Chubb stacks up vs. track athletes
The NFL Scouting Combine ended March 5, and over the course of four days, former college football players participated in workouts in Indianapolis. The weekend is meant for NFL coaches and scouts to get a better insight on whether or not their organization believes they should pick that player in the NFL draft.
Overall, there are seven different drills to measure explosiveness, strength, speed, and agility. Players could choose to whatever drills they thought would best showcase the skills needed for their position.
Georgia’s football program had a total of 10 former players invited to the Combine to display their athleticism and skills. Out of all of the prospects from Georgia, last year’s senior running back Nick Chubb performed in six drills, the most of all the former Bulldogs at the combine.
To an extent, the drills Chubb did on the weekend are comparable to what many athletes on Georgia’s track and field team practice and compete in all year.
In high school, Chubb ran in the 100-meter and 200-meter races, threw shotput and added a leg to a relay team for the Cedartown High School track and field team. But after four years out of track and field competition, how would the future NFL running back fair against some of Georgia’s best track and field athletes?
The 40-yard dash vs. the
60-meter dash
The 40-yard dash is the most heavily weighted and most important of all the drills for the draft prospects to do well in at the NFL Combine. The 40 can measure whether Chubb can break off for a long touchdown run or if the other team’s safety will be able to catch up and bring him down.
But what if Chubb continued his 40yard dash times for another 25.616 yards?
The 60-meter race is the shortest race timed at a track meet and closest in terms of distance to the 40-yard dash drill. To compare, 1 meter is equal to 1.0936 yards. Therefore, 60 meters would be equal to 65.616 yards, just 25.616 yards longer than the 40-yard dash.
Graduate Cejhae Greene finished fourth at the NCAA indoor championship meet with a time of 6.61, beating his record of 6.62. His 5 feet 8 inches, 160 pound frame allows Greene to stay low and slowly rise into his sprint for a race.
To Greene, the main differences between the 40-yard dash and his 60-meter races pertain to the style of the races.
“As sprinters, we train to run the first 30 (meters) fast, but we typically don’t really get going until after that,” Greene said. “So when the 40 (yard dash) ends, that’s relatively when we start picking up and accelerating to full speed.”
Chubb clocked a time of 4.52 in the 40 to finish as the sixth fastest running back at this year’s combine. In order to estimate how that equates into a 60 meter race, it’s necessary to find the time in yards and then convert into the metric unit.
It took Chubb 4.52 seconds to run 40 yards. That time rounds out to be 8.849 yards per second. Hypothetically if Chubb can maintain the same speed of 8.849 yards per second, then it would take him 7.42 seconds to run 65.616 yards.
Because 65.616 yards is equal to 60 meters, Chubb’s 60 meter time would clock out at 7.42 seconds. Even with his 227-pound frame, Chubb’s 60 time is only 0.81 seconds off of Greene’s and 0.9 seconds off of the No. 1 time in the nation this season.
His speed comes as no surprise to many Georgia football fans but especially not to Greene.
“Nick used to come on and practice with us a few times, especially when he got banged up a little bit. We used to help him get his technique right,” Greene said. “Definitely when he was out there training with us, he was grasping the techniques we had. It showed when he was running this year. He looked like a sprinter.”
Bench press vs. shot put
One of the biggest differences between the collegiate level and the NFL is the strength of all the professional football players. Being able to endure big hits and play the next down is a quality all coaches want to see in the young stars.
The bench press at the combine is the perfect platform for players to display their upper body strength and endurance.
Chubb managed to bench press the standard 225 pounds for 29 reps. His total reps tied for first among this year’s prospect running backs with Pennsylvania State University’s Saquon Barkeley.
“What Chubb did was impressive,” junior shotputter Denzel Comenentia said. “My bench max is 185 kilos (407 pounds). Hopefully, I could go over 20 reps, but 29 is a lot. I’d need some practice for that.”
Chubb’s ability to toss weights around dates back to his high school days at Cedartown High School. In his senior year of high school, he was an individual state champion in the outdoor shot put. His best mark career mark was 55 feet, 8 inches with a high school 12 pound ball. His success in the shotput is helpful in comparing the strength and technique needed to perform in Comenentia’s event, but his distances fall well short of Comenentia’s around the same age.
Chubb is a year older than Comenentia. When Chubb won state in shotput, Comenentia was just 17 years old, but he threw the same weighted shot 4 feet farther. Now with a 16 pound shot, Comenentia currently holds the fourth longest toss in the nation for the shot put. His best distance of 67-3/4 for indoor season was set at Tiger Paw Invite at Clemson University Feb. 9-10.
For the shot put, Comenentia focuses less on endurance and more on explosive movements in his training. According to him, his ability to hurl the shot as far as possible trusts on a good balance between upper body strength and explosiveness from the legs.
After seeing his 29 rep performance on the bench though, Comenentia believes Chubb could quite possibly make it as shot putter.
“Strength-wise, he could be on the same level as us,” Comenentia said. “I’m not saying he’ll be better than me, but I’d give him 60 feet on the best day of his career.”
Vertical jump vs. high jump
The vertical jump at the NFL Combine analyzes a player’s leg power and explosiveness. A player jumps as high as possible and touches the highest point with his hand. Then, the height reached is subtracted by the player’s total height to give the total vertical height.
One part of Chubb’s running style is his ability to mow over linebackers or simply hurdle over them. He’s trademarked his own brand of using his low center of gravity and pure strength to bowl over his opponents.
At the combine, he jumped to a height of 38 ½ inches, just over 3 feet.
If jumping straight up and not extending his arm, his head would then calculate to be right at an inch above 9 feet.
At 5 feet 11 inches tall, Chubb stands just two inches over senior high jumper Mady Fagan.
Last year, Fagan captured the 2017 NCAA individual titles for indoor and outdoor season and is currently tied for the seventh best jump in the nation this season.
Of the two categories of jumping, Fagan classifies as a speed jumper rather than a power jumper. Fagan utilizes built up speed in her run-up to thrust her entire body over a bar typically set to at least 6 feet.
“For me, I don’t really have a great vertical, but I have the ability to convert speed into upward momentum,” Fagan said. “But if I tried hard, I could touch rim on a basketball goal. I’ve jumped over 6’4”, but that’s my whole body — butt, feet, legs, everything going over. If I can do that with my whole body, I should at least be able to tap a rim.”
The trouble with comparing the two athletes based on the events lies in the different ways of generating upward momentum.
In the vertical jump, Chubb was able to use both of his legs to jump as high as possible, but he was standing still.
For the high jump, Fagan opens up with a quick run then opens up into her jump. She can also only use one leg to takeoff of the ground and completely jump over the bar.
“There’s a lot to think about with the high jump approach, the in-air mechanics, and coming out of your rotation,” Fagan said. “With the vertical, you obviously don’t have to worry about knocking something over or making mistakes as much. But, I still think it’s a telltale sign of how talented someone is in that realm.”
The movements are drastically different. Essentially though, they share the same purpose of trying to fly as high as possible with their body.
However, Fagan has a hard time believing someone of Chubb’s build could manage to do what she does.
“He’s a big guy,” Fagan said. “He’d definitely need to lose a few pounds. I’ve never seen someone as big as him jump over a bar though. It’d be interesting to see what he could do with a few days of practice though.”