The NFL Combine is one of the biggest main ways prospects can shoot up draft boards and prove themselves during the NFL pre-draft process. The 40-yard dash draws plenty of attention as all teams love to add some lightning-quick speed to their teams. Take a look at the top 40-yard dash times at the NFL Combine so far.
Top 10 40-Yard Dash Times at 2026 NFL Combine
Speed is an essential piece to a prospect’s profile. Teams look to the 40-yard dash for indications on whether a player’s athletic ability will translate. The prospects at skill positions are under pressure to perform.
Jeremiyah Love and Lorenzo Styles Jr. headline a group of players that dominated the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.
.@JeremiyahLove vs. @saquon 👀
2026 NFL Combine on @nflnetwork
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/Aza5bRaFtu— NFL (@NFL) February 28, 2026
Here’s the top-10 40-yard dash results so far:
- Lorenzo Styles Jr., S, Ohio State – 4.27 seconds
2. Deion Burks, WR, Oklahoma – 4.30 seconds
3. Jeff Caldwell, WR, Cincinnati – 4.31 seconds
4T. Toriano Pride Jr., CB, Missouri – 4.32 seconds
4T. Robert Spears-Jennings, CB, Oklahoma – 4.32 seconds
6T. Treydan Stukes, S, Arizona – 4.33 seconds
6T. Mike Washington Jr., RB, Arkansas – 4.33 seconds
8T. Zachariah Branch, WR, Georgia – 4.35 seconds
8T. Dillon Theineman, S, Oregon – 4.35 seconds
10T. Taylen Green, QB, Arkansas – 4.36 seconds
10.T Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame – 4.36 seconds
The running backs are flying this year, setting a record for the fastest group of running backs ever.
This year’s official running back times at the Combine – the fastest running back group in Combine history. pic.twitter.com/6UEDNXVHOI
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 28, 2026
Scouting Reports for Some of the Fastest Players
Lorenzo Styles Jr., S, Ohio State
Styles ran the fastest time at the NFL Combine so far. He’s an incredible athlete who can absolutely fly. He had his best season with the Buckeyes in 2026 as he tallied two pass deflections and 30 total tackles.
He might not have the most jaw-dropping stats, but he played a part in the dominant Ohio State defense. With his athletic ability, he should have the chance to carve out a role somewhere in the NFL.
Deion Burks, WR, Oklahoma
Burks first emerged as a third-year player at Purdue in 2023, accumulating 47 catches for 629 yards and seven scores. He’d ride that momentum to a transfer opportunity with Oklahoma in the SEC, but injuries relegated him to just five games of action in 2024. In 2025, Burks returned with a vengeance, quickly establishing himself as the top target for QB and fellow draft hopeful John Mateer.
Burks racked up 225 yards and two scores in the first three games, and eclipsed the 100-yard mark in a standout performance against the vaunted Michigan defense. At 5’10”, 182 pounds, Burks fits the mold of a dual-sided separation and RAC threat. He excels on schemed touches with his explosiveness, speed, and twitch, but he’s also a savvy zone navigator who can splice into Cover 2 holes with his range and make smooth body-control catches.
Toriano Pride Jr., CB, Missouri
Pride is an undersized cornerback at around 5’10” who can run with any receiver in a straight line. His speed is simply ridiculous. The size will be a concern, but at Missouri, he played an active role in the secondary for all four years of his career. He tallied five total interceptions with two in both his junior and senior seasons. He even found the end zone in those seasons as well.
Pride will be a high-upside pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. While his size is underwhelming, his speed might help him find a landing spot in a team’s secondary.
Robert Spears-Jennings, S, Oklahoma
Spears-Jennings is a safety who can tackle with some of the nation’s best safeties. He racked up 59 total tackles, an interception, and one forced fumble in his 2025 season with the Sooners. Playing an important role in the Oklahoma defense that made the College Football Playoff will make him an appealing prospect, and his blazing speed will make him much more enticing.
With the second-fastest 40-yard dash for a safety, Spears-Jennings helped his case for teams potentially considering a late-round safety.
Treydan Stukes, S, Arizona
Treydan Stukes will be an older rookie as a sixth-year senior, and he also has a lengthy medical history that could cloud his stock at the NFL Combine. Still, if his medicals check out, he stands out as one of the biggest potential value acquisitions in the 2026 NFL Draft.
A former walk-on who developed into a multi-year team captain, Stukes worked through injuries to emerge as one of the best defensive backs in college football in 2025. He achieved an elite PFSN CB impact grade of 90.4, while allowing a meager 35.9 QB Rating and generating incompletions on a whopping 15% of his targets, per TruMedia.
Sporting a lean frame, Stukes is an explosive, quick-footed, and fluid mover in coverage, who weaponizes his hyper-elite processing, route vision, and adaptability with calculated, efficient footwork, rapid reaction, and proactive physicality at contact.
Stukes is most comfortable in zone coverage and off-man, as he operates better with cushion to read, react, and manage positioning. In zone-heavy schemes, he has clear quality starter and potential impact starter ability as a natural nickel defender who can also seamlessly rotate back to safety on a situational basis, or to enact coverage disguises.
Mike Washington Jr., RB, Arkansas
Mike Washington Jr. was one of the nation’s most efficient runners in 2025, securing a strong PFSN CFB RB Impact grade of 88.6 while rumbling for 1,070 yards and eight touchdowns on over six yards per carry. Washington took stops at Buffalo and New Mexico State along the way to Arkansas, and thrived against SEC competition in his final season.
At around 6’1″, 225 pounds, he’s a big-bodied one-cut back with explosive north-south athleticism, the vision to quickly identify initial lanes, and the pressing IQ to bait defenders out of corridors while keeping speed.
Washington’s size and burst come at the cost of high-end short-area agility and hip fluidity, and he must improve his ball security at the next level. But he’s nonetheless an instinctive runner who knows how to maximize his skill set, and can finish runs with physicality and punishing leg churn. He’s also a competent pass-catcher with RAC chops on swings and screens, and he holds up his end as a pass protector.
In the immediate timeline, Washington projects as a physical rotational RB and sparkplug, but has scheme-diverse starter and volume upside with his build, burst, footwork, and intangibles.
Taylen Green, QB, Arkansas
Green stands to benefit as one of the more traits-rich quarterbacks in the sparse 2026 NFL Draft class. The Mountain West Freshman of the Year back in 2022, Green took his talents to Arkansas and failed to show substantial year-over-year development, but nonetheless managed to enthrall with flashes of elite physical talent and 1-on-1 discernment.
At his best, Green showed he could layer the ball over second-level defenders with pace and touch, operate off-platform on designed rollouts, and generate eye-catching velocity from different launch points. However, Green’s field vision, accuracy, and risk aversion remain sore areas, even after four years as a starter. Green can catapult up boards with a strong pre-draft cycle, and has the raw physical talent of a starter, but it remains to be seen if he can handle the hastened pace of the NFL.
In the right environment, with time to sit, he could grow, but his more likely outcome is that of a backup and eventual spot-starter.
Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame
Love has followed in the footsteps of Ashton Jeanty and Bijan Robinson as the next RB prospect to contend for early first-round capital. At 6’0″, 214 pounds, Love is a bit lighter and leaner than his predecessors, but he nonetheless plays above his weight class in terms of physicality, and he’s an elastic, turbocharged long-strider whose blend of short-area quickness, throttle freedom, and breakaway speed routinely leaves defenders in the lurch.
As an athlete, Love has superlative short-range and long-range dynamic ability, which he maximizes with sharp vision, patience, spatial IQ, and manipulative tendencies setting up gaps. And while he’s not the heaviest, he’s able to work through contact nonetheless with his balance, lower-body action, and fearless tenacity.
Overall, Love is a bona fide RB1, who also excelled as a receiving threat and RAC weapon in 2025. He bears similarity to Ahman Green and has a productive career with All-Pro potential in his future.
Editor’s Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.
