NFL Combine: Which defensive back ran fastest on Monday? - AL.com

Three players tied for the top time in the 40-yard dash time among the defensive backs at the NFL Scouting Combine on Monday.

LSU's Donte Jackson, Tulane's Parry Nickerson and Ohio State's Denzel Ward led the final day of the 2018 combine with 4.32-second showings in the 40.

They were the fastest clockings recorded during the four-day combine, pushing LSU wide receiver DJ Chark out of the top spot. Chark ran 4.34 on Saturday.

Next on the 40 list on Monday was Penn State's Troy Apke at 4.34 followed by two Alabama players -- Tony Brown at 4.35 and Anthony Averett at 4.36.

They barely missed the fastest 40 time for an Alabama player at the combine (since the existence of complete records in 2000). Wide receiver Julio Jones clocked a 4.34 at the 2011 combine.

Over the past 19 combines, Brown's time is tied for the ninth-fastest by a player from an Alabama high school or college. Averett now owns the 12^th-fastest time.

Among the other defensive backs with Alabama football roots running the 40 on Monday, Carlton Davis (Auburn) posted a 4.53, Minkah Fitzpatrick (Alabama) posted a 4.46, Jamarcus King (Blount) posted a 4.70, Siran Neal (Eufaula, Jacksonville State) posted a 4.56, Stephen Roberts (Opelika, Auburn) posted a 4.53 and Levi Wallace (Alabama) posted a 4.53.

King played collegiately for South Carolina.

Other SEC defensive backs' 40 times on Monday included 4.63 for Arkansas' Henre Toliver, 4.46 for Florida's Duke Dawson and 4.61 for Tennessee's Rashaan Gaulden.

In the other measurable drills on Monday, the leaders among the defensive backs included:

Vertical leap: Virginia Tech's Terrell Edmunds and Nebraska's Joshua Kalu got the farthest off the ground, with each recording 41.5-inch efforts. Apke was next at 41 inches, with Neal just another one-half inch behind him. Edmunds and Kalu tied Penn State tight end Mike Gesicki for the best vertical leap of the entire combine.

Broad jump: Ward cleared 136 inches (11 feet, 4 inches) from a standing start to outdistance three players who landed at 134 inches -- Edmunds, Kalu and Georgia State's Chandon Sullivan. Those were the longest four broad jumps of the entire combine.

Three-cone drill: Oklahoma's Jordan Thomas was the quickest with a time of 6.28 seconds, well ahead of the No. 2 players -- Penn State's Grant Haley and Pittsburgh's Avonte Maddox, who each timed a 6.51. Those were the three fastest times posted at this station during the entire combine.

The drill is designed to measure a player's ability to change directions at high speed. With the cones in an L-shape, the player runs 5 yards to the middle cone and back, then runs around the middle cone, another 5 yards to the far cone and back around the L to the starting cone.

Shuttle run: Haley and Thomas tied for the fastest time at 3.94 seconds to finish ahead of Louisville's Jaire Alexander, who came in at 3.98. Haley and Thomas posted the fastest times in this drill for the entire combine.

The drill is designed to test lateral quickness. It's sometimes called the 5-10-5. From a middle starting position, the player runs 5 yards to his right, touches a line, turns and runs 10 yards to the left and touches a line, then runs back to the starting spot.

60-yard shuttle: Only 10 of the 70 defensive backs took on the longer shuttle, with Maddox the fastest to finish in 10.72 seconds. Northwestern's Godwin Igwebuike placed second at 10.81. Maddox's time was the fastest in this drill during the combine.

In this longer version of the 20-yard shuttle, the player runs 5 yards out and back, 10 yards out and back and 15 yards out and back and must touch the line on the ground at each of the five changes of direction.

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On Sunday, Arizona's Dane Cruikshank and Wisconsin's Natrell Jamerson tied for the best showing among the defensive backs. Each player managed 25 repetitions with the 225-pound weight bar.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.

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