'He makes his own category': How Nyckoles Harbor's unique size, speed compares to NFL stars

Nyckoles Harbor is not the first high school football recruit to measure in at 6 feet 6 and 225 pounds. Nor is he the first recruit to run the 100-meter dash in 10.22 seconds.

But he might very well be the first to do both.

A five-star recruit from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington D.C., the 17-year-old Harbor has an exceedingly rare combination of size and speed – wrecking havoc as an edge rusher on defense, a wide receiver on offense and a sprinter on the school's track team. 

To get a better sense of just how unique Harbor is as a two-sport athlete, USA TODAY Sports compared him with four other star athletes – each of whom ran the 100- and 200-meter dash in high school, like Harbor, and played on the football team.

Three of those athletes – Tyreek Hill, Christian McCaffrey and Randy Moss – went on to excel in the NFL. The fourth, professional sprinter Erriyon Knighton, is an Olympian and world bronze medalist on the track.

How fast is Nyckoles Harbor?

Here is how the five athletes compared on the track, as illustrated by their high school personal bests in the 100 and 200. Harbor, it should be noted, still has one more track season ahead of him in 2023.

Of course, it's not just Harbor's speed that has Division I colleges clamoring to sign him to a national letter of intent this winter; It's also his size.

How big is Nyckoles Harbor?

Here is how Harbor's build compared to that of Hill, Knighton, McCaffrey and Moss during their high school years. 

"In high school, there’s no one (like him)," Harbor's longtime track coach Rafiu Bakare said. "You’d have to go back as far as Bo Jackson for that kind of size and fast twitch. And (Jackson) is still not as tall. So there’s no category you’re going to have that’s the same."

Archbishop Carroll's football coach Robert Harris, meanwhile, likened Harbor to NFL greats like Randy Moss, Derrick Brooks and Calvin Johnson.

Harbor, who won't turn 18 until the summer, has yet to commit to a college program and did not sign a national letter of intent when the early signing period opened Wednesday. Maryland, Michigan and South Carolina are among the top schools that have been vying for his signature.

SOURCES Track: Tyreek Hill, Oklahoma State bio; Nyckoles Harbor, Harbor/verified by Thomas Schad; Erriyon Knighton, World Athletics; Randy Moss, RunWV.com; Christian McCaffrey, LetsRun.com

Size/weight: Nyckoles Harbor, Archbishop Carroll official roster; Randy Moss, NFL.com; Erriyon Knighton, Rivals profile; Christian McCaffrey, Rivals profile; Tyreek Hill, 247 Sports profile