro-Bowl teams. This data suggested that weight-adjusted speed/explosiveness or even more simply, a combination of body mass and athletic ability, was important for playing football around the line of scrimmage. And that combination of mass and that ability to accelerate that mass can very basically be translated into power or force production.

The next question was “How do I estimate force and power?” Force would be very difficult to estimate without time interval measurements for the 40 yard dash. The next best option was using a vertical or broad jump measurements to estimate power. However, as mentioned earlier, power cannot be calculated (power = work / time) without a measurement of time, or without technology such as directly measuring using a force plate. But, within scientific literature formula have been derived that estimate power from vertical jump measurements. So using one of these formula derived by Johnson and Bahamonde (1996), I estimated peak and average power for each NFL Combine attendee from 2000 to 2017. However, this would only tell me how much power was generated in the vertical direction. And literature suggests that in order to maximize horizontal acceleration (which is typically what is most important in football), athletes should produce only enough vertical force to raise their center of mass so that they can recycle their limbs and reapply horizontal force during acceleration. And, only once maximum speed is reached, is vertical force production correlated with sprinting performance. Therefore, I went ahead and predicted power using Johnson and Bahamonde’s formula with both vertical and broad jump heights.

Looking through the list of players with the highest estimates for power output, any significance appears to be fairly position-specific. For instance, the Top 5 Defensive Ends ever in terms of estimated vertical power output are a pretty compelling case:

Similarly the Top 15 OLBs ever according to estimated vertical power output include: Cameron Wake, Jamie Collins, Connor Barwin, Ryan Shazier, Vic Beasley, Khalil Mack, A.J. Hawk, and Justin Houston. Other positions are not nearly as compelling as the pass rushers. While these estimations of power are only an isolated metric for a given athlete, I think that integrating approaches from other scientific disciplines holds much promise for interpreting data from the tests of athletic performance.