Winners and Losers from the NFL Combine

Loser – De’Runnya Wilson

As a whole, the wide receiver groups at the Combine were mostly unremarkable and unimpressive. But somehow, Mississippi State wide receiver De’Runnya Wilson, who declared after his junior season, managed to stick out like a sore thumb, in a bad way. Wilson’s size is intriguing, as he stands at 6’5″ and weighs 224 pounds, but that’s basically where the positives stop for his Combine appearance.

After not participating in the bench press on Friday, Wilson started Saturday with terribly slow times in the 40-yard dash. On his first attempt he ran it in 4.90 seconds, and “improved” to 4.85 seconds on the second try. No other receiver ran anything over a 4.74 on either of their attempts. The fastest offensive lineman, Spriggs, was just four one-hundredths of a second slower than Wilson’s first try. That doesn’t inspire much confidence, especially for a person with “run” spelled out in his first name.

The day didn’t improve much for Wilson as the receivers made their way to other stations. His 28-inch vertical leap was the lowest of any recorded receiver, and his 113-inch (10’3″) broad jump was the third-worst. He didn’t take part in the three-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle, or 60-yard shuttle, but maybe that’s a good thing.

Those numbers are not very impressive, and look even worse when one considers that Wilson is a former high school basketball All-American and Alabama Mr. Basketball. He did look good catching the ball during his drills, but was noticeably much slower than other guys running the same drills, as if he was trekking through quicksand.

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There is a lot of value in Wilson, being a big target that has a knack for scoring (22 touchdowns in 33 games at Mississippi State), but he’s very unathletic, and is still learning to play the position after spending most of his younger days on the basketball court. It seems that another year in college may have done him some good, but he’ll find work in the NFL with his skill set. Just don’t expect him to turn into a number-one target.