John Ross, Tyreek Hill and when speed is not enough in the NFL

John Ross and Tyreek Hill were once in a conversation for NFL’s fastest man, but it goes to show that speed doesn’t equate with production at the highest levels of football.

Two offseasons ago, the Cincinnati Bengals were thrilled to add a new vertical dimension to their offense in the fleet-footed skill set of wide receiver John Ross. Now heading into his third season, Ross is simply hoping to put together enough production to avoid a permanent branding of the dreaded “bust” label.

Despite the failure rate of many first round wide receivers, the Bengals decided to use their top 10 pick (No. 9 overall) in the 2017 NFL Draft on Ross, a burner out of the University of Washington. He came with serious medical questions, but the Bengals were fresh off a season in which the need at wide receiver was blinding. A.J. Green had missed the last third of a season with a torn hamstring in 2016, and Cincy had a total of 18 touchdown passes for the entire year. Some depth, security and overall talent was sorely needed on the outside.

From the outset, Ross entered the NFL with a label of potentially being the NFL’s fastest player. Never mind the fact that Tyreek Hill had already proven himself to be just that the previous season. Ross was a draft darling who was going to give the Bengals one of the biggest one-two receiving punches in football. Hill was still seen as a potential gadget player, yet to make the move to elite wideout that would come over the next two years. And Ross was ready for the challenge.

Ross did break the 40-yard dash record at the NFL Combine with a head-shaking time of 4.22 seconds. During the previous year, Tyreek Hill had turned heads in the NFL with his electric top-end speed as well and was clocked as the fastest player in the league. It made sense to begin to compare both and wonder which player would come out on top. Two years later, the Bengals would likely settle for much lower speed if it meant much higher production.

Ross is well aware of the frustrations on the part of the front office and team. He’s frustrated, too. With a new head coach in Zac Taylor, Ross is hoping it brings a blank slate upon which he can “re-invent” his game and reputation. He recently told Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic:

"“I felt like, this is my third year, I get a chance to re-invent myself and re-create some of the old me,” Ross said. “I kind of wanted to basically start everything over. I get to put Ross III on the back of my jersey and get to change the number. Hopefully, just change the whole year.”"

As it turns out, speed will only carry a man so far. This past year, wide receiver D.J. Chark of the Jacksonville Jaguars was the fastest player clocked at the NFL Combine. HIs rookie season? Fourteen catches for 174 yards. While Chark could grow into an impact player (and Ross could certainly do the same), the early returns show that speed is just a part of a bigger picture needed for long-term success.

When the Chiefs moved Tyreek Hill to wideout, it was part of an overall plan to get him to strengthen his route tree, learn the overall offense, get better at tracking the ball and so on. Hill took right to the work and made the conversion to wideout look easy. But rather than look at Hill, we’d be better served to look at Ross or Chark or any other exciting young talents and seeing how they often fail to live up to the hype. That’s because no matter how fast you are, you still have to be well-rounded as a receiver.