Josh Grizzard: Tez Johnson Combine Time A “Little Bit Irrelevant”
October 19th, 2025
Bucs offensive coordinator discusses Tez Johnson’s discovery and development.
Joe absolutely loves the combine. But what fans call the combine and the combine Joe experiences are night and day.
Trudging in the dead of winter to Indianapolis is not exactly a destination many dream of. For sportswriters, it is an unmatched week of access to NFL coaches, general managers, shot-callers, front office suits, college players, college coaches, agents both respected and shady, and maybe even an owner or two.
Roaming the hotel lobbies, bars, restaurants, coffee shops and the nooks and crannies of the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis is without equal.
Other than an interview with a head coach or general manager, this is not televised.
The combine most fans think of is the glorified indoor track meet on NFL Network. For Joe, this is generally less useful than a warm beer.
Joe is often in mid-air returning to Florida when the underwear Olympics begin, the TV show many refer to as the combine.
Joe doesn’t think how much weight a guy lifts or how fast he runs a 40 is any legitimate tell on his potential. In the famous words of Warren Sapp, “You don’t pump weights on the 50-yard line.”
And the 40? Pppfffttt. If that meant anything, each team would have an Olympic sprinter on its roster.
(Joe has heard from a few NFL folks a 40 time is sort of a tell for offensive linemen. Go figure.)
Here is a list of the best 40-times in combine history. Very few of these guys have made any sort of dent in the NFL.
However, there is a thing called “football speed.” It’s more of an eyeball test. And those with a savvy football eye in the NFL can tell when a guy is football fast as opposed to track fast.
Apparently, Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has such an eye.
On Friday, Grizzard talked about how rookie receiver Tez Johnson has made an impact. When Johnson was drafted in the seventh round, many Bucs fans scoffed at Johnson because of his perceived subpar 40-time (see above).
Grizzard paid no attention to Johnson’s 40.
“We loved the guy from the start,” Grizzard said. “When me and ‘B-Mac’ (Bucs wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon) went to [Indianapolis] together and met with him during the speed dating – I think the 18 minutes or whatever it might be – you could tell his personality then.
“We already knew he was a good player because we had watched the tape. Then to hear him talk about football and his love of football and the detail he gave on some of his routes there – which correlated to what we wanted to run here – we knew it would be a pretty good fit.”
Then, Grizzard said the tape evaluation of Johnson far outweighed him running in a straight line indoors in shorts in the dead of a Midwestern winter.
“To see him run the time at the combine is a little bit irrelevant,” Grizzard said. “Because when you put on the tape, he was running past guys at the top level of college football and making them miss.
“You always hope that’s the case when they get here and once he got here and you saw him do it on the field, and it shows up over and over.”
The secret to Johnson making an impact with a 5-1 team? Belief, Grizzard said.
“It was building the confidence, and now you can expand the route tree and do more things with him,” Grizzard said.
Johnson isn’t the only Bucs receiver who defied 40 times. Joe remembers former Bucs coach Dirk Koetter saying how Chris Godwin had deceptive speed. While he didn’t light up the stopwatch, he was always finding a way to get behind quicker players at Penn State.
That showed up for the Bucs when Godwin showed up in Tampa.
Always trust the tape. The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.
October 19th, 2025 at 10:21 am
“because we had watched the tape”
The tape is what I watch before the draft. The combine is just a TV show. If you have ever seen Brady’s combine forty you would have to wonder how he even got an invite. skiiny diude running in quicksand. It was actually funny and embarassing at the same time. All these dudes train nonstop from the end of the college season in all th drill they will do. With dudes who get them good at drills. Not football. Watch the tape. Check the injuries. Personality and Character counts. As Grizz said. The reason we did not draft an OLB? Character… and tape.
Go Bucs!
October 19th, 2025 at 10:34 am
Godwin ran a 4.43, I believe. Maybe its not the coveted 4.3 but its still really fast, and definitely fast enough to get behind 4.3 corners by employing good route running and leverage.
October 19th, 2025 at 10:58 am
Excellent post and article, Joe.
“Watching the tape” says it all.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:03 am
I think Tez is a fantastic find for the 7th round. I’m just not optimistic as to his longevity.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:06 am
I’m sure Grizz and B-Mac were also getting a fix on Tez’s personality and character. Still, when Tez blew by those 49er DBs and stretched his arms out to haul in a TD, I thought, wow, and this guy is a rookie? Hope he has a big game tomorrow night.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:12 am
If anyone was wondering, like I was, Tez ran a 4.51. Not slow at all.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:16 am
Mike Evans was never fast, and he’s lost speed with time. He’s still a monster deep threat. Meanwhile the annual 4.29 prodigies fall short in the production department year after year.
Tells you something.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:28 am
I think combine measurables are useful to verify what coaches see on film. Both Bucky and Tez ran in the low 4.5s, but their playing speed and quickness jump out on film and in-person. I wouldn’t dismiss the forty, but it is not enough by itself to base a draft decision. When I do my armchair assessment of players, I take into account their level of competition, the scheme they play in, their production, their character, and then their measurables.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:28 am
When Bob Hayes was a rocket at Dallas all NFL were looking for “That guy”. I was huge Dolphin fan and season tic holder. I went to the dinner party for new draft picks. They pick a speedster named Jimmy Hines. Several years later I ran into Shula and ask him what happened to Hines back then with 9.1 speed? He said he 10.4 hands! Love it! Gotta have the right speed.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:44 am
If not his 40 time maybe it was his size that scared teams off. No way he should have been there in the 7th round.
October 19th, 2025 at 11:59 am
At least #1 all time Xavier worthy has,a great name. Man with a new coach and the portal era my Xavier Musketeers basketball has,a completely new roster. I ran cross country there in college.
October 19th, 2025 at 12:03 pm
Hahahaha!
October 19th, 2025 at 12:13 pm
CHAD POWERS RAN A 5.49. GOOD ARM THOUGH
what did Gus Swayze run? oh thats right, he was a “fan”.
Did they time Trey Foge?
Curious
October 19th, 2025 at 12:38 pm
Tez & Bucky have that sudden quickness, that the Bucs have been lacking since Warrick D. sure AB had that but I don’t count him as a buc.🤙🏾
October 19th, 2025 at 1:36 pm
Tez clocked a 4.51 but had the fastest MPH of anyone there. Important numbers. But as far as tape… two words. Jaelon Darden. And he wasn’t NFL fast.
As for Bucky. He really isn’t fast at all. He’s got great vision, anticipation, instincts, and good quickness. But his speed… not great.
For the record… Baker ran 4.84
October 19th, 2025 at 3:14 pm
Tampa Tez aka Tez-Mania enthusiasm and energy sets him apart. His back story motivates him and knowing that he’s smaller gives him something to prove.
October 19th, 2025 at 3:47 pm
One of the best things Bucky does is bouncing off of tackles and hits. He hits the holes hard and then once the hits come he knows how to bounce off that with great balance. White goes slow into the holes trying to side step everyone. If he’d learn what Bucky does he’d be a lot better running back.
All those years of Al Davis trying to get track star receivers and it never worked for them. Big difference of speed in a game with pads then just being fast in the combine
October 19th, 2025 at 4:01 pm
When we drafted him and 90% of the dopes in the comments were calling him slow, I said go watch his tape and you see him run away guys picked in the 2nd and 3rd rounds who ran 4.4’s. Then I brought up his in game record speed which was above 22mph, I think the play I found at the time would have been the 5th fastest play in the NFL last year. Did any of that stop the morons in the comments claiming he was slow? Nope.
But the 40 time is important for some guys, if you have someone who looks slow or is borderline on tape, the 40 time can help you figure out if they’re an NFL talent or not. But that’s not Tez, his only issue was size, that’s why he dropped.
October 19th, 2025 at 5:05 pm
The Bucs had a WR who ran in the 4.3s and was one of the quickest guys for the first 10yds of his route. Joe loved how fast he was right off the line. Anybody missing Trey Palmer? I’d take Tez over Trey anytime.
October 19th, 2025 at 5:56 pm
He sandbagged the 40 because he wanted to play in Tampa with his brother Bucky.
October 19th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
Miller5252 Says:
All those years of Al Davis trying to get track star receivers and it never worked for them.
——–
Uh, he won 3 Super Bowls as owner.
October 19th, 2025 at 8:58 pm
lol Joe said less useful than a warm beer Thats funny
October 19th, 2025 at 10:15 pm
Tez and Bucky have something far more important than a 40 time, they have that quick, twitchy, side to side burst to make a move and explode in the opposite direction. The combine is a joke. It’s all about the tape.
No thing good for the combine are for coaches to sit and talk with the players.