Football Outsiders tries to use statistics to find the truth about players.  This is their study of players measurables in terms of sack productivity as a projection of the next five years. They call it SackSEER and it does a good job of sorting out pretenders. Predicting success is more elusive because motivation plays a big role. SackSEER can tell you probability.

The SackSEER says there are four dimensions of predicting NFL quality sack artists; Vertical Leap, the Short Shuttle, Sacks per Game in College, and Missed Games in College. 

The vertical leap measures leg explosiveness, the Short Shuttle measures change of direction and ability to stay on your feet, the other two are past productivity numbers.

Let me focus for a bit on the Short Shuttle. Here is the explaination in their own words:

The short shuttle run measures change of direction speed, burst, and hip flexibility. DeMarcus Ware had a jaw-dropping 4.07 second short shuttle, and Jevon Kearse ran the short shuttle twice with an average time of 4.12 seconds. No elite edge rusher has emerged from any round of the NFL Draft since at least 1999 with a short shuttle slower than 4.42 seconds.

Lets look at a few candidates in the draft and see their combine numbers and prediction of the future:

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