RAS?

[CJD]

(04-01-2023, 01:19 PM)Stewy Wrote: You're approach is logical but I think missing a piece.  A good scout simply wouldn't use it as a separator and a check box, but the first prompt to ask "WHY? and WHAT?" are the discrepancies between two players with the same production but vastly different scores / OR two with similar scores but vastly different production.  A scout who can answer those questions is earning their paycheck.

Fans can use it as a check box.....scout need to look deeper.

That's a good point. I guess I'm speaking mostly from a fan's point of view haha. The RAS can be very important for evaluating what a player can do at the next level (especially relative to what they did in college), but I think we all agree it has to be tied with actual production on the field.

The biggest example that comes to mind for me is our 3rd round pick in 2015, Paul Dawson. He was an absolute star in college football, racking up 30 TFLs, 6.5 sacks, 5 interceptions, 8 passes defensed, and 227 tackles in his Junior and Senior seasons. He was being touted as a 1st or 2nd round player based on his game tape. But then the combine happened, where he posted a 1.29 RAS with depressingly bad times and distances in nearly every drill. He improved on a few of them mildly in his pro day, but it was enough to drop him all the way to the bottom of the 3rd round where the Bengals took a chance on him (a lot of Bengals fans were begging for  him in the 2nd round, IIRC). We thought we had a steal, only for him to play just 1 season and some change with the Bengals and only collecting 13 total tackles.

Rumors indicated that he had very poor work ethic and did not seem to understand his role on the field (there's a pretty funny video of him playing beehive football against the Vikings, which allowed the QB to leak out the back for a big gain).

At this point in the NFL, you even begin to wonder if a poor RAS is an indication of poor work ethic because...the combine is an open book test. You know exactly what drills you will be running months or even years ahead of time. If you aren't practicing those drills and end up posting horrific scores, that may be a reflection of your inability to prepare on a grand scale.

Either way, I love the combine because it, in a lot of ways, separates the haves from the have nots like above, but I still think production on the field is king at the end of the day. As long as you don't get carried away (like I fear some may be with Blake Freeland in the 2nd round), RAS is a net positive for anyone who follows the NFL draft.