Every NFL team is looking for a perfect fit, but not all of them get a perfect 10.
The NFL Scouting Combine is upon us. With that comes NFL scouts, analysts and draftniks evaluating prospects in great depth and going to great lengths to find the league's next superstar players. While drills and athletic testing are only part of the equation in selecting foundational players, they are a very big part.
Enter Relative Athletic Score, or RAS.
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RAS takes a prospect's combine performance and boils it down to a simple, comparative number. While it's not the be-all and end-all for NFL teams or the prospects who work out in Indianapolis, it's a helpful tool for evaluating players at large.
What RAS is, and how does it work? Here's what to know:
What is Relative Athletic Score?
Developed by Kent Lee Platte, Relative Athletic Score (RAS) is a metric that takes all of a player's NFL Combine measurables — height, weight, wingspan, hand size, athletics and drill results — and boils them down into one number, on a scale of 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest). The metric also takes position into account, to make sure that positions are judged against each other accordingly. Hence the "Relative" part of the name.
RAS is a useful tool for draftniks and analysts because that number can then be compared against historical values put up by combine attendees since 1987.
For example: 2022 No. 1 overall pick Travon Walker posted a 9.99 RAS, which is tied for second all time for his position and among NFL players.
Travon Walker update.
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 5, 2022
9.99 is Myles Garrett range. pic.twitter.com/hrKMeAwp5V
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Obviously, RAS isn't an indicator of who will or will not be a quality NFL player, because it relates strictly to a prospect's pure athletic traits and not their football savvy. Brian Johnston, who earned a perfect 10 RAS, was selected by the Chiefs in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played in just nine games with KC before he was waived.
On the other side, players with poor a poor RAS can turn out to be excellent players. Tom Brady posted a 1.49 all-time score, and he turned out to be pretty good.
Pro Bowler Tom Brady was drafted with pick 199 of round 6 in the 2000 draft class. He scored a 2.74 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 155 out of 212 QB from 1987 to 2000. https://t.co/hc1vSKKY39 #RAS pic.twitter.com/rDUJoEwDAB
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 22, 2022
Best, worst Relative Athletic Scores
A listing of 10 of the highest all-time RAS:
| Rank | Player | Position | Draft year | RAS | All-time score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ernie Conwell | FB | 1996 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 2 | Jarrod Cooper | SS | 2001 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 3 | Justin Fargas | RB | 2003 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 4 | Calvin Johnson | WR | 2007 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 5 | Brian Johnston | DE | 2008 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 6 | David Buehler | K | 2009 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 7 | Joe Webb | WR | 2010 | 9.99 | 10.00 |
| 8 | Cam Newton | QB | 2011 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| 9 | Brandon Brooks | OG | 2012 | 9.98 | 10.00 |
| 10 | Byron Jones | CB | 2015 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
And 10 of the worst all-time RAS ever recorded:
| Rank | Player | Position | Draft year | RAS | All-time score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanley Flanders | WR | 1995 | 0.03 | 0.01 |
| 2 | Niklas Kantonen | TE | 2020 | 0.00 | 0.01 |
| 3 | Cedric Nettles | SS | 2017 | 0.00 | 0.01 |
| 4 | Hunter Hughes | QB | 2018 | 0.00 | 0.01 |
| 5 | Johnny Jones | LB | 2018 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| 6 | Mitch Norman | OG | 2018 | 0.00 | 0.01 |
| 7 | Bentley Easley | DT | 2019 | 0.00 | 0.01 |
| 8 | Claudio Buccalletto | DE | 2020 | 0.00 | 0.01 |
| 9 | Igor Timotijevic | DT | 2020 | 0.02 | 0.01 |
| 10 | Stephane Fortes | WR | 2020 | 0.02 | 0.01 |