With players around the NFL getting faster and faster these days, having an athletic roster has become more important than ever. Unfortunately for the Las Vegas Raiders, they aren't doing too good in that department.
In fact, they have one of the least athletic offseason rosters in the entire NFL. Per Kent Lee Platte, the creator of Relative Athletic Score (RAS), which uses player measurements and combine results to determine how athletic said player is, the Raiders have the second-worst mark in the NFL with a 6.91 out of 10.
The only team with a worse mark is the Los Angeles Rams. It's worth it to note that the current roster consists of 90 players, so it's very possible that this number could see a dramatic improvement once the cut to 53 is made in a few months.
Here's Platte's thoughts on the Raiders' RAS, as well as some background on where the team usually ends up:
Raiders were among the highest rated teams for RAS in the early 2010s, but been routinely among the lowest since 2015. Their last roster over 7.00 was in 2013. This definitely isn't Al's kind of rosters.
General manager Tom Telesco did bring in a 2024 draft class that has plus athleticism in his first year at the helm. Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers-Johnson don't have a RAS because of a lack of measurements, but we know Bowers is an athletic freak.
When it comes to the other six selections, their average RAS is a respectable 7.79, with Decamerion Richardson (8.61), Dylan Laube (8.79) and Trey Taylor (9.33) all scoring over an eight. Bringing down that score is DJ Glaze, who notched a 5.53.
While a bit concerning, athleticism isn't the end-all, be-all for success in the NFL. After all, the team that is dead-last, the Rams, hasn't averaged a RAS score above seven since 2008, yet they've been to the playoffs five of the last seven years and won a Super Bowl in that span.
We'll have to revisit this once the Raiders finalize their 53-man roster. That number will be much more telling.
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