Breshad Perriman might not have ascended draft boards as quickly as he ran 40 yards Wednesday, but it might not have taken much longer.
The Central Florida wide receiver's 40-yard dash was clocked at 4.25 seconds by NFL Media analyst Mike Mayock. Other times recorded by NFL scouts on hand ranged between 4.19 and 4.27, according to NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt. Any of those would have been the best overall time at this year's NFL Scouting Combine had he run for the same result in Indianapolis last month. Anything under 4.4 is a stunningly fast clocking for a player of Perriman's size; he is 6-foot-2, 212 pounds.
The fastest 40-yard dash in combine history is 4.24 seconds by Chris Johnson in 2008. As with all official times at the combine, Johnson's 40 was electronically timed. Pro day 40s are timed by hand, which are substantially faster than electronic times.
NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt pegged the son of former Detroit Lions receiver Brett Perriman as a rising prospect about six weeks ago, before the NFL Scouting Combine. Perriman is also tied for fifth in Mayock's ranking of this year's wide receivers.
As it turned out, it might have been a blessing for Perriman that a hamstring injury precluded him from working out at the combine in Indianapolis. Now, his only 40-yard dash showing for NFL scouts is the Wednesday clocking they won't soon forget. So while scouts might choose to rely more heavily on the slower times from Indianapolis by prospects who made vast improvements on their pro days, they won't have any such slower time to fall back on with Perriman.
The deepest position in the 2015 NFL Draft just got a little tighter at the top of the class.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
