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Who's the Fastest Player in the NFL For the 2024 Season?
These are the football players that feel the need, the need for speed.
The NFL is a league full of amazing athletes, all of whom have skills well above and beyond the athletic abilities of most of us watching from our couches. That means that, on a purely human scale, even offensive linemen in the NFL are fast, which means that wide receivers and running backs are really fast.
But who's the fastest of them all? On the scale of NFL speedsters, who are the guys who make a slot receiver look like a defensive tackle? Before the 2024 season kicks off September 5 with a special Thursday night edition of Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock, let's take a closer look at the football stars pushing the needle on the speedometer.
Speed in the NFL
Football's not a sport where anyone just gets to run unimpeded. It's not track and field, which means even the fastest players have to contend with defenders standing in their way, pesky angles of attack on the field, and of course, carrying a ball while running with pads and helmets strapped to their bodies. So, how do you figure out who's the fastest?
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Well, the NFL doesn't exactly regularly line their players up for a foot race. Every player entering the league is timed on a 40-yard-dash at the annual Scouting Combine, but beyond that we don't really get official speed numbers for every guy in every season. Thankfully, we've got the NFL's Next Gen Stats team, who are able to measure the top speeds of ball carriers with various pieces of state-of-the-art technology. That means that, while we may not get NFL speedsters racing side-by-side, we can find out who ran the fastest on any given week within any given play. It's not necessarily a perfect system, but it does tell us which players hit the highest top speeds while running on an NFL field.
With all that in mind, let's get to the stats.
Who's the fastest player in the National Football League?
DK Metcalf looks to hold the record as fastest active player in the NFL.
As you may have already guessed if you watch enough football, the current reigning speed champion after the 2023 NFL season is Seattle Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf, who recorded a speed of 22.23 miles per hour during a 73-yard play in Week 13. Close behind him was Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown, who hit 22.05 miles per hour during a Week 14 play, and Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill, who hit 22.01 in Week 5.
So, who rounds out the Top 5 going into the 2024 season, based on last season? With the fourth fastest time of the year, we've got Hill's teammate, Dolphins running back Devon Achane, who hit 21.93 mph during Week 3. Then there's Cowboys return man and wide receiver Kavontae Turpin, who hit 21.91 mph in the space of just 22 yards back in Week 14 of the season.
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But top speed is just one thing. Consistent speed is another, and when you look at Next Gen Stats' full Top 20 list of the fastest plays of the 2023 season, a couple of names keep coming up again and again. Hill made the list four times, which accounts for one-fifth of the 20 fastest plays in the season, coming in at third, seventh, ninth, and 17th. Achane, in addition to taking the fourth best speed of the year, also landed the sixth and 19th. Oh, and just in case you think Big Men can't run, we've got Derrick Henry, formerly of the Tennessee Titans and currently of the Baltimore Ravens, who stands 6'2" and weighs in at just under 250 pounds. He's long been considered one of the best power runners in the NFL, but he's also one of the fastest. He recorded the eighth fastest speed in the league last year, hitting 21.68 miles per hour during a 69-yard run in Week 18.
To see the full list, head over to the Next Gen Stats site.
Who are the fastest NFL Rookies?
As the 2024 season dawns, it brings with it a new generation of speedsters, with rookies hitting the field for the first time to show off their stuff. Obviously we don't have top speeds in big games for these guys yet, but we do have their 40-yard dash times as recorded during the Scouting Combine. So, based on that metric, who's the fastest?
That honor goes to newly minted Kansas City Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy, who logged a 40 time of 4.21 seconds, a new Scouting Combine record by just one one-hundredth of a second. Close behind him were new Ravens Cornerback Nate Wiggins (4.28 seconds), new 49ers running back Isaac Guerendo (4.33 seconds), Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell (4.33 seconds), and Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (4.33 seconds). Now, it's important to note that these guys were running without pads, and without tacklers trying to bring them down, but it's still a very reliable metric for overall speed, and it gives us an idea of which rookies will outrun the competition.
For the full list of 2024's fastest Combine times, check out the NFL's site.
Sunday Night Football returns to kickoff the 2024 regular season for a special Thursday night edition, with the Chiefs taking on the Ravens September 5 on NBC, and streaming simultaneously on Peacock.
