It’s a long way until 5-star defensive end Nolan Smith II attends the NFL combine — tentative date: 2022 — but the Georgia commit is posting numbers that would have dominated the 2018 combine.
Smith, the nation’s 5th-ranked player for 2019, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, tweeted his recent testing results. They are eye-popping, to say the least.
Where would Smith (IMG Academy/Bradenton, Fla.) rank if he had participated in the 2018 NFL combine? Let’s take a look at how Smith compares to the defensive linemen, edge rushers and linebackers who took part last weekend in Indianapolis.
40-yard dash — 4.53 seconds (t-sixth)
- Shaquem Griffin, UCF (LB) — 4.38
- Leon Jacobs, Wisconsin (Edge) — 4.48
- Lorenzo Carter, Georgia (Edge) — 4.50
- Roquan Smith, Georgia (LB) — 4.51
- Malik Jefferson, Texas (LB) — 4.52
- Jerome Baker, Ohio State (LB); Josh Sweat, Florida State (Edge); Nolan Smith (Edge) — 4.53
20-yard shuttle (short shuttle) — 4.21 seconds (sixth)
- Doran Daniel, Clemson (LB) — 4.07
- t-Oren Burks, Vanderbilt (LB) — 4.15
- t-Leighton Vander Esch, Boise State (LB) — 4.15
- t-Kyle Fitts, Utah (Edge) — 4.19
- t-Harold Landy, Boston College (Edge) — 4.19
- Nolan Smith (Edge) — 4.21
Broad jump — 125.0 inches (t-sixth)
- t-Oren Burks, Vanderbilt (LB) —131.0
- t-Matthew Thomas, Florida State (LB) — 131.0
- Lorenzo Carter, Georgia (Edge) — 130.0
- Ade Aruna, Tulane (DL) — 128.0
- Jerome Baker, Ohio State (LB) — 126.0
- Malik Jefferson, Texas (LB); Nolan Smith (Edge) — 125.0
Those are incredible numbers for a player who has yet to begin his senior year in high school. If we just factor in the numbers for edge rushers, Smith would have been tied for third in the 40, second in the 20-yard shuttle and second in the broad jump.
Smith has been committed to Georgia for over a year — since Jan. 29, 2017. With the nation’s elite coming after the 6-foot-3, 232-pound defensive end, Georgia continues to hold on to its second-highest-rated recruit in the 2019 class.
