Top safety prospect improves draft stock with historic day at NFL Scouting Combine

The big winner from Friday's NFL Scouting Combine was easily South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori.

He turned in an absolutely dominant performance that, when combined with his weigh-in, is going to have scouts and general managers going crazy over his potential.

Not only did he measure in at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, but he also crushed the individual workouts.

Along with a 43-inch vertical jump, he also recorded an 11-foot-6 broad jump that are, so far, the top marks at this year's combine.

Even more, no defensive back his size has jumped that well at the combine since 2017 .

Furthermore, his vertical jump was historic in general: 43 vertical at 63, 220 lbs Nick Emmanwori Best vertical by anyone weighing at least 200 lbs in Combine history per @NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/dJk7gvDobX He also logged a 4.38 40-yard dash time and 1.49 10-yard split.

Here is a look at his 40-time overlayed against some of the NFL's fastest wide receivers.

Nick Emmanwori vs.

some of the leagues best WRs : #NFLCombine on @NFLNetwork : Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/q8d82ILAQG Emmanwori was already projected to be picked somewhere in the first two rounds and be one of the first safeties off the board, and his performance in Indianapolis only helped his draft stock.

He had a monster 2024 season for South Carolina, recording 88 tackles and intercepting four passes, returning two of them for touchdowns.

Combine stars can tend to be misleading at times because it does not always translate over to the football field.

Running and jumping in shorts is not the same as doing it in pads while you are trying to chase down and tackle an opponent.

It does not always mean that you will fit in with a team's defensive scheme or locker room.

But having those sets of skills certainly helps.

It also helps that he has a couple of years of big-time performance and production at an SEC school, against top-tier college competition, to show that he can also get things done on the field.

He might have made himself into a first-round pick on Friday when everything gets added together.

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh.

He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA.

Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark.

Catch him on Twitter @AGretz.

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