Has football players’ athletic performance changed over the past 10 years?

Don Dengel, PhD, professor in the School of Kinesiology, co-founder of Dexalytics, and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Physiology (LIHP), and Charles Jedlicka, graduate student in the School and research assistant in LIHP, co-authored an article, “Are NFL Combine Invitees getting bigger, faster, and stronger?” answering just that.

According to Dexalytics, a software program that analyzes body composition in health and human performance, and the Pro Football Reference, athletes’ performance in the 40-yard dash, bench press and jump test has remained relatively unchanged in the last 10 years. The article also mentions that each NFL Combine uncovers athlete outliers that perform above average, and “will continue to set new records along the way.”