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Connecticut cornerback Byron Jones made history at the 2015 combine, with an unbelievable broad jump of 147 inches. And the video was every bit as impressive as it sounds. Keep in mind that no other player in combine history has ever even hit the 140 inch mark, giving Jones a full 8″ lead on every other broad jump ever recorded in Indianapolis.

On the other hand, Alvin “Bud” Dupree did something special, too. Remember, the Kentucky outside linebacker weighed in at 269 pounds, and he managed to jump 138 inches. In combine history, no other player over 260 pounds has jumped more than 129 inches; lower the weight to over 250 pounds, and the best mark after Dupree is 131 inches. So the Wildcats edge rusher was really in a class of his own, too.

There were 249 prospects in Indianapolis who performed in the broad jump. I performed a regression analysis using weight and height as my inputs, since both variables were highly significant in predicting the broad jump. Here is the best-fit formula:

Expected Broad Jump = 95.16 + 0.873 * Height – 0.183 * Weight

There is almost a one-to-one relationship between the broad jump and height: For every eight inches of height, a player would be expected to jump seven inches farther. With weight, about five pounds of body weight translates into one fewer inch on the broad jump.

So let’s look at Dupree and Jones. Dupree measured 6’4 269, giving him an expected broad jump of 112.3 inches, which he exceeded by 25.7 inches. Jones, on the other hand, was a more aerodynamic 6’1, 199 pounds. That gave him an expected broad jump of 122.5 inches. And while the 147″ mark that Jones recorded was incredible, that “only” exceeded expectations by 24.5 inches. As a result, Dupree is your combine champion in yet another category. The table below shows the results of every player who participated at the combine in the broad jump. Data comes from NFLSavant.com.

  • At this point, I feel obligated to remind you that I am not related to Dupree. But his dominance in the 40, vertical jump, and broad jump is insane.
  • Georgia WR Chris Conley was another standout.  He had the 7th best 40, the 2nd best vertical jump, and now the 3rd best broad jump, while being above-average in the bench press, too (a drill that Dupree chose to sit out).
  • The other star we’ve highlighted is Vic Beasley, who was our bench press champion.  Beasley also ranked 5th in the vertical jump and 6th in the 40 and broad jump.
  • On the other side of the ledger, I give you, Josue Matias. The Florida State guard has the 6th-worst weight-adjusted time in the 40, and an absolutely pitiful, rock bottom performance in the vertical jump. Well, Matias again checked in a tier below the rest of the group in the broad jump. Of course, jumping isn’t exactly a key skill to being a good guard, but those are some mind-bogglingly unathletic numbers for a guy who was in the Florida State training program. By reference, Pittsburgh tackle T.J. Clemmings measured the exact same 6’5, 309 as Matias, and jumped 27 more inches in this drill.
  • Speaking of unathletic Seminoles, a certain quarterback in this year’s draft looks to be one of the most unathletic top QB prospects in recent memory.  Jameis Winston had the 3rd worst broad jump, the 10th worst vertical, and the 16th worst time in the 40. Marcus Mariota, meanwhile, while not being an elite athlete relative to the rest of the players in Indianapolis, did produce above-expectation numbers in all three drills. Of course, you already know how meaningful that information is when it comes to projecting their careers.
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