\t\t\tRANK
\n\t\t\tSPEED (MPH)
\n\t\t\tPLAYER
\n\t\t\tYear
\n\t\t\tTEAM<\/p>\n
\t\t\t1
\n\t\t\t23.34
\n\t\t\tTyreek Hill
\n\t\t\t2016
\n\t\t\tKansas City Chiefs<\/p>\n
\t\t\t2
\n\t\t\t23.09
\n\t\t\tRaheem Mostert
\n\t\t\t2020
\n\t\t\tSan Francisco 49ers<\/p>\n
\t\t\t3
\n\t\t\t22.3
\n\t\t\tMatt Breida
\n\t\t\t2019
\n\t\t\tSan Francisco 49ers<\/p>\n
\t\t\t4
\n\t\t\t22.13
\n\t\t\tJonathan Taylor
\n\t\t\t2021
\n\t\t\tIndianapolis Colts<\/p>\n
\t\t\t5
\n\t\t\t22.11
\n\t\t\tParris Campbell
\n\t\t\t2022
\n\t\t\tIndianapolis Colts<\/p>\n
\t\t\t6
\n\t\t\t22.09
\n\t\t\tMatt Brieda
\n\t\t\t2018
\n\t\t\tSan Francisco 49ers<\/p>\n
\t\t\t7
\n\t\t\t22.05
\n\t\t\tLeonard Fournette
\n\t\t\t2017
\n\t\t\tJacksonville Jaguars<\/p>\n
So, how do these speeds relate to the top track and field athletes? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n
DESTINATIONS:\u00a0The greatest venues in outdoor track and field, according to you<\/a><\/p>\n Fastest NCAA track athletes in 2023<\/p>\n While mph data for NCAA track and field races isn’t always readily available, there’s luckily data from NCAA sprinters who participated in the 2022 World Athletics Championships. We’ll be using that data for this article.<\/p>\n Top male sprinters<\/p>\n The 100 meters is the premier male sprinting event, with track athletes running the shortest distance during an outdoor meet. To compare the 100 meters to football, it equates to just over 109 yards, roughly the front of one end zone to the back of another end zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s rare that a football player will ever run 100 meters in a straight line continuously in a game like a sprinter would in a race, but a football player still needs to hit his peak speeds to escape from opposing players in the same way a sprinter needs to hit his peak speeds to win a race.<\/p>\n That said, here are the fastest 100 meter sprinters that returned to collegiate track and field in 2023.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSPEED (MPH) \t\t\t26.2 \t\t\t25.6 \t\t\t24.3 All three of the collegiate 100 meter sprinters ran faster than all\u00a0NFL players since 2016. Yet, none of the collegiate sprinters above made the 100 meter final at World Championships, meaning there were even faster sprinters in track and field in 2022.<\/p>\n NCAA T&F:\u00a0Here’s how the outdoor track and field championships work<\/a><\/p>\n What about the equipment?<\/p>\n A common cry in debates between football and track speed is that football players where equipment that can slow them down. Per Sports Illustrated<\/a>, football equipment like shoulder pads, helmets and more can weigh more than 10 pounds. While there’s no hard data on how much football equipment slows down a player, one can assume that it likely knocks off tenths of a second from top speeds.<\/p>\n 40-yard dash<\/p>\n That said, we have seen football players run their top speeds in non-game like settings via the NFL Combine’s 40-yard dash. Take a look a some of the speeds from 2022’s NFL Combine.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSpeed (MPH) \t\t\t25.1 \t\t\t24.8 \t\t\t24.6 \t\t\t24.5 \t\t\t24.1 Speeds taken from Reel Analytics.<\/a><\/p>\n .@BUFootball<\/a> CB Kalon Barnes (@KaayBarnes_<\/a>) exceeded 25 mph during his record-setting 40-yard dash at the #NFLCombine<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/cY4GdDru4g<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) March 7, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n Kalon Barnes ran the second-fastest 40-yard dash time in NFL history, only one-hundreth of a second behind the NFL record of 4.22 seconds. Tariq Woolen ran the fifth-fastest time in NFL history.<\/p>\n However, none of the top-speeds from the 2022 NFL Combine ran without football equipment surpass the top two recorded speeds from the NCAA athletes listed above at World Championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the 40-yard dash is a decent indicator of speed, it’s not the end all be all as shown by analytics experts. There’s no correlation between 40-yard dash speed and in-game speed, with players with slow 40 times running just as fast \u2014 with equipment on \u2014 as players with fast 40 times.<\/p>\n Data suggests no correlation between the 40-yard dash & play speed (MPH) for many reasons. For example, both Jordan Howard & Ted Ginn have reached a max speed of 22 mph although Howard ran a 4.59 & Ginn a 4.28 40-yard dash. Don\u2019t over-emphasize the 40. #NFLCombine2022<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/BeciA7lw76<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Cory Yates (@CoryRAanalytics) March 4, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n Moreover, the NFL record of 4.22 seconds in the 40-yard dash pales in comparison to what track athletes have ran in the 40-yard dash. Take former NCAA Champion Christian Coleman <\/a>for example. He ran a 4.12 second 40-yard dash back in 2017, blowing the NFL Combine record out of the water. Coleman even beat NFL legend Bo Jackson’s rumored 4.13 second 40-yard dash time.<\/p>\n In 2024, Iowa sprinter Kalen Walker took running the 40-yard dash as a track athlete to the next level, running the dash at halftime of the Hawkeye’s game against Northwestern. Walker didn’t match Coleman’s time, but still finished 4.15 seconds, with the wind of an outdoor environment.<\/p>\n That was fun \u2026 \ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udca8@kalenwalker131<\/a> x #Hawkeyes<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/JNwPyxelIu<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Iowa Track & Field\/Cross Country (@IowaXC_TF) October 26, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n Coleman and Walker’s 40-yard dash performances shows that even in similar conditions, without equipment, track speed is faster.<\/p>\n The DK Metcalf race<\/p>\n While Christian Coleman tested out NFL conditions with his run in the 40-yard dash, NFL wide receiver DK Metcalf did the opposite, running a 100 meter race on the track.<\/p>\n Metcalf ran the 100 meters at the Golden Games in an attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials. In his first 100 meter race with only a few months of training, Metcalf ran a 10.37-second time to finish 15th out of 17 competitors in the preliminary round.<\/p>\n Great start for @Seahawks<\/a> wide receiver DK Metcalf.<\/p>\n He ended up finishing his 100m heat in 9th with a time of 10.36.@usatf<\/a> \/\/ #JourneyToGold<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/OSPrrMZFVe<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) May 9, 2021<\/a> <\/p>\n Metcalf’s speed paled in comparison to track and field sprinters in a race that didn’t include some of the America’s best 100 meter runners. Yet, when it comes to the NFL, Metcalf is one of the fastest in the league with a 4.33 in the 40-yard dash and a top speed of 22.64 mph 2020.<\/p>\n DK Metcalf would\u2019ve caught Daniel Jones <\/p>\n DK Metcalf\u2019s speed 22.64 mph matches Tyreek Hill last year \ud83d\udca8 \u2014 John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) October 26, 2020<\/a> <\/p>\n Metcalf’s top speed in the NFL is one of the fastest since the NFL has tracked the data. However, when Metcalf transferred his football speed to the track \u2014 without equipment \u2014 his speed didn’t keep up.<\/p>\n Tyreek Hill vs. Noah Lyles<\/p>\n For the longest time, NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill \u2014 one of the fastest players we’ve seen in the NFL during the 2020s \u2014 and Olympic and World Champion Noah Lyles taunted each other over who would win in a race. The two were supposed to line it up on the track in the Summer of 2025 before the big plans fell through.<\/p>\n However, Hill still showed off what he could do on the track. Hill ran his first 100 meters since 2013 at the Last Chance Sprint Series. Hill finishing in 10.15 seconds at the age of 31\u00a0\u2014 much faster than Metcalf’s 10.37.\u00a0<\/p>\n To put that in perspective, Hill’s previous 100 meter PR was 10.19 from 2012 at 18 years old, and he hadn’t ran an outdoor track race since a +5.0 9.98 100 meters while in JUCO in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n When on a tour of Oklahoma State university in 2024, I personally asked Head Coach Dave Smith \u2014 Hill’s coach when he finished fifth in the 2014 NCAA indoor 200 meter finals \u2014 what he thought of Hill’s speed and his challenging professional track athletes. To summarize Smith’s sentiments, he explained that if Tyreek Hill chose to focus on track instead of football, he had the talent to compete at the highest level against the top sprinters of today.<\/p>\n Smith’s point is validated after Hill ran 10.1 in a season-opener. That’s no small feat and is on-par with some of the Olympic-level sprinters to start their seasons. 2024 Olympic 100m Bronze medalist Fred Kerley opened 2025 with a 10.23. The fifth-place 100m finisher Marcell Jacobs opened with a 10.30. The sixth-place 100m finisher and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo opened with a 10.55.<\/p>\n No matter how you look at it, Hill’s 10.15 performance was impressive.<\/p>\n Tyreek Hill runs a decent 10.15s to win his 100m at the Last Chance Sprint Series!<\/p>\n His first official 100m since 2014 and a new Personal Best (PB) for him.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfa5 athlete.x || IG pic.twitter.com\/Yy9K4BxBfO<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) June 13, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Went for a lil jog today \u263a\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/hGNxufzamX<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ty Hill (@cheetah) June 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n The dual-sport athletes<\/p>\n NFL x track speed<\/p>\n For all the comparisons between NFL and track speed, there’s one person who blurred the lines in 2022, Devon Allen. Allen, an NCAA champion and Olympian, was a finalist in the 110 hurdles at the 2022 World Championships and also is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles roster, even scoring a touchdown during the preseason.<\/p>\n OLYMPIC SPEED. @DevonAllen13<\/a> flies into the end zone!<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcfa: #PHIvsCLE<\/a> on @NFLNetwork<\/a> (check local listings) \u2014 NFL (@NFL) August 21, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n Reid Sinnett & Devon Allen (55-yd TD) \ud83d\udd39 Air Distance: 59.6 yds Sinnett’s pass traveled 59.6 yards in the air, the longest completed pass so far this preseason.#PHIvsCLE<\/a> | #FlyEaglesFly<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/gj4Dfj64u0<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) August 21, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n Devon Allen hit a top speed of 20.93 mph on his 55-yard touchdown in the preseason. While Allen’s top speed ranks below some of the top speeds in the NFL this year and the top collegians in track and field at the World Championships, Allen is an Olympian hurdler, running the third-fastest 110 hurdles time ever (12.84 seconds) at Worlds. With out football pads and routes and without hurdles, Allen’s top speed is likely much higher.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udca8:\u00a0Wind and scoring in track and field, explained<\/a><\/p>\n NCAA football x track speed<\/p>\n Texas A&M’s Devon Achane is a soon-to-be NFL player with legit track speed. How do we know this about the 2023 NFL draft prospect? Because he actually ran track in college.<\/p>\n Achane qualified for the 2022 DI outdoor championships in sprint events. Achane finished in the semifinals during the outdoor championships with a 10.48-second 100 meter time. On the gridiron, Achane was clocked at 22.2 mph in 2021 on a kick return for a touchdown.<\/p>\n .@AggieFootball<\/a> RB Devon Achane hit a max speed of 22.2 mph on his 96-yard KOR for a TD in the #Aggies<\/a>\u2019 win over #Bama<\/a> on Saturday. #myRAmaxspeed<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sHVqs3wtCq<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) October 11, 2021<\/a> <\/p>\n Achane’s speed on that kick return is faster than any NFL player’s top speed during the 2022 regular season. He’s one of the select few players than when someone says “he has track speed” legitimately\u00a0does.<\/p>\n FOOTBALL TRANSITION:\u00a0Arkansas’ Roj\u00e9 Stona’s attempted transition to NFL <\/a><\/p>\n Elsewhere, Kentucky has a football-track standout of its own \u2014 and he’s only a freshman. Jordan Anthony plays wide receiver for the Wildcats and runs sprints. Prior to enrolling, he won the U.S. U-20 200 meter title with a personal-best 20.34-second finish.<\/p>\n Anthony kicked off his 2023 indoor season with less than a week of track practice between the transition of football and track season by breaking the Kentucky freshman record in the 60 meters in 6.57 seconds. That performance comes after Anthony redshirted on the gridiron, playing in just two games.<\/p>\n Anthony is another dual-sport athlete with true “track speed”.<\/p>\n Anthony continued to prove he has track speed with his 2025 NCAA DI 100 meter win while running for Arkansas (he also had a stop at Texas A&M before transferring to the Razorbacks). The victory came after Anthony won the 2025 NCAA DI 60 meters and after he ran the No. 2 all-conditions 100 meter race in NCAA history, finishing in 10.75 seconds (+2.1). Anthony’s success on the track led to him signing an NIL deal with adidas and turning pro in track in June of 2025, foregoing the rest of his football career.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Arkansas’ Jordan Anthony runs 9.75! Watch every men’s 100m quarterfinals from 2025 NCAA outdoor track and field championships<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf8 @Jordan_anthony6 wins the Rod McCravey Memorial with a #UKTF<\/a> Freshman Record time of 6.57. Fellow Wildcat @lang_jackson9<\/a> finished in 3rd, stopping the clock at 6.77.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcfa: https:\/\/t.co\/40G9geRPKD<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/zgs82nWHIt<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 UK Track & Field (@KentuckyTrack) January 14, 2023<\/a> <\/p>\n In July 2024, track speed again made the news thanks to South Carolina’s Nyck Harbor. Harbor drew recognition around the country for his 99 speed and 99 acceleration rating in EA College Football 25.<\/p>\n Meet Nyck Harbor, the Most OP Player in EA CFB 25<\/p>\n At 6\u20195 242:<\/p>\n -99 Speed Runs a 10.11 100M & 20.20 200M \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n Cheat Codehttps:\/\/t.co\/nUKSivocbE<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/4TXDTf7ay2<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 14, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n Harbor’s speed caught many by surprise, but not track and field fans. Harbor finished 16th in the 100 meters and 10th in the 200 meters in the 2024 Division I track and field championships.<\/p>\n Just absolutely GLIDING! @Nyck1k<\/a> with a new wind-legal PR time of 20.47 and he will represent the Gamecocks in the 200m finals on Saturday \ud83e\udd19 pic.twitter.com\/FWm1m8az70<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Gamecock Track & XC (@GamecockTrack) May 9, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0Complete history of The Bowerman award<\/a><\/p>\n So who’s faster?<\/p>\n From the data, it’s clear than the top-end speed of NCAA track and field athletes is faster than the top-end speed of NFL players. While there are other external factors like distance run, equipment weight, directions run and more, the top-end speed data is plain to see.<\/p>\n Could things change if the fastest NFL players raced track and field’s best? Maybe, but until that happens the win goes to the trackletes.<\/p>\n For reference when NFL Players say they\u2019re faster than track athletes:<\/p>\n The top NFL MPH the last 6 years <\/p>\n \u201821 Jonathan Taylor: 22.13 Track speed is different! https:\/\/t.co\/PKbiX22FQG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Stan Becton (@stan_becton) July 17, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tPLAYER
\n\t\t\tSchool
\n\t\t\tTime (Round)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tFavour Ashe
\n\t\t\tAuburn
\n\t\t\t10.00 (Heats)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tIsmael Kone
\n\t\t\tFlorida State
\n\t\t\t10.17 (Heats)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tShaun Gill
\n\t\t\tTexas A&M-Kingsville (DII)
\n\t\t\t10.76 (Prelims)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t40 Time
\n\t\t\tAthlete
\n\t\t\tSchool
\n\t\t\tPosition
\n\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t4.23
\n\t\t\tKalon Barnes
\n\t\t\tBaylor
\n\t\t\tCB
\n\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t4.26
\n\t\t\tTariq Woolen
\n\t\t\tUTSA
\n\t\t\tCB
\n\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t4.31
\n\t\t\tVelus Jones
\n\t\t\tTennessee
\n\t\t\tWR
\n\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t4.34
\n\t\t\tBo Melton
\n\t\t\tRutgers
\n\t\t\tWR
\n\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t4.33
\n\t\t\tDanny Gray
\n\t\t\tSMU
\n\t\t\tWR
\n\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
pic.twitter.com\/GumVZMhBHR<\/a><\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcf1: Stream on NFL+ https:\/\/t.co\/GH49hZ3d4L<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/pkTHZbyrHF<\/a><\/p>\n
Completion Probability: 28.8%<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udd39 Target Separation: 4.9 yds
\ud83d\udd39 Allen Top Speed: 20.93 mph<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/track_and_field_updated_copy_2-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
-99 Acceleration
-98 Jumping
-79 Strength (strongest WR in the game)<\/p>\n
\u201820 Raheem Mostert: 23.09
\u201819 Matt Breida: 22.3
\u201818 Breida: 22.09
\u201817 Leonard Fournette: 22.05
\u201816 Tyreek Hill: 23.24<\/p>\n