Ohio State running backs, Travis Hunter among top takeaways from NFL Combine

Joel Klatt

Lead College Football Analyst

Another chapter in the process ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft is in the books.

Quite frankly, I’m not a huge fan of the NFL Scouting Combine. I’ve never really loved it, but it is what it is. It serves as an event to get touchpoints and confirmations about what’s been shown on film. It also allows teams to meet with players behind the scenes. 

We’ve made the event into something a little more than that, turning it into entertainment. I enjoy it from an entertainment standpoint, but I’m not sure how much we should glean on what happened in Indianapolis over the weekend in the draft evaluation process.

Still, there were a few things I noticed that happened during the athletic testing that impressed me and I wanted to weigh in on a debate that was sparked by what one of the top prospects said at the combine over the weekend. So, here are my combine takeaways.  

In tandem with his late-season run and his run at the combine, I think Golden has improved his stock. His 4.29 in the 40 is going to raise some serious attention in draft circles and around the league.  After all of those scouts clicked their stopwatch at the end of Golden’s 40 run, they had to have taken note in some way. You need fast players to win, especially at wide receiver. 

But Golden’s not just a track star out there. He can make plays. By the end of the season, he was really the go-to guy in the passing game for Texas. The passing largely ran through Golden. So, he’s shown that he can be the No. 1 guy for a CFP team and has the speed to back it up. 

By the way, how about Texas just having blazing fast 40 times in the last couple of years? Steve Sarkisian’s motto for Texas is “All gas, no breaks.” That’s literally what the Longhorns have been doing over the last couple of combines, with five Texas players posting a sub-4.4 40 time. Wide receiver Isaiah Bond was one of those players, running a 4.39 after saying he’d break Xavier Worthy’s record. That time’s nothing to scoff at, but you better run quicker than a 4.39 if you’re looking to break Worthy’s record of 4.21. It looks slow in comparison, even though it’s not.

Alabama QB Jalen Milroe looked good, but could’ve improved his stock a little more

The combine is a perfect location for a player like Jalen Milroe. I really love Milroe.

Is he inconsistent? Yes. Does he show top-end talent and traits? Absolutely. That’s why he’s tailor-made for the combine. I really wish he would’ve run because he would’ve really created some buzz. 

Putting that aside, Milroe did throw in Indianapolis. When you watch him throw in person, you think, “Oh my gosh, he’s like an Adonis.” Athletically, he does stuff that other guys can’t. So, from an evaluator standpoint, whenever you see something that you can’t teach, it raises your eyebrows and it draws you in. Similar to Anthony Richardson a couple of years ago, I think teams might fall in love with Milroe based on how he performed in this kind of setting. 

Jalen Milroe & Will Howard in Joel Klatt’s Top 5 QB’s in the 2025 NFL Draft

Now, is he consistent enough to be a really good NFL quarterback yet? No, he’s not. But there are very few players, particularly quarterbacks, that can do things at the top end and ceiling-wise that Milroe can do. When you’re projecting what a player can be, evaluators, teams and coaches believe that they’re the ones that can produce the floor for a player. If your floor is really low, they can develop you to a point where your floor is no longer low, and then you can capitalize on the top end talent. That’s what Andy Reid thought with Patrick Mahomes – and he was right. 

Even though Milroe has shown inconsistencies (that film against Michigan won’t help), people are going to fall in love with his top-end stuff. 

It’s OK that Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders and other top prospects didn’t compete

I know people were criticizing Ward, Sanders and other top prospects because you want to see them compete. If you want to criticize these guys, that’s fine. But it’s easy to sit on the sideline and tell the guy at the blackjack table with a huge stack of chips to split the eights or 10s. There’s just not a lot of upside for Ward, Sanders and the other top prospects to compete at the combine. 

What’s the incentive for Ward and Sanders to go out there and throw? Can they help themselves? Probably not. Can they hurt themselves? Maybe. Did you see the disjointedness that occurred when the quarterbacks were trying to throw to receivers that are trying to run as fast as they can and have never thrown to before, while running routes that they just got taught literally while they’re standing in line? I saw that happening on Saturday. Timing in that setting is not a thing. There were a lot of times where a quarterback would throw an incomplete pass and people online were saying, “What a terrible throw” even though the timing with the receiver was likely off. 

Shedeur Sanders & Cam Ward in Joel Klatt’s Top 5 QB’s in the 2025 NFL Draft

It’s an incredibly tough setting. It’s certainly not a setting you can control and be at your best. If you can help yourself, then throw. It’s similar to how we should view top prospects playing in meaningless bowl games now. If you can help your draft stock, then play or, in this case, compete in the combine. That happens to be the case for the majority of players, by the way. But for Sanders, Ward and others who opted not to compete, it made sense.

I will say, Mason Graham opting to only bench press is the most Mason Graham thing ever. I love that guy. 

I thought that the two Ohio State running backs performed really well. There were other prospects who had a really good combine, but Judkins and Henderson stood out because they hit the speed and measurement checkpoints. 

I was curious to see their measurables. I’ve stood next to Judkins in the lunchroom at Columbus throughout the last year and I thought to myself, “He’s probably like, 6-feet and he’s thick.” Well, he measured at 6-2 and 221 pounds.

Judkins, along with Henderson, moved really well and showed great explosiveness. He broad jumped 11 feet and ran a sub 4.48 in the 40. That’s some serious explosiveness, with his board jump leading all running backs. He also had a 38.5-inch vertical.

Joel Klatt’s five BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS from the NFL Combine

Henderson, meanwhile, ran a 4.43 40 with a 38.5-inch vertical. That’s the explosiveness that’s consistent with what I saw of him on film. Obviously, we saw it in some of those long runs in the CFP as well, getting a long touchdown run against Oregon and taking a screen pass 75 yards for a score against Texas. 

Judkins and Henderson took a lot of carries off of themselves by sharing the load this past season. Ohio State’s offensive line was also littered with injuries, so the Buckeyes couldn’t run the ball the way they would’ve liked. But those two guys really helped themselves at the combine. I wouldn’t be surprised if both players were off the board by the end of the second round.

One of the questions I’ve gotten most recently is whether I think Hunter can be a two-way player in the NFL. I think he can be because he’s just that special. 

The two-way debate went up a notch at the combine. Hunter was asked in a fun way whether being a two-way player in football is tougher than what Shohei Ohtani is doing as a two-way player in baseball. Hunter replied that what he does is probably tougher because football is more physically demanding. 

When I saw that quote from Hunter, I instantly wanted to touch on this. For those who don’t know about my past, I was drafted by the San Diego Padres out of high school and played three years of minor league baseball before quitting to play college football at Colorado. 

Hunter is right and wrong all at the same time. He’s right that the physical toll his body will take trying to do what he does in football is harder than what Ohtani’s doing in baseball.

That’s where Hunter’s point of playing two ways in football being more difficult than playing two ways in baseball ends, though. Everything else is way more difficult for Ohtani. I get Hunter saying what he does is harder because of the physical toll it takes on his body. But, no, being a two-way football player is not more difficult than what Ohtani is doing.

Hunter is a rare talent and what makes him great is that he’s got this incredible fitness level, where he’s got these traits that make him a great wide receiver and defensive back for a longer period of time than others can use them. That’s where his greatness is. 

But the traits – explosiveness, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, speed, agility, all of that stuff – everything that he’s using as a wide receiver is the exact same things that he’s going to need as a defensive back. So, the two positions he’s playing aren’t opposed. They require similar talents, sort of like playing offense and defense in basketball. 

What Hunter is doing is impressive, but what Ohtani does requires opposite talents. What you need to be a great pitcher isn’t what you need to be a great hitter. Yet, he’s arguably a top two-to-five hitter and pitcher in the sport. The way you train to be a great MLB hitter is virtually opposite of how you would train to be a starting pitcher. 

Additionally, in football, you can achieve a level of success just through effort. Hunter has a cardiovascular skill set that allows him to maximize his play on both sides of the ball. In baseball, you can try as hard as possible to get a hit, but still come up short. Trust me, I barely hit above .200 in the minors. There’s a reason why I had to quit baseball. 

There are so many minor league and professional baseball players that can succeed playing college football. There are maybe a couple of football players in college or the NFL that can succeed in professional baseball. Baseball is a skill sport while football is an effort, size, speed, strength and schematic sport. 

So, Hunter’s reasoning for why what he does is more difficult isn’t wrong, but what Ohtani’s doing is breathtaking. Think if Michael Phelps won a medal in track and field events after winning eight gold medals during the 2008 Summer Olympics. That’s what Ohtani’s doing. 

Still, it was a good weekend for Hunter in Indianapolis. He weighed 188 pounds, which is a good size for him after there was some construction among NFL evaluators about his size. So, he’s big enough to play both sides in the NFL. 

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

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