Putting Donte Jackson’s 4.24 40 Time In Perspective

By now you may have heard that LSU Freshman CB /KR Donte Jackson is quite possibly the fastest football player in the nation. The news he ran a 4.24 40 was first broken in a Nola.com article.

It went viral pretty quickly after that.

Live Feed

Ole Hotty Toddy

I’m not surprised so many people stopped and took notice, this is a truly mazing time trial for any athlete, much less a true freshman who has yet to play a down.

People were already thinking Jackson might be the next Deion Sanders to play cornerback during his recruiting. LSU coaches who quickly announced they wanted to see him on both sides of the ball and special teams were thinking Heisman winner Charles Woodson.

After yesterday, the obvious comparison is Chris Johnson, who posted the fastest officially timed 40 in NFL combine history, also a 4.24.

Think about that for a minute.

If Donte Jackson does not progress at all between now and when he takes his game to the next level and produces the same time at the combine he did as a freshman at LSU, he will tie for the fastest time the NFL has ever clocked.

To put that in perspective, here are the 10 fastest officially timed 40 yard dashes run at the NFL combine since electronic timing was introduced:

"4.29 Trindon Holliday, Stanford Routt, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie 4.28 DeMarcus Van Dyke, Jacoby Ford, Jerome Mathis, Jamarcus Nelson 4.27 Marquise Goodwin 4.26 Dri Archer 4.24 Chris Johnson"

That list should give you some pause.

There are some very good football players there, but some borderline ones as well. Truth be known there are a couple of names on there you might not even recognize.

Speed alone doesn’t make a player a star. LSU fans would be wise to take caution before raising their expectations too high.

More from LSU Tigers

• LSU Football: We’ve been saying it all along, LSU deserves to be No. 1
• LSU Football: Betting guide for the SEC Championship vs. Georgia
• LSU Football: It’s outrageous if LSU isn’t ranked first after beating Georgia
• LSU Football: Who gets in the playoff if LSU beats Georgia?
• LSU Football: A loss to Georgia shouldn’t stop College Football Playoff bid

Still, when a player burns a 40 time like Donte Jackson’s the expectations are there.

He has a lot of work ahead of him to translate that talent into on-field success.

He has risen to the challenge before though, and seeing him shoot for the stars at LSU will be a memorable experience one way or another…..