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“He made himself some money” has become the most overused phrase of the pre-Draft evaluation. I’d love to go back and find the percentage that phrase was said/written about a guy who then went on to add significant money to his bank account. I’d set the over/under at 28%.
Don’t get it twisted. There are plenty of guys who did indeed improve their Draft stocks by putting together blistering performances at the 2025 NFL Combine. But if that “he made himself some money” phrase is being said, in theory, we should also be saying “he lost himself some money” just as many times. That’s negative, yes, but not everyone can improve.
That intro was the last bit of negativity for today’s discussion. These are the SEC players that helped themselves the most with their 2025 NFL Combine performances:
Texas A&M DL Shemar Stewart
Let’s be honest with Stewart’s pre-Draft discussion. You’re either alarmed by the 4.5 career sacks at Texas A&M, or you’re enamored with his physical traits. If you’re in the latter, you loved what you saw from Stewart at the Combine. The explosiveness we saw in the Senior Bowl — one in which he left early because of how much he dominated mid-week practices — was on display in Indianapolis. Stewart shed 14 pounds since the Senior Bowl in hopes of testing well. Needless to say, he accomplished that goal.
At 267 pounds, Stewart also ran a 4.59-second 40-yard dash and he recorded a 40-inch vertical. It was a performance reminiscent of fellow former Aggie defensive lineman Myles Garrett, who had a 10-8 broad jump, a 4.64-second 40-yard dash and a 41-inch vertical at 271 pounds. Nobody will confuse Stewart’s college production for Garrett’s, but in an event in which he had to check every box possible, he did all that and more. If anyone can emerge and become the 2025 version of Travon Walker, it’s Stewart.
Tennessee Edge James Pearce Jr.
If you’ve been following Pearce these last couple years, you knew that the former Tennessee star was going to put on a show in Indianapolis and that a down statistical pre-Draft year wasn’t going to be the only factor with his stock. You can’t teach that first step. All Pearce did was waltz into the Combine and record a 4.47-second 40 with a 1.56-second 10-yard split. Explosive? Just a bit.
At 245 pounds, he’s still on the lighter side among edge-rushers. If he had tested poorly at that size, some would’ve probably taken him out of the 1st-Round conversation altogether. While he’s likely not going to be projected as a top-10 pick like he might’ve been in the way-too-early mocks nearly a year ago, but Pearce might’ve reminded plenty of skeptics why he’s one of the top talents in the class.
South Carolina DB Nick Emmanwori
Quite simply, you really can’t perform better at the Combine than Emmanwori did. If you want to know what it means to maximize a 6-3, 220-pound frame, well, this is it (he actually had a 4.38-second 40 officially):
Emmanwori isn’t just a physical freak. The All-American was a major reason why South Carolina’s defense turned around this year, and he’s been a key piece of that unit since he was a true freshman starter at safety. It’s silly to think that a 6-3, 220-pound safety who runs a 4.40 with a 43-inch vertical also had 244 career tackles and 17 passes defensed. In a time when the safety position feels like it continues to be devalued in the Draft, perhaps it’s a rare talent like Emmanwori who can get that group back into those Round-1 conversations.
Arkansas LB Jihaad Campbell
Once upon a time, you could assume that multiple Alabama defensive players would be locks to come off the board and you wouldn’t have to think twice about it. In the first year of the post-Nick Saban era, Campbell might be the only one with a realistic shot at doing that. His Combine performance certainly won’t be used against him in the pre-Draft process. Campbell ran a 4.52-second 40 (No. 3 among linebackers) with a 10-7 broad jump, and he got rave reviews for how he moved through positional drills with both his cover skills and ability to rush the passer.
That was significant because Campbell’s biggest strength was as a tackler. Daniel Jeremiah compared him to fellow former first-team All-SEC linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, who made an immediate impact after he was selected in Round 2 by the Green Bay Packers. The biggest difference with those 2 is that unlike Cooper, Campbell might not have to wait until the middle of Round 2 to hear his name called after his Combine showing.
Arkansas DE Landon Jackson
Jackson quietly emerged as one of the SEC’s best defensive players of the last 2 seasons after transferring from LSU to Arkansas. He made a somewhat surprising decision to return to school after 2023, which might’ve led some to believe that he wasn’t some sort of can’t-miss physical specimen. Everything that Jackson did in Indy suggested that he was far more athletic than he was given credit for during his prolific college career:
That’s insane company. Dupree might not have had the success of Garrett, but that’s still a former 1st-Round pick who just finished Year 10 in the NFL. Like Dupree, Jackson has the makings of someone who could have a late-Round 1 market and turn that into a decade-long career. At the very least, Jackson’s explosiveness won’t be the thing that holds him back.
Kentucky CB Maxwell Hairston
Hairston’s interceptions took a dive during his pre-Draft season (5 to 1) as he struggled to stay on the field for a struggling Kentucky squad, yet the ball skills weren’t really in question. A bigger question for Hairston was how he’d stack up physically in a cornerback class that doesn’t have the top-end prospects in the top 10 beyond Travis Hunter.
Well, running a 4.28-second 40 to earn the best time in Indy certainly put those questions to rest. Hairston did exactly what you’d hope a borderline 1st-Round pick would do. In addition to that pace-setting 40-time, he also recorded a 39.5-inch vertical with a 10-9 broad jump. Those are important numbers for a sub-6 foot corner who didn’t have the season that many expected him to have in Mark Stoops’ defense.
Texas CB Jahdae Barron
If you’re a Barron hater, it’s probably because he’s sub-6 feet and he doesn’t profile as the type of outside corner that teams covet in the first half of Round 1. But everything else? It’s all there.The 2025 Jim Thorpe Award winner had a big showing with a 4.39-second 40-yard dash, and he was .01 seconds from having the fastest 10-yard split (1.50) among all corners in Indy. The tape never suggested that straight-line speed was ever a question for the versatile Barron, but answering that question on that stage was huge. Those were key boxes to check for someone who has been showing up near the end of Round 1 in mock Drafts.
Add to Barron’s on-field performance that he came off about as well as anyone could’ve during the media portion and yeah, that guy has “franchise player” written all over him.
Texas WR Matthew Golden
If you had told anyone that a Texas receiver was going to run a sub-4.3 second 40, one would’ve assumed it was Isaiah Bond. Shoot, Bond himself said he was not only going to do that, but that he was going to beat fellow former Longhorn Xavier Worthy’s record-setting 4.21 from last year. Nope. Bond ran a 4.39 and Golden earned the silver medal in the 40 with a blistering 4.29.
That’s quite the feat for someone who wasn’t necessarily known as an over-the-top burner during his lone season at Texas. Golden’s 40 speed only added to an emerging 1st-Round résumé that was fueled by his ability to maximize his 5-11 frame and make contested catches. There was no denying that Golden was Texas’ WR1 in the latter half of 2024. There’s now going to be a legitimate question whether he’s the WR1 after Hunter comes off the board.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
