Truth About RAS Following Packers’ 2023 Draft

The Green Bay Packers put together an athletic 13-man draft class this weekend.

Author:
Bill Huber
Updated:
May 1, 2023 10:05 AM EDT
Original:
Apr 30, 2023

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – During the course of the three-day NFL Draft, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and his lieutenants in the scouting department used the word “athleticism” 16 times in describing the 13 players who were drafted.

“Yeah, as Sam Seale likes to say, ‘speed kills,’ back to his Raider days,” Gutekunst said of his longtime West Coast scout.

For fans who follow the draft with something more than casual interest, RAS is a magical, three-letter acronym. RAS stands for Relative Athletic Score. What is RAS? Each prospect is given a score from 0 to 10 based on how his height, weight, 40-yard time and other measurables compare to other players at his position.

All those numbers are combined into a single 0-to-10 score. A player who scores a perfect 10 is the best athlete at a position of all-time; a player who scores a 0 is the worst.

Packers draftniks believe Gutekunst focuses heavily on RAS – or whatever internal height-weight-athleticism tool he uses – in making draft decisions.

There’s no doubt Gutekunst focuses on athleticism. He wouldn’t be doing his job if that wasn’t a focal point, especially in today’s spread-the-field NFL in which offenses try to create mismatches and defenses need to respond in kind.

However, Gutekunst is hardly alone. After all, generally speaking, the best players on the field are the most athletic on the field. Thus, the 259 players who are drafted are going to test better than the vast number of players who go undrafted.

This year’s team-by-team RAS numbers show how Green Bay hardly is unique in its draft preferences.

RAS is illustrated by a color-coded system in which players who score 8.0 to 10.0 are green, players who score 5.0 to 7.99 are yellow and players who score worse than 5.0 are red.

Of the 11 players who took part in predraft testing, nine wound up in the green. That’s 81.8 percent – an overwhelming majority, to be sure, but only the 10th-highest rate in the league. The Indianapolis Colts went a perfect 12-for-12 and the Chicago Bears went 10-for-10.

RAS: Teams in the Green

Note: Players who skip too many tests, whether by choice or due to injury, do not have a RAS. This, the numbers in the individual categories sometimes do not add up to the total number of picks.

Overall, the Packers' 8.65 RAS in this draft class was 12th-highest. The median score was 8.31.

Colts (12 total draft picks): 12 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Bears (10): 10 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Eagles (7): 6 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Jets (7): 5 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Saints (7): 5 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Ravens (6): 5 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Broncos (5): 3 green, 0 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 100.0.

Commanders (7): 5 green, 1 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 85.7.

Steelers (7): 6 green, 1 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 85.7.

Packers (13): 9 green, 2 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 81.8.

Titans (6): 4 green, 1 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 80.0.

Rams (14): 9 green, 3 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 75.0.

Panthers (5): 3 green, 1 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 75.0.

Dolphins (4): 3 green, 1 yellow. Green percent: 75.0.

Bengals (8): 5 green, 2 gold, 0 red. Green percent: 71.4.

Chiefs (7): 5 green, 2 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 71.4.

Cardinals (9): 5 green, 1 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 71.4.

Browns (7): 4 green, 1 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 66.7.

Patriots (11): 5 green, 2 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 62.5.

Giants (7): 4 green, 2 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 57.1.

Lions (8): 4 green, 2 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 57.1.

Seahawks (9): 4 green, 3 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 50.0.

Buccaneers: (8): 4 green 3 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 50.0.

Chargers (7): 3 green, 2 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 50.0.

Falcons (6): 3 green, 2 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 50.0.

Cowboys (8): 3 green, 3 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 42.9.

Jaguars (14): 5 green, 5 yellow, 2 red. Green percent: 41.7.

Bills (6): 2 green, 3 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 40.0.

Raiders (9): 2 green, 4 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 28.6.

Texans (9): 1 green, 6 yellow, 0 red. Green percent: 14.3.

49ers (8): 2 green, 4 yellow, 2 red. Green percent: 25.0.

Vikings (6): 0 green, 4 yellow, 1 red. Green percent: 0.0.

This was Gutekunst’s sixth draft as general manager. This year’s 8.65 average made this his second-highest RAS class, behind only the 8.89 from his inaugural draft in 2018. In order: 8.65 in 2023, 7.98 in 2022, 7.34 in 2021, 7.87 in 2020, 8.48 in 2019 and a Gutekunst-high 8.89 in 2018.

“Yeah, athleticism, speed, quickness, a lot of it goes into it,” Gutekunst said, “but certainly I think the guys that we took on defense in this particular draft, they have that.”