So if you thought Buffalo linebacker Khalil Mack helped himself at his pro day by improving his NFL Scouting Combine 40-yard dash time by a full tenth of a second, get a load of this: UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr blazed a 4.44 40-yard dash at his pro day event, according to UCLA head coach Jim Mora.
It would be a whopping 0.22-second improvement for Barr over his official combine clocking of 4.66 seconds. The caveat here, as with any pro day result, is that unofficial 40-yard dash times don't often match up with the official times released later in the day, and the official time is what prospects are ultimately credited with. Unofficial times at the combine, even, were at times significantly different than official times.
Still, Mora apparently told reporters that Barr's time of 4.45 was taken electronically rather than the hand-timing results that can often sully unofficial results. If that's the case, don't be surprised if Barr's official time proves to be a relatively close match.
Barr and Mack are considered the top two linebacker prospects in the draft and both could be gone within the first 10 picks. NFL Media analyst Charles Davis' latest mock draft projects the pair to be chosen with back-to-back picks by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings at Nos. 7 and 8 overall.
Barr's pro day performance, regardless of his official 40-time, will reenergize debate over who is the better prospect of the two.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
