For a cornerback who had as impressive of a season as D’Angelo Ponds had in 2025, one would expect a player with his overall profile to be a first round lock in the 2026 NFL Draft. That isn’t the case, though, simply because he measures in at slightly under 5-foot-9 and weighs 182 pounds. For NFL coaches, it’s a suboptimal height for a boundary cornerback.
Generally, cornerbacks his size are pushed to the slot to deal with slower, smaller wideouts. Ponds excelled at outside cornerback with Indiana, though, earning First-Team All-American honors while leading the Hoosiers defense to a National Championship title. That’s where he’s played his best ball, but the NFL largely projects him as a slot corner. Slot corners don’t normally go in the first round, but that notion may be changing after Indiana had its Pro Day this week.
D’Angelo Ponds runs 4.31 – possibly 4.25 – forty yard dash at Indiana Pro Day
While Fernando Mendoza couldn’t miss a throw in a picture-perfect throwing session, Ponds was doing his own thing, running an unofficial 4.31 forty yard dash that solidifies his status as a stellar athlete. A journalist who was at the Pro Day even hand-timed Ponds as low as 4.25, while another had him at 4.26.
Generally, Pro Day forty yard dashes are about .05 seconds faster than at the combine, so 4.31 seems like the true number. It’s a fantastic time for a player who needs elite athletic testing in order to build a first round case.
Ponds can now add that stellar 40 time to a 43.5-inch vertical jump, which he did at the combine. That vertical number ranked second in the entire combine field among all positions. Ponds’ height might be an issue for some teams, but he’s done everything perfectly in the pre-draft process, and his on-field play speaks for itself. Now, the first round is a very real possibility.
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