I stumbled over a very interesting 10 year study of Combine 40 times, in relation to the players draft position, and thought it might be of intrest. The study covers the period from the 1999 Combine through the 2008 Combine. In 2009 the Combine moved into the new Colts stadium, and the 40 times have been a little slower from then on. This study/article is slightly over 3 years old, so you probably can't access it any longer. I didn't copy the link at the time, but it was at nfldraftscout.com (now cbssports.com), it was written by Chad Reuter, and titled "'Dashing Hopes' - Value of 40 times often relative".

Here is the chart of 40 times, over a 10 year period, in relation to the position where they were drafted, for each players NFL position. The relationships are probably around the same, but I would guess the the 40 times over the last 3 years have increased by .05 to .10 of a second, if you want to compare the last 3 years times to the chart....after the jump...

(#) 1-20 21-50 51-80 81-120 121-160 161+ An Average Of All Players Drafted At That Position

QB - 4.77 4.77 4.86 - 4.79 - 4.86 - 4.86 - 4.81

RB - 4.45 4.48 4.54 - 4.60 - 4.64 - 4.64 - 4.59

TE - 4.38 4.72 4.70 - 4.76 - 4.81 - 4.81 - 4.77

WR - 4.45 4.44 4.48 - 4.49 - 4.52 - 4.52 - 4.49

OT - 5.21 5.18 5.18 - 5.28 - 5.34 - 5.34 - 5.27

G/C- 5.20 5.20 5.20 - 5.22 - 5.26 - 5.26 - 5.25

DE - 4.75 4.80 4.82 - 4.86 - 4.80 - 4.84 - 4.82

DT - 5.04 5.04 5.06 - 5.09 - 5.13 - 5.13 - 5.10

LB - 4.60 4.64 4.65 - 4.71 - 4.75 - 4.75 - 4.69

CB - 4.40 4.43 4.45 - 4.48 - 4.49 - 4.53 - 4.47

S - 4.41 4.51 4.52 - 4.53 - 4.58 - 4.58 - 4.54

1st Note - TE Vernon Davis (4.38-40) was the only TE drafted in the top 20 during this period.

2nd Note - The reason that top 20 WR's are .01 of a second slower than those WR's drafted between #21 to #50 is that during this period the top 20 WR's were 10 pounds heavier than the WR's drafted between #21 and #50.