This is an excellent point. That there is straight line speed. There is short, explosive speed. There is long, build up, sustained speed. Several different types of speed that are not necessarily comparable. Other than very rare breakaways, I imagine most speed over ten yards is rarely used in an NFL game. Other than a middle of the field safety. And boundary Wrs.
The Rams under Snead/McVay clearly value quickness/explosiveness over top end straight line speed. Cooks/Watkins being the outliers--but they were also established NFL WRs. Rapp a clear example of preferring short area explosiveness over line speed. The Rams really seem focused on the football specific traits of their prospects. Have they drafted any mostly athletes? Mostly John Johnsons, Cooper Kupps, Van Jeffersons, Rapps. The closest athlete pick I would say is Darrell Henderson and perhaps Gerald Everrett.
Would love to have access to the field speed data. The analysis of separation and the amount of it that truly matters will really be important to the future of the game.
