Pop quiz: What was the Relative Athletic Score for Puka Nacua, the Rams receiver who in 2023 broke the NFL’s records for most receiving yards and receptions by a rookie?

Answer: 5.17. Now, hold that thought. 

It’s that time of year again, when the Packers and 31 other teams hope to find their perfect match by measuring every inch of 320 young men, down to the fat content of their ear lobes. Also by talking to them for a few minutes. Ever wonder why the NFL Combine is called a Combine? Because it’s speed dating and getting a physical rolled into one. 

Inevitably, some random guy will run two-fifths of a second faster than expected and suddenly be a round higher on all the draft boards, as pundits, fans, media and podcasters fall in love faster than Taylor and Travis. Meanwhile, another guy’s left pinky will measure three-sixteenths of an inch shorter than the average for his position, and he’ll be zapped from half the teams’ boards altogether. 

I’m an analytics proponent, and measurables are important as a baseline of information on a prospect. But they should not be the overriding factor when deciding to draft or eliminate a player, yet many teams, often including the Packers, have thresholds that do exactly that.

This is not the fault of the RAS, a useful metric that blends basic height/weight/speed numbers with various agility measurements to give an empirical snapshot of a prospect’s athleticism. The problem is how RAS is used.  

Take Mr. Nacua, who had a dreadful Combine last year, posting a 4.57 40-yard dash, good for 34th among receivers tested and more in line with edge rushers and linebackers. Top wideouts typically have RAS scores in the high eights and nines. And it’s not like the Rams unearthed him at some Division 12 school like the Akron College of Dentistry (I believe they are the Fighting Root Canals), where no one else was looking. Nacua played his college ball at BYU and the University of Washington before the Rams plucked him in the 5th round. I doubt any other team would have touched him. 

Obviously not all players with low RAS scores succeed in the NFL, if they are lucky enough to get drafted or signed at all. Athleticism is important in football; you can’t teach speed and all that, which is why most good NFL players have good RAS scores. But what makes football special is that it requires more than these numbers to be a difference-maker. And that ‘more’ usually involves intangibles, which is why they can’t be quantified despite the nerds’ best efforts. Tom Brady’s RAS was 2.74, the lowest score for a great player ever. Davante Adams was 6.53.

What separates players like Brady, Mark Andrews and a host of other top players with middling RAS scores is the old “being good at football” thing. It involves some physical techniques (how a receiver catches the ball, or rushes the passer, for example), attitude and leadership qualities, and elements of instinct and football IQ that enable a level of anticipation that put players a step ahead of the opposition. Teams often convince themselves that these are traits that can be coached up, which is why raw but excellent athletes will get drafted ahead of players that are good athletes and better at football. It doesn’t always work. 

Thankfully, under GM Brian Gutekunst the Packers are showing signs of loosening up on the RAS rigidity that, with rare exception, marked Ted Thompson’s regime. And guess what happened? The best draft pick on offense this past season, Jayden Reed, had an RAS of 6.74. Karl Brooks, arguably the best pick on D so far, had an RAS of 5.87. 

It’s interesting that the position we hear about the least when it comes to RAS is quarterback, the most important position in the game. But it makes sense RAS should be less important for positions that require the highest levels of football IQ. I would argue, however, that football is evolving in ways that make being good at football increasingly important at every position. All of these players are generally top athletes. It’s the mental aspect that is increasing critical, and those are things you see on game tape, and learn about in in-depth interviews.  Not so much in Indianapolis. Yet what comes out of the Combine tends to dominate the news and remain a top focus of the draft industrial complex right up to the draft. 

My advice: Ignore the herd mentality, the hype and the canceling that will result from this week’s festivities. Instead, if you really want to get a feel for athleticism in football, watch this instead:

I'll be off in March. See you all in a month.