Buccaneers Lead NFL In Head Turning 2026 Draft Statistic

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers walked away from the 2026 NFL Draft with a strong class, adding a few potential starters and depth pieces for the future. That class also comes with a notable theme, and it could be an indicator for its future success.

The Buccaneers were able to land edge rushing Miami phenom Rueben Bain at pick No. 15 after he unexpectedly fell, and the Buccaneers are extremely happy with that outcome — but the class doesn't end there. Tampa Bay also got a potential starting MIKE linebacker in Missouri's Josiah Trotter, an X wide receiver archetype in Georgia State's Ted Hurst and a potential starting nickel corner in Miami's Keionte Scott. The Bucs also drafted a highly athletic depth DT in Clemson's DeMonte Capehart, some stout depth at guard in Notre Dame's Billy Schrauth and a potential producer at tight end in LSU's Bauer Sharp.

These are all players the Buccaneers liked, and there's one good reason why — Tampa Bay's draft class might be the most athletic in the league.

Bucs' 2026 draft class has highest RAS average of any team

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht stands on the sidelines during the first quarter against the New Orleans Saints | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Relative Athletic Score, or RAS, is a popular method to measure just how athletic a football player is among his peers. It takes 10 NFL Combine scores and averages them out among everyone measured with those scores since 1987, and then scores that are averaged on a scale from one to 10 — naturally, individual and overall scores that approach 10 are excellent athletic outliers, while scores that approach the opposite end of the spectrum are poor. Not all high-RAS players are elite players, but most elite players have very high RAS scores.

The Buccaneers, either intentionally or unintentionally, focused their draft on players with high RAS scores. Per RAS itself, the Buccaneers ranked No. 1 among all 32 teams in RAS average, with its four eligible players averaging out at a 9.68 RAS score.

The Buccaneers ranked 1 of 32 for Average #RAS of their 2026 draft class with a 9.68 average for their 4 players who had a score. pic.twitter.com/c6BvRaYxbC
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) April 26, 2026

Bain, Trotter and Schrauth did not have scores, but Hurst (9.90), Scott (9.71), Capehart (9.96) and Sharp (9.16) all graded out very well.

The Buccaneers are going for highly athletic players and wanted to get bigger this offseason, and this draft class certainly accomplishes that. Players like Hurst and Capehart have excellent outlier size for their position, and even players without enough data for a score, like Trotter, are very large for their size. On top of that, they're elite athletes, so with development, this class could turn out to be a big hit for general manager Jason Licht.

Tampa Bay's newest draft class will get its first football action soon when rookie minicamp kicks off at One Buc Place on May 8.

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