These 10 NFL Draft sleepers had awesome combine workouts, but are they actually good prospects?

What a show the running backs and offensive linemen provided at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. 

The combine has buzz-generating powers. So if you’re pumped about specific positions in this class now, you are totally justified. I’m talking the ball-carriers, the blockers, defensive tackles, and even the cornerbacks. Collectively solid on film and now we know, many high-caliber athletes in those groups.

But as you come down from your combine-induced high, I’ve found it’s vital to ask yourself: Are the obscure combine winners actually good prospects? I’ll answer for you below as we look at 10 sleepers who stood out. 

(No, I did not include Nick Emmanwori from South Carolina or Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart because they didn’t feel like “sleepers” before the combine.)

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.32 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.49 seconds
• Vertical jump: 40.5 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-10

Is he good? Yes | New projected round range: Round 2

Bhayshul Tuten is damn good. Point blank. Went into the combine as my RB3 in this class, ahead of Omarion Hampton. But that discrepancy is for another article, another time. The former North Carolina A&T star who acclimated awesomely to the ACC the past two seasons for the Hokies is clearly a dynamic, high-caliber athlete, and he plays with loose hips coupled with lightning-quick feet that together make him outstandingly elusive. He should be one of the first five running backs off the board after his athleticism clinic in Indianapolis. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.86 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.69 seconds
• Vertical jump: 36 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-4

Is he good? Not really | New projected round range: Round 5-6

You can see “it” with Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins on film. He looks the part of an oversized defensive end/small defensive tackle who’d test well at the combine. He’s reasonably long, too. Is this is a ready-to-go, instant-impact rookie like many of the other Georgia defensive linemen? Far from. Why’s that?

Even in an era that seemingly accentuates every ounce of versatility from players, Ingram-Dawkins is stuck in what has become an increasingly smaller “tweener” range. Despite what the numbers showed from the combine, he doesn’t have the legitimate juice off the ball and around the corner to win with outside speed rushes in the NFL. And he’s not nimble enough on the field to routinely win against guards as a nickel rusher inside. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.41 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.52 seconds
• Vertical jump: 41.5 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-8 
• Three-cone: 6.81 seconds

Is he good? Kinda-sorta | New projected round range: Round 3-4

Kitan Crawford played multiple seasons at Miami before transferring to Nevada, and he’s a strange prospect on film. When he moves, look out. He’s a rocket. And he can change directions unlike most bigger safeties. It’s just that the instincts and processing speed are delayed. Not incredibly slow. Just not as quick as they need to be for a safety to be considered a premier prospect. 

And that’s likely part of the reason why he had essentially zero buzz entering the combine. Hats off to him for destroying his workout. Stock up afterward. No doubt. I don’t know if he quite plays at 4.41-second 40-yard dash speed and shows the explosiveness that tracks with having a 41.5-inch vertical and 10-foot-8 broad jump. In somewhat of a thinner class at safety, he could sneak into the back portion of Day 2 but still feels like a Day 3 pick; he’ll just go earlier than he would have had he not tested in Indy. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.74 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.62 seconds
• Vertical jump: 35.5 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-1 
• Three-cone: 6.94 seconds

Is he good? Yes | New projected round range: Round 4-5

Jalin Conyers is a blast on film. And I must note, that workout you’re reading, he did at 6-foot-3 1/2 and 260 pounds. He’s a bull. Yet he moves like a rabbit with the football in his hands. Very bouncy. There’s plenty of contact balance to Conyers’ game as well. 

At 24 years old, he’s unlikely to ascend boards significantly. Yet after the marquee names at the tight end spot in this class — Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, Terrance Ferguson, etc. — there’s a distinct chance this Texas Tech star is the fifth or sixth tight end off the board. His combine was no fluke. He’s a tremendous athlete on film, too, and he has reliable hands in traffic. YAC specialty and consistent hands are hallmarks of great tight ends. 

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Mike Renner

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.34 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.50 seconds
• Vertical jump: 40 inches
• Broad jump: 11 feet

Is he good? Yes | New projected round range: Round 2-3

Jaylin Lane feels like that Day 2 receiver (now, after the combine) who, in a few years, we’ll realize should’ve be locked into Round 1 in a weak receiver class. Think George Pickens, Rashee Rice, Jayden Reed, Nico Collins or any of the three studs who were picked in the second round in 2019 (Deebo Samuel, A.J. Brown and DK Metcalf). 

He’s lightning in a bottle out of the slot. His feet look like they’re moving at that 1.5x speed you use when listening to your podcast on your nightly walk. Lane didn’t run a variety of routes. But do you need to when you’re quick underneath and can scare cornerbacks over the top with your pure speed? And when he does break off in a different direction, there’s a discernible “snap” to it. Lane has YAC niftiness to his game, too. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 5.14 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.80 seconds
• Vertical jump: 35 inches
• Broad jump: 9-foot-4

Is he good? Decently  | New projected round range: Round 4-5

Jalen Travis did all of that — a combine most offensive linemen would take in a heartbeat — at just under 6-foot-8 and 339 pounds with arms close to 35 inches long. Yeah, he’s the type of specimen offensive line coaches dream about their teams drafting. On film, Travis isn’t outstandingly quick but moves that enormous frame well. 

Laterally, he can struggle with secondary blitzers or stunts, but that’s expected. Although he had the opposite combine, there’s some Orlando Brown to Travis in that he often doesn’t need to do much besides get in the way. Even when pass rushers beat him around the corner, the arc he creates with his size and length — that he uses to his advantage, by the way — is significantly larger than a smaller, shorter-armed offensive tackle. If he works on lowering his pad level, he can become a nice, long-term starter. Humans that massive, with that athleticism, are exceptionally rare — even in the NFL. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.60 seconds
• Vertical jump: 40 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-8

Is he good? Yes | New projected round range: Round 2-3

Teddye Buchanan is collegiate Eric Kendricks reincarnated on film, and that’s not just because of the awesome long hair. He plays precisely how you’d expect for a linebacker with a 40-inch vertical. Springy, explosive to the football, and importantly, zero hesitation. He makes an educated guess where the ball is headed and erupts to it. Very urgent player, which I love at a position that has a litany of responsibilities. 

Speaking of those, Buchanan isn’t only valuable downhill. The fluidity suggested by his workout shows on film in coverage, and coverage capabilities are what separate the good from the great linebackers. I’d have no problem if he was the third linebacker off board after Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell and UCLA’s Carson Schwesinger. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.30 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.50 seconds
• Vertical jump: 36.5 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-11
• Three-cone: 6.71 seconds

Is he good? Yes | New projected round range: Late Round 1

The only problem with Darien Porter’s film is poor tackling. Everything else screams first-round caliber, especially after a ridiculous workout in Indianapolis. While it wasn’t quite as spectacular as Tariq Woolen’s a few years ago, it came close, and that’s a feat in and of itself. 

Porter tested through the roof at nearly 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds with arms over 33 inches. Not quite Woolen’s weight, but everything else was eerily similar to the legendary workout from the Seahawks star. With Will Johnson, Benjamin Morrison and Shavon Revel all nursing injuries through the draft process at cornerback, I won’t bat an eye when Porter’s name is called in Round 1.

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash: 4.84 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.72 seconds
• Vertical jump: 32 inches
• Broad jump: 9-foot-4

Is he good? Not as good as you’d expect | New projected round range: Round 3-4

Jared Wilson is a Georgia trench player who had a stellar workout. He must be a first-round pick, right? Right?! I can’t bring myself to writing that on Wilson. He gets off the ball well after his snap but isn’t as comfortable in space as you’d expect for a center with those dazzling combine metrics. 

There’s good, not great power to Wilson game, and his balance is hit or miss, too. Now it’s sensible why he didn’t have serious buzz entering the combine. Yet, in terms of pure centers in this class, there aren’t many good ones. Wilson should still be the odds-on favorite to be the first center off the board. It’s just unlikely to happen until the third or fourth round. 

Notable workout figures

• 40-yard dash 4.34 seconds
• 10-yard split: 1.51 seconds
• Vertical jump: 38.5 inches
• Broad jump: 10-foot-8
• Three cone: 6.82 seconds

Is he good? Not quite | New projected round range: Round 5-6

Another year, another obscure Florida receiver with a freaky workout on his resume. Remember Freddie Swain and Tyrie Cleveland? I got those vibes with Dike on film. He doesn’t run overly crisp routes but routinely threatened defenses deep, as evidenced by his 4.34 speed. His hands were a real issue in college — at Wisconsin and Florida — and when he wasn’t asked to simply get vertical and break off the top of his route stem, there were issues generating separation.

Dike can and likely will have a speed role in the NFL. But his workout is unlikely to catapult him far up the boards, because there’s plenty of rawness to his game, and he started his college career in 2020, so he’s an older prospect.