Inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, a shaggy-haired four-year starter for Michigan State crouched and waited for the horn. Kirk Cousins was set to run his 40-yard dash for scouts and executives at the 2012 NFL Combine, an event filled with often meaningless measurements and overexposure.
Cousins lumbered along to finish at 4.93 seconds. He was more than a half-a-second behind the leader, a spring-loaded QB from Baylor named Robert Griffin III. Cousins beat out only two other quarterbacks, and narrowly — by .01 seconds — was ahead of the swiftest offensive lineman. And yet, this is the man who led the Washington Redskins in rushing Monday night.