Green Bay Packers: Brian Gutekunst, RAS & the Draft
By Paul Bretl
The NFL Combine and Pro Days are important pieces of the pre-draft process for the Green Bay Packers and every other NFL team. It’s a way for scouts, draft analysts, and evaluators to confirm if what they’ve seen from a prospect on tape from an athletic standpoint matches his testing numbers or if they need to go back and rewatch.
A helpful tool for us to put all of those measurements and testing numbers into context when making comparisons is the Relative Athletic Scoring table, also known as RAS.
RAS was developed by Kent Lee Platte as a tool to help compare the athleticism of athletes within their own position groups. Below is how Kent describes RAS in his own words:
"“For the past half decade, I have been working to provide a metric that can easily and intuitively gauge a player’s athletic abilities relative to the position they play and provide tools to contrast and compare based on known measurables.To qualify, a player must have a total of six recorded metrics from any of the following: Height, Weight, Forty yard dash, Twenty yard split, Ten yard split, Bench Press, Vertical Jump, Broad Jump, Short Shuttle, 3-Cone.“"
The RAS scale ranges from 0-10 with 10 being the best and five being average. And because it’s meant to compare players within their respective position groups, both a cornerback and a guard could have the same RAS score even though their testing numbers are quite different.
To put it simply, RAS gives us an easy way to compare guard A with guard B from an athleticism standpoint, even though their testing numbers may vary in each category.
When it comes to the Green Bay Packers, I can’t say whether or not GM Brian Gutekunst is familiar with RAS—my guess is that he isn’t, but one trend that has developed over Gutey’s first three drafts is that he loves selecting elite athletes.
So with many Pro-Days underway, Kent has been busy calculating RAS scores daily, and as we look at mock drafts created by analysts or ones that we’ve created on our own, these are important numbers to know when trying to get an idea of who the Green Bay Packers might be interested in.
Since Gutey’s first draft in 2018, he has selected 25 players who have scored on the RAS table. And of those 25, 22 of them scored at least 8.0, which by Kent’s metrics is considered a “great” athlete.
To take that one step further, of the 22 who scored above 8.0, 13 of them are considered “elite” with scores above 9.0. And only two of Gutey’s picks — IOLs Cole Madison and Jake Hanson — have scored below average.
Here is a look at each pick under Gutekunst and their respective RAS score.
2018 Draft Class
Jaire Alexander: 9.54
Josh Jackson: 9.27
Oren Burks: 9.73
J’Mon Moore: 8.40
JK Scott: 8.01
Marquez Valdez-Scantling: 9.30
Cole Madison: 4.58
Equanimeous St. Brown: 9.80
Kendall Donnerson: 9.89
Hunter Bradley: 9.03
James Looney: 9.75
2019 Draft Class
Rashan Gary: 9.95
Darnell Savage: 8.36
Elgton Jenkins: 9.34
Jace Sternberger: 5.20
Kingsley Keke: 8.00
Dexter Williams: 8.15
Ka’dar Hollman: 9.22
Ty Summers: 9.71
2020 Draft Class
Jordan Love: 8.45
AJ Dillon: 9.16
Josiah Deguara: 8.52
Kamal Martin: N/A
Jake Hanson: 3.75
Jon Runyan Jr: 8.49
Simon Stepaniak: N/A
Vernon Scott: N/A
Jon Garvin: 8.98
When it comes to evaluating talent, RAS scores are far from the be-all-end-all. It is not predicative of NFL success by any means, but instead, it is one tool in your prospect evaluation tool belt.
With that said, especially for Green Bay Packers fans, it’s an important tool to know of because of Gutey’s tendency to select elite athletes in the draft.
So the next time you’re evaluating a prospect or looking at a mock draft with a player who didn’t test particularly well at their Pro-Day, then perhaps that’s someone who isn’t on or at least not very high on Green Bay’s board. As I said, RAS isn’t nearly everything, but with the Packers, it’s something.