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Daniel OyefusiMar 25, 2026, 03:40 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Daniel Oyefusi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN. Prior to ESPN, he covered the Miami Dolphins for the Miami Herald, as well as the Baltimore Ravens for The Baltimore Sun.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former Ohio State<\/a> wide receiver Carnell Tate<\/a> elected Wednesday not to improve on the 40-yard dash time that he posted at the NFL combine in February, saying during his pro day that it can be a bit “overvalued.”<\/p>\n Tate, a projected top-10 pick<\/a> in next month’s NFL draft and the No. 7 player<\/a> on the Big Board of ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., only ran routes and caught passes during the individual drills at his pro day. Afterward, he touted his all-around game, despite questions about his speed after running a 4.53-second 40-yard dash at the combine in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n “I think I’m a great football player,” Tate said. “My speed … the combine is one time, but ultimately I’m a great football player. When you put the pads on, it’s another level.”<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Tate said he considered running the 40 again but didn’t because teams have not expressed concerns about his speed. He also cited top receivers Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba as examples of successful pass-catchers who didn’t have blazing 40 times.<\/p>\n “He’s a guy who’s going to be a No. 1 wide receiver for some organization and somebody that has done it at a high level,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “He’s smooth, he’s physical and he’s going to be a guy that certainly can have an impact on Day 1 walking into a team.”<\/p>\n Tate has already met with the Cleveland Browns<\/a> at their facility and said he has upcoming meetings with a host of teams picking in the top 10, including the Tennessee Titans<\/a>, New Orleans Saints<\/a>, Washington Commanders<\/a>, New York Giants<\/a> and Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I’m a football player,” Tate said. “I got the best route-running ability out there in the draft, probably in the country, even in the league. So, I just did what I do best while out there, run routes and catch the football.”<\/p>\n An All-Big Ten selection, Tate caught 51 receptions for 875 yards and nine touchdowns for the Buckeyes this past season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel OyefusiMar 25, 2026, 03:40 PM ET CloseDaniel Oyefusi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN. Prior to ESPN,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-546231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}