The Cincinnati Bengals went out of their way to get much faster, stronger and more versatile over six picks in the 2022 NFL draft.
It almost sounds cliche, but the numbers overwhelmingly show the goals the team wanted to achieve, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
According to ESPN’s Next Gen Stats, the Bengals had the fifth-most athletic draft class of any team, scoring a 77. Philadelphia’s 88 was the highest.
More telling was the fact the Bengals finished ninth overall in athletism score outright via the measurables put into Kent Lee Platte’s “Relative Athletic Score.”. That accounts for height, weight and other drills and compares it to a database of prospects going back decades.
Here’s a look at the RAS scores for the draft class, with individual breakdowns below.
9. Bengals#RAS Average = 8.46
Highest RAS Jeffrey Gunter 9.75
Lowest RAS Cordell Volson 6.06 pic.twitter.com/8tvlWpGiZl— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 30, 2022