Holmes drafted 2nd most athletic class in Lion’s history last year. Here are the “RAS Standouts at every position” according to this site. I’m willing to bet 2-3 guys from this list are drafted by Leos.
Here’s some other food for thought the site generates.
Hutch is THE most athletic DE in the draft. He’s not my fave but if he’s there book it, the Leos would draft him.
Bottom line is when Leos have to split hairs on who they choose, I’ll bet RAS factors in heavily and that could lead us to surprising selections (like Melifonwu last year, for instance). It’s worth considering.
In my early mock draft, not generated by these “sites”, my only player who did poorly was Bell and RAS is a better predictor for some positions with WR not being as solid. My 5th - 7th round picks did esp well, so well I think that 3 of the 4 will be gone. I had…
Jelani Woods…9.97
Isaiah Weston…9.99
Pierre Strong…9.34
Cole Kelley was my last pick and I can’t find a RAS score even though he was at the combine.
I think RAS scores for DE’s is esp accurate. In 2020, AJ was highly regarded until he scored a 4.09. He is a huge disappointment in Buffalo. But if you read this article…, “If Matt Patricia were in a football player lab and was tasked with putting together the perfect defensive lineman for his scheme, the output would be Iowa pass rusher A.J. Epenesa.”
There are plenty of times when a higher RAS score doesn’t mean more athletic. Size plays too big a role in the score and gives advantages to guys who are bigger. Take the following two RAS scores, for example:
Austin was faster in a straight line, far better in the agility drills, and jumped further in the broad. The only metric where Pierce was “more athletic” was in the vert, and that was very close. But Austin’s size really hurts his final RAS score, whereas Pierce’s is still in the green.
Hutch’s RAS is bolstered by his height (and his weight is average) whereas a guy like Nik Bonitto, who scored similarly to Hutch in the actual athletic testing, was penalized for his small size.
I like RAS as a metric, but it should only be a piece of the overall puzzle, and frankly a pretty small one IMO. Tape, tape, tape, that’s the main thing.
I think Weston scored higher because he did the bench, which most WR’s don’t, and put up 20. To your point yes his height moved the needle as well. I do believe that RAS is a great metric for your relative unknowns as far as raising awareness for them.
For us, I agree. A great RAS can send us back to the tape… or in many cases, to the tape for the first time. But I’m pretty sure most NFL teams have already watched these unknown guys on tape before their testing. They’re only unknown to us. Which stands to reason since it’s not our jobs to know them.
I typically really only look at players who I think we should be looking at, I spent zero time looking at OT’s although I was pretty aware of Trevor Penning because I’m a Northern Iowa graduate and had seen him play. It’s funny though that all these mock drafts had major movement for guys that scored well, like Jelani Woods, who shouldn’t have been a surprise considering the season he had.
So Diggs just got a 4 year $96 million extension. His RAS score was 5.65. I think it’s safe to say that RAS means almost nothing when it comes to wide receivers.
