Every team has trends and tendencies when it comes to the NFL draft. A recent one that’s been particularly noticeable throughout recent New Orleans Saints rookie classes has been the focus on athleticism. One metric which tracks that trait has become recently popularized and has been a pretty good indication of what the Saints look for in prospects: Relative Athletic Score (RAS).
RAS is a measurement of a player’s athletic testing in relation to both size and historic results. Each grade is based on a 0-10 point scale with 8 and above being considered “Great” or “Elite”. The Saints averaged a grade of 9.02, the fourth-highest in the NFL this season, so the traits they’re looking for are reflected well in RAS, even if they aren’t using this metric specifically. Enough factors line up to where we should be paying attention to who does well by in. With that in mind, here are the RAS grades from the Saints’ five-player draft class: