- Dec 4, 2016
- 6,063
- 6,875
A lot of scouts and coaches in the NFL swear by SPARQ results to determine if a player will succeed in the NFL.
SPARQ stands for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness. It's a scoring system that is designed to measure sport-specific athleticism.
Tennessee's Alvin Kamara had the highest SPARQ score of any RB at the combine scoring at the 79th percentile. Dalvin Cook was at the other end of the spectrum testing in the 9th percentile. Cook really struggled in the three-cone drill (7.27), 20-yard shuttle (4.53), vertical (30.5"), and broad jump (9'8"). However, he did run a solid 40 time of 4.49.
Those results seem to support the theory that if Cook can get around the edge or find a hole he is hard to catch, but he is not very agile and doesn't cut well.
No RB that has tested under the 10th percentile has ever been drafted in the first round. As a benchmark, Adrian Peterson's SPARQ score was 131.1 80.9%.
(The ranking takes into account the z-score)
1 Alvin Kamara Tennessee 131.4 79.2%
2 Aaron Jones UTEP 129.7 75.0%
3 Christopher Carson Oklahoma State 128.9 73.0%
4 Christian McCaffrey Stanford 128.1 70.7%
5 Marlon Mack South Florida 125.2 62.2%
6 Jeremy McNichols Boise State 124.9 61.4%
7 Joe Williams Utah 121.9 51.9%
8 Brian Hill Wyoming 121.8 51.7%
9 DeAngelo Henderson Coastal Carolina 120.6 47.9%
10 Stanley Williams Kentucky 120.0 45.8%
11 Dare Ogunbowale Wisconsin113.8 27.4%
12 Samaje Perine RB Oklahoma 112.8 24.6%
13 Elijah McGuire RB20 RB Louisiana-Lafayette 112.6 24.1%
14 Wayne Gallman Clemson 109.0 16.2%
15 Sam Rogers Virginia Tech 95.7 14.8%
16 Dalvin Cook Florida State 104.6 9.0%
17 Jamaal Williams RB31 RB BYU 103.8 7.9%
18 Freddie Stevenson RB29 FB Florida State 88.7 5.9%
19 Devine Redding RB25 RB Indiana 94.5 1.5%
http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/nfl/355188/fsu-rb-dalvin-cook-turns-in-abysmal-combine?rw=1
http://www.topendsports.com/testing/sparq-rating-system.htm
https://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings/
So are all the mock drafts wrong about Cook then and he won't get taken in first rd? I do think Kamara will do good as well in the league, was really impressed with him last year. Yeah everybody that's another rival player that I was impressed with and thought was a good college player and think it will translate to the NFL. Let them meltdown begin.