Breaking down the Packers’ 2020 NFL Draft class by athletic measures

The Green Bay Packers are consistently looking for elite athleticism in their rookie prospects. This has been the case for decades, and continues to be a priority now under general manager Brian Gutekunst. The 2020 NFL Draft class was no different, as the Packers

To look at the overall athleticism of the Packers’ 2020 additions, we will look at the two widely-used tools that break a player’s testing down into a single number: Relative Athletic Score, or RAS, and Sparq score. RAS comes from Kent Lee Platte from our cousin site Pride of Detroit, aka @MathBomb, who has constructed a massive database of athletic testing numbers. Sparq, meanwhile, attempts to do roughly the same thing, with Rotoworld’s Adjusted SPARQ attempting to quantify specific measurements relative to a player’s success at a certain position.

Keep in mind that the RAS measurement is out of a maximum of 10, while Sparq has a maximum of 1, but both correspond to the percentile that a player’s overall athletic testing results put him at among players at the same position. Note that both systems will still provide a value even if a player did not complete every athletic drill. Also, RAS takes into account Pro Day measurements where available, while the Sparq database only took Combine measurements.

In total, five of the Packers’ nine draft picks had RAS values of 8 or above (depending on your positional definition of a certain third-round pick), meaning that each of those players’ overall athletic testing profile was better than at least 80 percent of other draft prospects at the listed position. Sparq ratings, including adjusted Sparq, were less favorable, meanwhile. But with the numbers we have, only one Packers 2020 draft pick rated out as a below-average athlete relative to his peers at his position.

The Packers continue to place a consistent emphasis on overall athleticism, much more so than any other team in the NFC North. Here’s a look at the draft class and the few undrafted free agents for whom scores are available.

Drafted Players

1.26: Jordan Love, QB, Utah State

RAS: 8.45
Sparq: not available

2.62: AJ Dillon, RB, Boston College

RAS: 9.16
Sparq: 0.97 overall and position-adjusted

3.94: Josiah Deguara, TE, Cincinnati

RAS: 8.52 at FB, 6.67 at TE
Sparq: 0.58 overall, 0.20 position-adjusted

5.175: Kamal Martin, ILB, Minnesota

No athletic testing data

6.192: Jon Runyan Jr., IOL, Michigan

RAS: 8.49 at OT, 9.44 at OG
Sparq: 0.57 overall, 0.72 position-adjusted

6.208: Jake Hanson, IOL, Oregon

RAS: 3.74 at C
Sparq: No overall rating, 0.05 position-adjusted

6.209: Simon Stepaniak, IOL, Indiana

No athletic testing data

7.236: Vernon Scott, S, TCU

No athletic testing data

7.242: Jonathan Garvin, EDGE, Miami

RAS: 8.98 at DE
Sparq: 0.61 overall, 0.66 position-adjusted

Undrafted Free Agents

Only three members of the Packers’ undrafted free agent class had reliable and complete testing information. EDGE Tipa Galeai attended the Combine, but was not allowed to perform athletically due to his past history of personal issues. Cornerback Stanford Samuels also attended, but only ran the 40-yard dash, which is not enough information for either score. Finally, wideout Darrell Stewart attended but did not run the 40 or any agility drills, so he does not qualify either.

Marc-Antoine Dequoy, CB, Montreal

RAS: 9.76 at S

Patrick Taylor, RB, Memphis

RAS: 7.14
Sparq: 0.48 overall, 0.53 position-adjusted

Will Sunderland, CB, Troy

RAS: 4.74