Why Shaquem Griffin should be on every teams draft radar

After losing his left hand when he was 4 years old to a birth defect, Shaquem Griffin has been proving people wrong his whole life. This past Sunday the UCF linebacker impressed everyone with his performance at the combine.  Before his impressive performance he was putting up some fantastic numbers in his collegiate career.  In his last two seasons and UCF ( 26 games) he had 100 solo tackles, 33.5 tackles for loss, 18.5 sacks, 2 interceptions, 4 forced fumbles and 4 fumble recoveries.  In 2016 he was named AAC defensive player of the year.

Now lets talk about the crazy performance he had at the combine.

4.38 40 yard dash.

Griffin ran the fastest 40 for a linebacker in the history of the NFL combine.

That’s absolutely absurd.  What makes this even crazier is that being that fast makes him a prime pick for every team, because rookies always have to make an impact on special teams.  Now imagine a 227 lb linebacker flying down the field on kickoff at that speed… yikes.  Also worth noting he ran faster than NFL stars Ezekiel Elliot and Julio Jones.

20 reps at 225 lbs on the bench press.

This one is just as impressive as the 40 time because he put up that many reps with a prosthetic hand!  I know tons of people with two perfectly good hands who can’t do that.  What makes this even more special though is how pumped up the crowd and the other players were getting for him.  When interviewed after this moment he said he was motivated by the intensity of the crowd cheering him on.

NFL stars took notice and it’s almost inevitable he is drafted with numbers like this.  What’s even more surprising is Griffin was a late invite to the combine.  Can you believe the NFL almost didn’t invite this guy?

~Jon Tetreault ( @jtetreault13 )