On-field testing at the NFL Scouting Combine kicked off on Thursday, with defensive linemen and linebackers plying their trade. There were a few performances on each side that will have notable effects on the draft stock of the players involved. Accordingly, here are a few players from the front-seven participants that saw their draft stock affected in a positive or negative manner.
NFL Combine Risers
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### Caleb Banks, DT, Florida: 6’6 ¼”/327 pounds
Banks’s 2025 campaign was shortened to a mere three games due to injury, so he needed an impactful pre-draft process to solidify himself as a 1st round talent. He kicked things off emphatically with a dominant Senior Bowl showing against upper echelon, NFL bound competition. Then at the Combine he was measured with class-leading 35” arms and an 85 ¾” wingspan that was the second-longest mark amongst his defensive line peers. He then comfortably beat his 40-yard dash Combine Prop projection of 5.18s with a 5.05s 40 that ranks in the 73rd%. Banks capped it off with an 89th-percentile vertical (32-inches) and a 93rd% 9’06” broad jump for a sparkling 9.84 Relative Athletic Score. The massive defensive tackle delivered bonafide NFL-caliber measurables that should cement his status as a first-round selection.
Bailey transferred from Stanford to Texas Tech this summer and proceeded to deliver a sensational senior season in Lubbock, routinely terrorizing opposing Big-12 quarterbacks and earning the highest pass rush grade in the country according to PFF (93.8). While he’s already locked in as a first round talent, how he tested was going to dictate just how high of a selection the Red Raiders’ main havoc creator would be. He checked two major boxes with 33 3/4” arms and 10.¼” hands, before blowing away Lucas Oil Stadium with a group-leading 4.50s 40 (99th%) and 1.62s 10-yard split (97th%). Bailey also showed out with a 35” vertical (85th%) and added another 99th-percentile mark with a ridiculous 10’09” broad jump, culminating with a 9.67 RAS score. With a set of verified freakish numbers to back up his uber-productive 2025 at Texas Tech, and a blistering 13.57 MPH top speed on the pass rush drill, it’s hard to imagine Bailey falling out of the Top 10 come draft day.
### Sony Styles, LB, Ohio State: 6’5/244 pounds
A converted safety who transitioned to linebacker in order to take advantage of his tantalizing size/speed profile, Styles delivered a Combine performance for the ages. Despite being the heaviest linebacker in Indy, he tied for the fastest marks in the group with a 99th% 4.46s 40 and 1.56s 10-yard split. Styles also blew away his contemporaries with a shocking 43.5” vertical that was 3.5-inches higher than the rest of the LBs, an astounding 100th% historical mark. Though he didn’t perform any agility tests, Styles’ ridiculous size/speed/jump numbers were strong enough to garner a perfect 10.0 RAS score and should solidify him as a Top 15 selection in April.
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NFL Combine Fallers
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### Rueben Bain Jr, DE, Miami (FL): 6’2 1’4”/263
Bain captivated the college football world with his relentless pursuit and 83 pressures that was rivaled only by the aforementioned David Bailey, Questions persisted about how his traits will translate to the NFL level. Specifically, can Bain overcome his now verified 30 ⅞” arms against the gargantuan left tackles he will be battling at the next level? For perspective, his arms are the fourth shortest ever recorded for an Edge prospect and put him at a profound disadvantage against opposite OTs who possess 34-36” arms and will be able to land their punch before he even has the opportunity to engage. To compound matters, Bain didn’t perform any testing, so we don’t even have those numbers at our disposal to help explain-away the lack of length. Bain will have an uphill battle trying to overcome his genetic curse, as perilously few sub 32” armed Edge rushers have experienced success in the NFL in the last 25 years.
### Cashius Howell, DE, Texas A&M: 6’2 ⅜”/253
If Bain’s arm length is a problem, then Howell’s even shorter 30 ¼” arm length is a glaring red flag for his NFL profile. In addition to his stubby proportions, the Aggies’ pressure maven failed to impress with 61st percentile marks in both the vertical (32.5”) and broad jumps (9’07”). Unlike Bain, Howell posted an impressive 4.59s 40-yard dash (97th%) and 1.59s 10-yard split (95th%) which helped obscure the more troublesome aspects of his testing profile. Additionally, Howell looked sharp in drills, leading the Edge group with a 14.52 MPH top speed on the pass rush drill according to Next Gen Stats. So while there are demerits on Howell’s combine performance, he did help to balance things out with a respectable 8.11 RAS. His pass rush approach is predicated on being shifty and tough to square-up, which serves to mitigate some of his physical limitations. Still, with Howell possessing a pair of the shortest arms in Combine history and charting a pair of middling jumps, his testing raised more questions than provided answers.
### Lee Hunter, DT, Texas Tech: 6’3 3/8th”/318 pounds
Hunter was a pivotal component of the Red Raiders’ CFP Playoff run, anchoring the middle of their defense and providing exemplary run defense chops. However, his Combine showing revealed some athletic limitations that could hinder his draft stock. The stocky tackle recorded the second-slowest 40-yard dash (5.18s = 46th%) and third-slowest 10-yard split (1.79s = 35th%) from the DT group. Even more concerning was Hunter’s 29th% broad jump (8’04”) and floor scraping 21.5” vertical that ranks in the 2nd-percentile of all-time Combine defensive linemen. While Hunter has been considered a dark-horse first rounder, it’s hard to envision teams betting on an interior lineman with a 37th% athletic profile, regardless of on field production.
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