NFL Draft 2020: 5 players who improved their stock at the Combine

The scouting combine is a great way for players to show their athleticism and move up in the NFL Draft. Here are five players who helped their stock.

The NFL scouting combine can always be a little overblown when it comes to evaluating players.

Many players get overhyped or undervalued based on their athleticism and measurements, but there’s no doubt it’s a great opportunity to help sleeper picks move up in the draft. There are a number of players that boost their draft stock each year and prove they’re among the most athletic in the class.

For this exercise, I eliminated players already likely to go in the top 10. Isaiah Simmons’ 40-yard dash time was incredibly impressive, but he didn’t improve his draft stock significantly going from pick four to three. Ditto for Jeff Okudah.

So who stuck out this year? With apologies to Henry Ruggs III, Tristan Wirfs and Khalil Davis, here are the five players who helped their draft stock the most.

Jonathan Taylor, for my money, locked himself up as the first running back taken in this year’s draft. He put together one of the best college careers of all-time, while also improving last season as a receiver and a pass blocker at Wisconsin.

Of course, the knock on Taylor was he didn’t possess the top end speed that J.K. Dobbins and Deandre Swift have, and that would limit his ceiling. So what’d he do? Promised a sub-4.4 40 time, and delivered.

Taylor ran a 4.39 40-yard dash, and proved he is just as fast as any other player in the draft. In fact, he outran Swift in the combine (Dobbins didn’t run in the 40-yard dash due to injury). It was an impressive run from Taylor, and vaults him to the top of the talented running back group.