Manti Te’o appears to have gotten a bit faster over the past month, and the timing should work out nicely. With the NFL Draft a month away, Te’o participated in Notre Dame’s pro day on Tuesday with a goal of improving upon the unimpressive 40-yard dash time he posted at the NFL Combine last month. He succeeded.
According to ESPN’s Todd McShay, Te’o ran a 4.71 and a 4.75 on Tuesday. Of course, that depends on who is holding the stopwatch and human error comes into play. One AFC scout clocked Te’o as low as 4.68. In any event, he was certainly faster than the 4.82 he posted at the Combine.
In reality, shaving 1/10th of a second off his 40 time will probably have a minimal effect on Te’o’s draft stock. Inside linebackers aren’t really judged on straight-line speed. Most experts expect Te’o to go somewhere in the late first or early second round, and that should still hold true. If nothing else, improving the 40 shows that he has been working hard over the past month. When you’ve dealt with the types of distractions Te’o has dealt with, improving in physical drills is always a plus.
