NFL Scouting Combine: Green Bay’s Best Athletes

The Packers have prioritized elite athletes with their premium draft picks.

As the NFL Scouting Combine draws to a close, with the final on-field workouts taking place on Sunday, full athletic profiles for hundreds of prospects are coming together.

This is therefore an appropriate time to analyse the current Packers roster to identify Green Bay’s best athletes, based on their measurements when entering the league.

A few notes and disclaimers before we begin:

The scores come from Kent Lee Platte’s Relative Athletic Score (RAS) model. The ratings compare players to others at their position on a scale of 0 to 10.

These ratings are based on a player’s performance in the following metrics: Size (height, weight and bench press), speed (40-yard dash, 20-yard split and 10-yard split), explosion (vertical jump and broad jump) and agility (shuttle and 3-cone drills).

A 5.00 grade represents a perfectly average athlete at their position, or to put it another way, a player in the 50th percentile. A player with a 10.00 rating is a truly elite athlete at their position.

The list below only includes players who are currently set to be on the roster in 2022, according to Spotrac.

Players with incomplete scores have been left out of the list.

Here is the list in full, followed by some observations:

  1. Rashan Gary - 9.95
  2. Steven Wirtel - 9.88
  3. Preston Smith - 9.8
  4. Ty Summers - 9.71
  5. Jaire Alexander - 9.54
  6. Eric Stokes - 9.37
  7. Elgton Jenkins - 9.34
  8. Aaron Jones - 9.21
  9. A.J. Dillon - 9.16
  10. Jonathan Garvin - 8.98
  11. Royce Newman - 8.72
  12. Adrian Amos - 8.63
  13. Dean Lowry - 8.62
  14. Alize Mack - 8.54
  15. Josiah Deguara - 8.52
  16. Jon Runyan - 8.49
  17. Cole Van Lanen  - 8.49
  18. Jordan Love - 8.44
  19. Marcedes Lewis - 8.35
  20. Darnell Savage - 8.34
  21. Danny Etling - 8.31
  22. T.J. Slaton - 7.96
  23. Tyler Davis - 7.91
  24. Kenny Clark - 7.54
  25. Isaiah McDuffie - 7.33
  26. Kylin Hill - 7.31
  27. Kabion Ento - 7.3
  28. Kiondre Thomas - 7.29
  29. Billy Turner - 7.18
  30. Juwann Winfree - 7.16
  31. Aaron Rodgers - 7.16
  32. Patrick Taylor - 7.14
  33. David Bakhtiari - 6.72
  34. Rico Gafford - 6.15
  35. Kurt Benkert - 5.84
  36. Amari Rodgers - 5.37
  37. Jack Heflin - 4.94
  38. Shemar Jean-Charles - 4.27
  39. Za’Darius Smith - 3.73
  40. Randall Cobb - 3.65
  41. Ladarius Hamilton - 3.45

Observations:

Rashan Gary is Green Bay’s best athlete relative to his positional peers. Brian Gutekunst decided to bet on Gary’s explosive potential which juxtaposed only modest production at Michigan. The gamble paid off.

Gutekunst has a thing for athletes. The average RAS score for players he has drafted in the first two rounds is 9.18. Josh Myers did not have a complete score, while Josh Jackson scored 9.27. This should be kept in mind when considering who the Packers may target, particularly early in the draft.

The Packers GM’s fondness for elite athletes even extends to the long snapper position, with Steven Wirtel boasting Green Bay’s second-best RAS.

Ty Summers may be somewhat of a surprise in fourth place. Summers posted ‘great’ scores for speed and explosion, and ‘good’ scores for size and agility.

Za’Darius Smith and Randall Cobb are the standout players who have enjoyed a high level of success in the NFL despite a poor RAS.

Shemar Jean-Charles is the only Gutekunst draft pick on the roster who posted a RAS below 5.

The Relative Athletic Scores for Green Bay’s key free agents are as follows:

  • Yosh Nijman (RFA) - 9.81
  • Marquez Valdes-Scantling - 9.27
  • Allen Lazard (RFA) - 8.58
  • Rasul Douglas - 6.93
  • Davante Adams - 6.54
  • De’Vondre Campbell - 6.22

 

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Mark Oldacres is a sports writer from Birmingham, England and a Green Bay Packers fan. You can follow him on twitter at @MarkOldacres

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Comments (26)

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MarkinMadison's picture

March 06, 2022 at 12:09 pm

What I find really interesting about this list is just how far down David Bakhtiari is on it. Here is a man who is arguably the best at his position in the NFL, who has started since day one, and whose RAS clocks in at a relatively pedestrian 6.72. It is almost like there is more to football than athleticism.

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Leatherhead's picture

March 06, 2022 at 12:19 pm

Lowry a better athlete than Clark? I’m a fan of Lowry, but this is difficult to believe.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

March 07, 2022 at 04:40 am

True. Lowry's wingspan was just 76.125 at the combine whereas Clark's was 79, and that is despite Lowry being just over 3 inches taller. Some guys do overcome having short arms - I suppose one could say Lowry did.

Lowry was 296 pounds at the combine. I'd guess he has added weight in order play DT. Lowry benched 30 reps to Clark's 29, but no one says Lowry is strong while many talk about Clark's strength and ability to handle double teams.

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splitpea1's picture

March 06, 2022 at 12:28 pm

On this list, the RAS seems particularly important when it comes to the secondary.

However, looking back at a few of the better Packer secondary members over the past 30 years, we have HOFer Butler at 5.05, Nick Collins at 7.04, and Tramon Williams at 7.24.

Also worth noting was Tony Mandarich's perfect 10.0 score.... Take all of this high RAS stuff with a grain of salt, because it doesn't always translate into sustained success on the football field.

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Tundraboy's picture

March 06, 2022 at 09:21 pm

Mandarich! LMAO How did THAT turn out?

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Oppy's picture

March 06, 2022 at 11:28 pm

Not great for Green Bay, but he ended up back in the league and proved he was a starting caliber lineman for the Colts at one point.

Mandrich was a steroid abuse and drug/alcohol addiction casualty, but he did possess NFL talent.

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Coldworld's picture

March 06, 2022 at 12:42 pm

What this shows is the danger of one perspective or measure in isolation.

What it shows is that excellent athletes can be real plus players, but it is no means a certainty. There are several reasons for this. Most obviously, instincts: football players that lack them generally aren’t good no matter how athletic.

Another is the fact that one facet can outweigh the rest. For example Adams and Bakh. Ignoring instincts, both posses short area quickness and technique that outweighs lack of exceptional scores in areas such as long speed or strength. A negative example might be Wirtel, if one score diverges from the norm sufficiently far, it may negate all the rest and make you a push over.

Finally, it gets muddy when there is positional uncertainty involved or the role as used doesn’t match the scoring assumptions for the player. For example, if Kenny Clark were scored as DE his score will differ from if he’s a DT. Lowry the same. We see this when you look at Deguara if he’s treated as a true TE, not the HBack type. His lack of size kills his TE score. Another example is Lazard: is he scored as a TE or WR? Is a LB a OLB or an ILB, is a S a quasi ILB or quasi interior CB?

Reader beware! RAS and other weighted metrics are useful, particularly if used in tandem, but that still doesn’t replace the need for scouting and relying on actual game play. Reactions can overcome a great deal. Douglas is a prime example from last year.

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Bure9620's picture

March 06, 2022 at 07:04 pm

Agree with this. I think the "force player" analogy is good. Basically, a majority of the force players have high end athelticism and the likelihood of a field flipping talent is greater with thise elite athletic traits...but certainly not guaranteed......For every Jaire Alexander, Rashan Gary or Kenny Clark, there is a Justin Harrell or Ahmad Carroll.

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stockholder's picture

March 06, 2022 at 01:31 pm

It's just BS. Tenn said they don't want him.

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dobber's picture

March 07, 2022 at 08:04 am

Personnel people say lots of things. They're the used car dealers of high-end entertainment.

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Coldworld's picture

March 07, 2022 at 09:42 am

Believe nothing in the lead up to FA or the draft till it’s registered with the league.

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BirdDogUni's picture

March 06, 2022 at 03:45 pm

Will never happen, but I love doing a Mock before the draft simulators catch up with the Combine Results! Lol

Your score is: 52450 (GRADE: A)

Your Picks:
Round 1 Pick 32: Jordan Davis, DT, Georgia (A)
Round 2 Pick 32: George Pickens, WR, Georgia (A)
Round 3 Pick 32: Boye Mafe, DE/OLB, Minnesota (A+)
Round 4 Pick 32: Khalil Shakir, WR, Boise State (A+)
Round 4 Pick 34 (COMP): Troy Andersen, ILB/OLB, Montana State (A+)
Round 5 Pick 32: Brian Robinson, RB, Alabama (A+)
Round 7 Pick 7: Ryan Hayes, OT, Michigan (A+)
Round 7 Pick 32: Grant Calcaterra, TE, SMU (A+)
Round 7 Pick 38 (COMP): Daniel Bellinger, TE, San Diego State (A+)

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stockholder's picture

March 06, 2022 at 06:22 pm

All to Late. Move them up a round. Even Travon Walker now.

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stockholder's picture

March 06, 2022 at 07:11 pm

Pro football Network- #28 - Travon Walker
EDGE Georgia. // Travis Jones DT Connecticut // Alec PierceWR Cincinnati// Calvin Austin III WR Memphis // Leo Chenal
LB Wisconsin// Mike RoseLB Iowa State // Chigoziem OkonkwoTE Maryland // Jeremiah Gemmel LB North Carolina // Zamir White Rb Georgia.

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BirdDogUni's picture

March 06, 2022 at 04:03 pm

28: R1 P28 DL Jordan Davis - Georgia
59: R2 P27 WR Alec Pierce - Cincinnati
92: R3 P28 LB Troy Andersen - Montana State
131: R4 P27 WR Christian Watson - North Dakota State
140: R4 P36 WR Khalil Shakir - Boise State
171: R5 P28 OT Braxton Jones - Southern Utah
226: R7 P7 LB Darrian Beavers - Cincinnati
247: R7 P28 TE Daniel Bellinger - San Diego State
258: R7 P39 EDGE Isaiah Thomas - Oklahoma

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stockholder's picture

March 06, 2022 at 06:41 pm

Davis has moved up after his 40. This looks like PFF. Try Football Networks. I have Watson, jones, Winfrey,Leal, going in top 50. I'm taking Jahan Dotson over Pickens. He knows where the sticks are. And Watson is a trade up in the 2nd rd. Calvin Austin is going to be a star. No one could stay with him in the senior Bowl.

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LLCHESTY's picture

March 06, 2022 at 11:43 pm

Austin is the #1 gadget guy/ returner to me but his size still probably keeps him in the 4th round range and I doubt he's even on the Packers board.

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NickPerry's picture

March 07, 2022 at 05:41 am

No offense BDU but there's no way Watson lasts till pick 131. You may not be able to get him with 59!!

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Ryan3468's picture

March 06, 2022 at 04:15 pm

Athleticism is great, but if a guy can’t play football then it’s not a valuable assessment. I would guess immeasurables between two similar players, but one scores higher than taking that player seems like a sound choice. Perhaps that athleticism gets them a higher ceiling.

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Oppy's picture

March 06, 2022 at 11:34 pm

Elite athleticism raises the ceiling a player can potentially achieve.

You still need technique, aptitude, desire, motivation, and understanding of the game to utilize those athletic traits.

But, yeah.. take two players who are on equal terms in those other areas, and the one with the god-given genetics is going to separate himself.

The draft is all about projecting how much more a young player is going to grow in the next stage of this career. A guy with greater physical tools at his disposal theoretically has a high ceiling. It's all a risk-reward assessment.

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KnockTheSnotOutOfYou's picture

March 06, 2022 at 11:45 pm

Guys I liked:

TE - Jelani Woods, or possibly Curtis Hodges

WR - Jameson William's (sure he is injured but a #1 WR, and Returner), Garrett Wilson, George Pickens, Isaiah Weston, Chris Olave

DL - Travon Walker, Devon Wyatt, Jordan Davis

Edge - David Ojabo, Boye Mafe, Amaro Barno

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KnockTheSnotOutOfYou's picture

March 06, 2022 at 11:52 pm

Start salivating about some of these players should the Packers pick up 2 or 3 extra picks in the top 64 through trades this year. Example is Denver has a 1st (#9), and two second round picks. Should there be the big trade the Packers could have 4 or 5 draft picks in the top two rounds even without any compensation for Adam's. Talk about being able to reload quickly should Rodgers be traded. I'd definitely pickup two or three DL and Edge rushers, a TE, and WR in order of BPA!

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NickPerry's picture

March 07, 2022 at 05:44 am

How FUNNY.... The long snapper who got run over in the playoffs, posted the 2nd best score,.. Hey he can run fast in Spandex, he just can't block or snap worth a damn.

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dobber's picture

March 07, 2022 at 08:06 am

Can be athletic as hell, but sometimes 230 lbs doesn't hold up against 280...

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RoadrunnerO1's picture

March 21, 2022 at 09:32 am

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