Peart, Dillon impress at NFL Combine

UConn's Matt Peart and Madison's Jack Driscoll had impressive showings at the NFL scouting combine on Friday.

A day after finished with 26 and 23 repetitions at 225 pounds in the bench press, the two offensive linemen showed that they have speed and athleticism in addition to brute strength.

Driscoll, who started at offensive tackle for two seasons at UMass before becoming a two-year starter at Auburn, had a time of 5.02 in the 40-yard dash with Peart clocking a 5.06 as both finished in the top 10 among the offensive linemen.

Peart, a starter of 48 straight games at UConn, had a vertical jump of 30 inches. Driscoll and Peart had broad jumps of 9-6 and 9-5 to finish in the top five among the offensive linemen.

New London's AJ Dillon led all running backs with a vertical jump of 41 inches and broad jump of 10 feet, 11 inches even though at 247 pounds, the twotime ACC rushing champion out of Boston College is the heaviest player in his position group at the combine. He was fifth with 23 reps on the bench press and 10th with a time of 4.53 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

Dillon had almost identical numbers to current Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry who also weighed in at 247 pounds at the 2016 combine. Henry would be selected in the second round and in 2019 he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 400 yards in the postseason since 1999.

New Canaan's Lucas Niang, a former starting offensive tackle at TCU, attended the combine for the measurements and interviews but the hip surgery that ended his 2019 season after seven games led Niang to hold off on working out in front of the pro scouts until TCU's pro day on Mar. 27.