2025 NFL Combine Winners and Losers

The road to the NFL Draft is littered with essential mile markers.

Collegiate showcase events like the Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Bowl are often the first one-on-one opportunities for professional teams to meet incoming rookies and see them in structured action.

Similarly, the NFL Combine is an annual gathering that provides fantasy football fanatics and league front offices alike with even more core pieces of the proverbial puzzle in the form of athletic measurables. With the Indianapolis-hosted festivities now in the rearview, this is a time to take stock of the information learned and further player evaluation.

But before we continue, it’s vital to remember to take Combine results with a bit of a grain of salt. The results of these events are not the end-all-be-all defining characteristics of who these incoming rookies are.

Still, we have more information that sheds some light on players with supremely impressive traits and those who may carry some deficiencies in their game(s).

Together, let’s highlight a handful of the biggest winners and losers of the 2025 NFL Combine.

(All results sourced from NFL.com.)

NFL Combine Winners

Bhayshul Tuten, RB, Virginia Tech

Initially a transfer from the FCS-level program at North Carolina A&T, Tuten is a stout 206-pound back with two seasons of major conference football under his belt who stood out at the Senior Bowl as an intriguing name to watch.

Though many expected Tuten to churn out impressive totals in Indianapolis, the results were even more mesmerizing than anticipated.

The ex-Hokie posted the highest vertical jump (40.50 inches) in addition to recording the fastest 40-yard dash time (4.32 seconds) and 10-yard split (1.49 seconds) among all running backs.

These achievements translate to Tuten notching the highest Speed Score in the class (118.3). You can learn more about Speed Score, but in essence, it’s a weight-adjusted measurement that quantifies how fast a player is relative to their size.

Whatever Tuten lacks in height (5-foot-9) is more than made up for by his explosive straight-line speed and elusiveness in the open field. It remains to be seen if he’ll be utilized as a three-down back at the NFL level, but one thing is for sure: Tuten is an electric runner.

Omarion Hampton, RB, UNC

Sticking with the running back theme, Tuten isn’t the only ACC ball carrier to post gaudy workout numbers.

Omarion Hampton, a North Carolina senior, all but solidified his status as (at least) the second-best running back in the class by matching a physically imposing frame (5-11, 221 pounds) with a 4.46-second 40-yard time and a 1.54-second 10-yard split.

The key point here is that running back speed relative to size is more important than the raw time. With that in mind, note that the former Tar Heel ranks third among his counterparts in Speed Score (111.7) and stands as one of just four 215-plus-pound rushers in the class to register a score above 100, the benchmark considered average.

We’re talking about a player who possesses bruising size and an impressive ability to reach top-end speed. That combination is rare and should be coveted by any NFL team looking for a reliable bell cow rusher to add to a backfield.

At this point, it would be surprising to see Hampton fall out of the top 50 picks of this April’s draft.

NFL Combine Losers

Harold Fannin Jr., TE, Bowling Green

Credit where it’s due: Fannin bulking up to 241 pounds following the Senior Bowl was significant for him to hit certain historic weight thresholds for tight ends (think “smaller” guys like Sam LaPorta or Brock Bowers).

Still, despite the efforts to package himself as a high-end athlete at his position, the speed and explosiveness just aren’t there for the Bowling Green product.

A 4.71-second 40-yard time is slightly below median percentile at the position. For a player who projects more as a playmaker/H-back type than a traditional in-line tight end based on personal evaluation from the Senior Bowl, these results are suboptimal for Fannin.

In his defense, the 6-foot-3 small school standout did post the second-best three-cone drill time (6.97) among tight ends and displayed quality agility levels for his size; it’s not as though Fannin faceplanted across the board.

Regardless, players who come from non-power conference schools (Bowling Green plays in the MAC) already have a notch against them in facing “lesser” competition, and Fannin did himself very little in Indianapolis to quell those concerns.

Additionally, this weekend’s festivities saw other tight ends (notably Oregon’s Terrance Ferguson and LSU’s Mason Taylor) boost their stock significantly. Settling Fannin firmly within the mid-tier level of his fellow positional prospects feels appropriate now.

There’s still reason to be interested in a Jonnu Smith-like archetype who put up video game numbers in college, but the packaging coming in the form of a good-not-outstanding athlete should knock expectations down a touch.

Tez Johnson, WR, Oregon

It’s worth pointing out from the jump that Johnson put on a good showing in Mobile running drills at the Senior Bowl. Having observed the shifty wideout create separation and haul in passes in person at that time, it’s clear he’s capable of being a solid professional.

But standing at 5-foot-9 and 154 pounds, Johnson is a player who needed to stand out in athletic testing and establish a solid baseline for speed to alleviate the glaring issues of his lack of physicality.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen for the former Oregon slot specialist in Indianapolis.

Running a 4.51-second 40 is very concerning, especially considering the rare archetype of player Johnson projects to be in the NFL. You need a major outlier trait or two to overcome the natural physical obstacles, and it’s challenging to identify whether Johnson has one.

To his credit, a 6.65-second three-cone drill time recorded at the Combine ranked first among all wide receivers and highlights his propensity for agility, which helps him get open. This benchmark should be objectively encouraging and count as a victory.

Still, Johnson’s slender frame and lack of top-end speed align incongruently with said victory and make for a confusing prospect profile.

Nothing that occurred in Indianapolis should be considered a death knell for the ex-Duck, but it’s difficult to project him as a bona fide, slam-dunk carbon copy of someone like the Texans’ Tank Dell.

Lack of Participation from Quarterbacks

Frankly, this could be considered a copout, but the quarterback portion of the Combine was a dud.

Both Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders opted not to participate in on-field activities in Indianapolis and deferred all workouts for their respective Pro Days.

From an objective business standpoint, it’s easy to understand why a potential top-10 overall pick would abstain from the event. A poor showing in any individual drill or measure can only damage the draft stock of players like Ward and Sanders; it behooves them not to risk losing out on future earnings by sliding down the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

But placing the quarterback drills and testing as a broad loser isn’t just about Ward or Sanders — almost none of the other remaining signal-callers made much of their opportunities to stand out.

The only identifiable takeaway from any of the quarterback events comes from Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. The 6-foot-2 senior showcased continued progression from his already impressive showing at the Senior Bowl, tossing some strong throws and displaying improved footwork.

Dart’s continued ascent and potential solidification as 2025’s consensus QB3 shouldn’t be glossed over, but it’s really all we can glean from the Combine.

What could’ve been a critical launching pad for mid-tier names like Will Howard from Ohio State, Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard or Tyler Shough of Louisville became more of a collective flight under the radar across the board.

Does that make dynasty managers any more confident in how to approach these quarterbacks in rookie drafts? Probably not.