Andrew Helmick runs a 4.34 on grass? PreDraft interview, too

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By now, most are starting to hear a lot about Helmick from training camp (a shame about the injury ). After hearing so many good things about him, I decided to look up some stuff on him and I had no idea he was that fast. The best thing I've heard about him is how good his hands are. If you can find a player that had that kind of speed with great hands, I think you've found a great prospect as a UDFA. The route running should come with time.

Here's the video of him running on grass:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zB0Xk_dLcU[/youtube]

It's tough to say whether it's legit because we don't know who's running the watch and it's done by a human. But if it's true, that dude is scary fast. Those speeds usually only show up on turf.

I also found this article on him that has a pretty nice interview that was done before the draft:

<a class="postlink" href="http://nfldraftzone.com/draft-news/exclusive-interview-lindenwood-wr-andrew-helmick/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://nfldraftzone.com/draft-news/excl ... w-helmick/</a>

I just thought I'd pass that along since there's was no camp yesterday so there's not as much Rams info. This is the first Rams UDFA I've been really interested in in a while. I hope he can get back out there soon and make the team.

Sorry if this stuff has been posted before. Just let me know and I'll delete the post.

 

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Re: Andrew Helmick runs a 4.34 on grass? PreDraft interview,

I compare 40 times to reported fastball velocity for pitchers. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard about guy throwing heat, throwing 90 mph. Then when I see the guy he is throwing 83. Guys mess times up a lot or just guess. Now, a little different on 40 times, but, human error certainly plays a part. You will see plenty of many guys run 4.4 (supposedly) in high school then, a couple of years later, get to a real scout who can really track times and he is much slower even though he has better running technique and has gotten much stronger. In other words, it is a good measure of overall athletic ability (along with vertical jump, cone drills, lat jump ect) but I would hope he has more to offer in the camp than just straight line sprint speed (the hands like you mentioned and change of direction).

 

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Re: Andrew Helmick runs a 4.34 on grass? PreDraft interview,

I compare 40 times to reported fastball velocity for pitchers. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard about guy throwing heat, throwing 90 mph. Then when I see the guy he is throwing 83. Guys mess times up a lot or just guess. Now, a little different on 40 times, but, human error certainly plays a part. You will see plenty of many guys run 4.4 (supposedly) in high school then, a couple of years later, get to a real scout who can really track times and he is much slower even though he has better running technique and has gotten much stronger. In other words, it is a good measure of overall athletic ability (along with vertical jump, cone drills, lat jump ect) but I would hope he has more to offer in the camp than just straight line sprint speed (the hands like you mentioned and change of direction).

I usually don't put too much stock in speed, either, but when the bulk of what I'm hearing about him in camp is about his great hands, I start to pay attention. So many people can run fast but can't catch. When you can get a fast guy with great hands, you have, at the very least, a great deep threat. So if this guy can eventually learn to run routes well, I think he could be a great find.

...That's all assuming his time is legit, like I said.