Twelve minutes. That is all the time a draft prospect used to get to prove they weren't just a physical freak, but a "cerebral" one too.
You've probably heard the legends. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Harvard guy, supposedly finished the test in nine minutes and missed only one or two questions. Then you have the other side of the coin: guys like Frank Gore, who put up a score of 6 and then spent the next 16 years making future Hall of Fame defenders look like they were running in sand.
Honestly, nfl wonderlic test results became a sort of obsessed-over mythology for fans and scouts alike. It was the "math and logic" boogeyman of the NFL Combine. But here's the kicker—as of 2022, the NFL officially stopped administering the Wonderlic at the Combine.
It's over. The test that Tom Landry brought to the league in the '70s is essentially a relic now. Why? Because the league realized that being able to solve a "if Johnny has three apples" word problem doesn't actually tell you if a quarterback can see a safety creeping up in his peripheral vision.
The Wild Reality of NFL Wonderlic Test Results
The Wonderlic is a 50-question, 12-minute sprint. If you do the math, that's roughly 14 seconds per question. It measures "general cognitive ability." It's heavy on logic, basic math, and vocabulary.
A score of 20 is considered average—the equivalent of a 100 IQ. For years, the magic number for quarterbacks was 24. If you scored below that, people started whispering about your "process." If you scored above 30, you were a genius.
The Hall of Fame Brains (And the 50 Club)
Only one player has ever recorded a verified perfect 50: Pat McInally. He was a punter and wide receiver out of Harvard in 1975. Think about that for a second. In the decades of thousands of elite athletes taking this test, only a punter from the Ivy League aced it.
Other high-flyers include:
👉 See also: LeBron James Without Beard: Why the King Rarely Goes Clean Shaven Anymore
- Ryan Fitzpatrick (QB): 48.
- Benjamin Watson (TE): 48.
- Mike Mamula (DE): 49.
- Matt Birk (C): 46.
Notice a trend? Centers and offensive linemen usually score the highest as a group. They’re the ones who have to memorize 200-page playbooks and identify blitz packages in a heartbeat.
Does a Low Score Actually Matter?
Let's talk about Frank Gore. He scored a 6. That's... well, it's low. But Gore also has severe dyslexia, a factor the Wonderlic rarely accounted for in a meaningful way. Did it stop him? He finished his career with exactly 16,000 rushing yards, third all-time.
Vince Young also famously scored a 6 (though he reportedly improved it to 16 on a second try). Lamar Jackson reportedly scored a 13. Dan Marino, arguably the greatest pure passer ever, scored a 15.
Basically, the connection between nfl wonderlic test results and on-field success has always been murky at best. A study published in The Sport Journal found no statistically significant correlation between Wonderlic scores and a quarterback’s passer rating or career longevity.
Why the S2 Cognition Test Replaced the Wonderlic
If you're wondering what scouts are looking at now, it's the S2 Cognition test.
The Wonderlic was a paper-and-pencil (or basic computer) test about school subjects. The S2 is a "gaming" test taken on a specialized laptop. It doesn't care if you know what "taciturn" means. It cares how fast your brain can track six moving objects at once.
It measures things like:
✨ Don't miss: When is Georgia's next game: The 2026 Bulldog schedule and what to expect
- Perception Speed: How fast do you see the game?
- Impulse Control: Do you throw the ball into double coverage just because you're panicked?
- Trajectory Estimation: Can you tell where that ball is going to land before it gets there?
When Bryce Young went #1 overall, the buzz wasn't about his Wonderlic. It was about his S2 score, which was reportedly a 98%. Brock Purdy, the "Mr. Irrelevant" who took the Niners to a Super Bowl, also had an elite S2 score (reportedly in the mid-90s).
The league has moved from "Is this guy smart?" to "How fast does his processor run?"
The Position-by-Position Breakdown (The Old Averages)
Even though the test is phased out, the historical data is fascinating. It gives you a glimpse into what NFL front offices thought mattered for forty years.
- Offensive Tackles: Averaged around 26.
- Quarterbacks: Averaged 24-26.
- Centers: Averaged 25.
- Fullbacks: 19.
- Wide Receivers: 17-20.
- Running Backs: 16-17.
There was always this weird bias that "fast" positions didn't need high scores, while "stationary" or "decision-making" positions did. But then you’d have a guy like Calvin Johnson, a physical beast, who also scored a 41. He was just better than everyone at everything.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Test
The biggest misconception is that the Wonderlic is a "football IQ" test. It’s not. It’s a "school IQ" test.
If you give a player a playbook, they might be a genius at recognizing a "Cover 2" shell. But if you ask them to solve a geometry problem about the area of a circle under a 12-minute time limit, they might freeze.
Teams eventually realized they were punishing players for having poor testing environments in high school or undiagnosed learning disabilities, rather than their actual ability to play Sunday at 1:00 PM.
🔗 Read more: Vince Carter Meme I Got One More: The Story Behind the Internet's Favorite Comeback
The Future of Mental Metrics in the NFL
We are currently in the era of "Neuro-scouting."
Teams are now using VR headsets to see how a quarterback's eyes move during a play. They're using GPS data to measure how quickly a linebacker reacts to a ball carrier's first step.
The nfl wonderlic test results are now mostly just trivia. They are a fun way to compare Ryan Fitzpatrick to a Rhodes Scholar, but they aren't the reason a GM loses his job anymore.
If you're a prospect today, you aren't practicing your vocabulary. You're practicing your reaction time. You're training your brain to filter out the noise of 80,000 screaming fans to find the open man.
Actionable Next Steps for Fans and Evaluators
If you're still tracking how smart your team's new draft pick is, look for these three things instead of old Wonderlic scores:
- S2 Cognition Percentiles: Many of these now "leak" during draft season. Look for scores above the 80th percentile for QBs.
- Interviews and "Whiteboard Work": Listen to coach feedback on how a player handles the whiteboard. This is where they draw up plays and explain "why" they made a certain read. It's much more indicative of football IQ.
- College Academic Awards: While not a perfect proxy, Academic All-American status often correlates with the discipline needed to master complex NFL schemes.
The era of the 12-minute pencil test is dead, but the quest to measure the "six inches between the ears" has never been more intense.