Ravens NFL Combine Takeaways: Overall Team Speed Will Increase

The Baltimore Ravens are poised to be faster at multiple positions on both sides of the ball coming out of this year's annual event.

Feb 27, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Ohio State defensive back Lorenzo Styles (DB50) during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

To say that NFL players are getting faster and stronger with each passing year is no longer an understatement; it's a bold statement after seeing what the prospects who took part in the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine just accomplished over the weekend.

New records were set for the fastest average 40-yard dash times at every non-specialist position except quarterback, where they still posted the second fastest all-time average in the event. As each day of testing and on-field workouts passed, it became clear that this year's crop of incoming rookies was out to shatter expectations, and they did just that collectively.

This year's Combine prospects were running faster than ever before 😱 pic.twitter.com/5S0dkrsTaC

— NFL (@NFL) March 1, 2026

Not only were they breaking speed records, but other testing records that stood for decades were broken as well in both the broad and vertical jump, and certain marks for larger size dimensions at specific positions.

Ravens can't help but get faster in 2026

Feb 27, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Diego State defensive back Chris Johnson (DB17) during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

As far as what all this means for the Charm City franchise, unless the Baltimore Ravens intentionally target the slowest prospects of this year's record-breaking bunch, they should easily be able to improve their overall team speed and athletes at all of their positions of need.

What should be most tantalizing for the Ravens and general manager Eric DeCosta is how explosive and athletic the trench prospects on both sides of the ball, in particular, looked and performed in testing and on-field drills.

The biggest reasons that ultimately led to the Ravens' downfall in a 2025 season that was expected to be theirs for the taking were their inability to own either line of scrimmage. They lacked juice in the pass rush after losing two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike two games into the year and the regression of the offensive line, due in large part to the slower and plotting players at both guard spots, dragged the rest of the unit down.

On the first day of testing and workouts, several front-seven prospects at edge defender, interior defensive line and off-ball linebacker put on a show. The combined average 40-yard dash time of the defensive linemen as a whole was 4.83, and for linebackers, it was 4.55. More impressive than their times for the entire length of that test was how explosive their 10-yard splits were, nearly two dozen clocking sub-1.70 marks, which many of the top pass rushers in the league posted at their respective combines coming into the league.

Several edge rushers and off-ball linebackers clocked the highest miles per hour marks in years and of the Next Gen Stats era when going through the on-field drills, both moving forward around bags and when backpedaling to simulate dropping into coverage.

Cashius Howell (@AggieFootball) reached 14.52 mph while rounding the corner in the pass rush drill, the only defensive lineman to exceed 14 mph during the 2026 Combine.

Howell posted the fastest pass rush speed by any DL prospect since Will Anderson Jr. (14.90 mph) in 2023. pic.twitter.com/Bo0AxRfHBW

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) February 27, 2026

The offensive linemen were the last group to test and workout and they kept up the theme of speed with an average 40-yard dash time of 5.10 with nine posting sub-5.0 times, which included a trio of centers who could be potential Tyler Linderbaum replacements in Iowa's Logan Jones (4.90), Kentucky's Jager Burton (4.94) and Alabama's Parker Brailsford (4.99).

With the Ravens most likely moving to a more outside zone-based rushing attack under new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and offensive line coach/run game coordinator Dwayne Ledford, the front office will likely be prioritizing more agile and athletic interior offensive linemen during the scouting process. There's a chance they could potentially need to replace all three spots if Linderbaum departs in free agency.

At the skill positions on both sides of the ball, there were prospects on both sides of the ball who tested off the charts and would be good fits for the Ravens. At wide receiver, several big-body perimeter targets were explosive, athletic and caught the ball well. Multiple tight ends tested off the charts athletically and performed well in the drills. In the secondary, many prospects either silenced any questions about their speed or completely stole the show with blazing times followed up by great drill work.

Overall, the new-look Ravens under first-year head coach Jessie Minter have a chance to become one of the fastest and most explosive teams in the league if they can land some of the prospects who boosted their respective draft stocks with impressive performances at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, this past week.

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