Sometimes, the drills don’t matter as much as prospects would like them to.
Conversely, North Carolina State defensive lineman James Smith-Williams ran a 4.6 40-yard dash at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds. That led all of the big men. Add in 28 reps on the bench press, a 123-inch broad jump, and a 7.35-second three-cone time, and you might think of Smith-Williams as one of the combine risers we hear about every year.
Sadly, Smith-Williams’ injury history, which limited him to just 29 games over five seasons, is going to get in the way. If Smith-Williams is able to transcend that at the NFL level, it may have to be as a late third-day pick or undrafted free agent. Smith-Williams did have six sacks and nine tackles for loss in 2018, his one relatively healthy season.
“He can’t stay on the field,” one NFC scout said to NFLcom’s Lance Zierlein regarding Smith-Williams. “There is no way we draft a guy like that. If we like a player with his injury history, we’ll target him as a free agent, but that’s it.”