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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Zach Kruse

How athletic is Packers’ 2022 draft class?

The Green Bay Packers targeted elite athletes early, made some concessions late but otherwise created one of the most athletic classes in the 2022 NFL draft.

Relative Athletic Score, the brilliant creation of Kent Lee Platte, provides an ideal way of looking at a prospect’s athleticism in relation to size. Every team wants bigger, fast, more explosive players. This metric packages everything together into one number on a 10-point sliding scale.

The Packers selected nine players with official scores. Another (Romeo Doubs) had enough testing numbers from a an individual pro day to create a RAS.

The average RAS for the Packers’ 10 picks was 8.18. The Packers picked six players with a RAS over 9.0, including five of the team’s first six picks. Rasheed Walker, a seventh-round pick, didn’t have a RAS because a knee injury prevented him from pre-draft testing.

Player Pick RAS
LB Quay Walker 1.22 9.63
DL Devonte Wyatt 1.28 9.60
WR Chrsitian Watson 2.34 9.96
OL Sean Rhyan 3.92 9.35
WR Romeo Doubs 4.132 8.28u
OL Zach Tom 4.140 9.92
OLB Kingsley Enagbare 5.179 6.26
S Tariq Carpenter 7.228 9.06
DL Jonathan Ford 7.234 3.53
OT Rasheed Walker 7.249 N/A
WR Samori Toure 7.258 6.15

Needless to say, this was another highly athletic draft class for the Packers. The team picked two players in the 96th percentile in the first round and then got two of the most athletic prospects at their respective positions (Christian Watson, Zach Tom) over the next two days.

Top pick Quay Walker combined incredible length with elite speed in the 40-yard dash and a tremendous finish in the three-cone drill for a player his size. Fellow first-round pick Devonte Wyatt had a 99th percentile finish in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard split and 10-yard split and a 93rd percentile finish in the three-cone drill at 304 pounds. Both first-round picks can really move.

Watson narrowly missed becoming the most athletic wide receiver ever. He finished in the 99th percentile for the broad jump and 10-yard split. He’s nothing if not explosive at 6-4.

Tom is an interesting prospect. His RAS is well above 9.0 whether he’s considered an offensive tackle, offensive guard or center. At center, he’d be the most athletic prospect ever (10.0). He likely profiles best at guard. The same goes for Sean Rhyan, who had a RAS under 9.0 (but above 8.0) as an offensive tackle, but he’s likely moving inside to guard, where he’ll be an elite size/athleticism prospect.

The Packers took Enagbare, a dominant player on film but who didn’t test well athletically, in the fifth round. They think he’s more athletic and plays faster than his numbers. Really poor agility numbers killed his score. We’ll see if his lack of explosiveness and quickness at edge rusher hurts his NFL career .

Carpenter is an excellent size/speed prospect, but he was countered one pick later by Jonathan Ford, the worst athlete in the class. Walker, an agile offensive tackle standing 6-6, likely would have tested well if not for an injury. He doesn’t factor into the Packers’ final average. Toure is on the smaller side and was hurt by a poor vertical and 10-yard split, but his athletic profile is otherwise strong.

RAS Cards for each prospect

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