Desmond Howard 40 Time Truth: How Fast Was the Heisman Legend Really?
By Sophia Al-Mansoor
Leading into the 1992 NFL Draft, NFL general managers coveted Howard's versatility, but scout reports scrutinized his pure straight-line burst. Michigan head coach Gary Moeller had deployed Howard all over the formation, maximizing his quickness rather than simple vertical routes.
When Howard stepped up to run his 40-yard dash tests in Indianapolis in February 1992, the stopwatches told a nuanced story. Scouts clocked Howard between 4.48 and 4.52 seconds on the dome carpet. While lightning quick for an average player of that era, it was far from the historic sprint records posted by contemporary speed merchants like Raghib "Rocket" Ismail.
At a private workout in Ann Arbor weeks later, hand-held stopwatches caught him clocking an unofficial 4.42 seconds, a typical discrepancy seen when prospects run on familiar campus surfaces. Washington nevertheless traded up with the Cincinnati Bengals to select Howard fourth overall, betting that his college production would override concerns about top-end track speed.
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