Unlike most of Ohio State’s other draft prospects, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins will run the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.
While none of Ohio State’s defensive linemen and linebackers ran the 40 during the first day of workouts on Thursday and defensive backs Jordan Hancock and Lathan Ransom indicated Thursday that they would also wait to run the 40 until pro day, Ohio State’s pair of running backs in Indianapolis will both put their speed to the test on Saturday.
Many of Ohio State’s other draft prospects felt they needed more time to train and for their bodies to heal because the Buckeyes played a 16-game season that ended on Jan. 20 with Ohio State’s national championship game win. Judkins and Henderson, however, said they both feel ready to run now because of the training they’ve done over the past month.
“I just felt with the training that I had and the people I trained with, they prepared me the best, so why not?” Judkins said Friday.
Henderson said he took only “a couple days off” after the national championship game before starting his training for the combine. Henderson trained at House of Athlete, a facility in Tampa, Florida, led by former NFL wide receiver Yo Murphy, and felt they did a great job of getting him ready to put his best foot forward this weekend.
“They did a good job, man, of just bringing us in and the way they went about training us, man, they did a really good job,” Henderson said.
Henderson said he will also test in the broad and vertical jumps on Saturday while Judkins said he plans to do everything.
They’ll be the second and third Buckeyes to run the 40 at the combine after Denzel Burke, who ran the 40 on Friday, clocking an unofficial time of 4.48 seconds on both of his attempts.
Denzel Burke 4.48 unofficial 40 pic.twitter.com/ira2Mf9aGA
— Billy M (@BillyM_91) February 28, 2025
Neither Henderson nor Judkins wanted to predict how fast they’ll run Saturday, but Henderson is a strong candidate to be one of the combine’s fastest running backs with the home-run speed he showed throughout his four years at Ohio State. He said Friday that he believes his breakaway speed is the best part of his game.
Judkins’ speed is more of a question mark entering the combine, but he expects to answer those questions on Saturday.
“Most definitely,” Judkins replied when asked if he wanted to make a point about his speed on Saturday.
With less time to train for combine-specific drills than prospects from just about every other school except Notre Dame, it wouldn’t have come as a surprise if Henderson and/or Judkins chose to wait until Ohio State’s March 26 pro day to run their 40s. But there’s a couple of reasons why they may have been better prepared than their fellow Buckeyes to feel like they could run their fastest at the combine.
For one, running 40 yards at full speed is nothing new for either of them given the position they play. Secondly, they played fewer snaps last season than all of Ohio State’s other combine invitees (except Josh Simmons, who suffered a season-ending injury) because they split reps with one another, keeping both of them fresh through the Buckeyes’ 16-game season.
Judkins and Henderson still each ran for more than 1,000 yards – 1,060 yards on 194 carries for Judkins and 1,016 yards on 144 attempts for Henderson – so they feel as though the timeshare between them this season worked out just the way it was supposed to as they helped lead Ohio State to a national title.
“I think with the outcome like that, it’s a perfect situation,” Judkins said. “Obviously, you don't think about that as a player, the particular workload, that's the thing that you can't control, but it worked out in both of our favors.”
Like fellow former Ohio State teammates Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau and Will Howard and Emeka Egbuka, Henderson and Judkins are roommates in Indianapolis, allowing them to spend one more week together before they likely head to separate teams in the NFL. But they’ll both be rooting for each other’s success at the next level regardless of where they end up.
“Just being able to share the load with Quinshon, it kept both of us fresh. That one-two punch, man, it was special,” Henderson said. “So I was just thankful to have the opportunity to play alongside of him. He's a great player and just the person who he is off the field, he's a funny guy. He's a funny guy to be around.”
