Today I wanted to look at the data from Kent Lee Platt’s Relative Athletic Scores (RAS) for the safeties. Here is a link to his website in case you haven’t seen his work https://ras.football/. To qualify for a RAS score, a player must have a total of six recorded metrics from any of the following: Height, Weight, Forty-yard dash, Twenty-yard split, Ten-yard split, Bench Press, Vertical Jump, Broad Jump, Short Shuttle, and 3-Cone. The player is then graded on each in comparison to the positional database since 1987 to get more of a feel of their size, speed, explosion, agility, and total value, giving context to the raw numbers.
The goal of the series is to provide the RAS from Platt, with a bit of my own twist with a size score and visualize it to get a simultaneous view of all the players at their position that participated at the combine. Here are the players that qualified (NOTE: Positions are grouped from the combine results tracker compiled by Dave Bryan and Alex Kozora):
A high number of ten of the 19 players have RAS scores above nine, starting with Maryland safety Nick Cross with a great 9.92 score with elite speed, great explosion, and good size and agility. Georgia safety Lewis Cine also has a great 9.9 score with elite speed, great explosion, and good size. Baylor safety JT Woods has elite speed and explosion with okay size. Florida A&M safety Markquese Bell has elite size and speed with good explosion. Miami safety Bubba Bolden has elite speed and great size. Toledo safety Tycen Anderson has elite speed, great size, and good explosion and agility. Iowa safety Dane Belton has elite speed along with good size, explosion, and agility. Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton has elite size and explosion with good speed and okay size. Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker has great speed, good explosion and agility, and okay size. Michigan safety Dax Hill is the final player in this group and has elite speed and agility, okay explosion, but poor size.
After a drop off two players have a RAS above eight, starting with Georgia Tech safety Juanyeh Thomas who has great speed, good size and explosion, and okay agility. Louisiana safety Percy Butler has elite speed, okay explosion, but poor size.
The only player with an above seven RAS is Oklahoma safety Delarrin Turner-Yell, who has great speed but very poor size.
Three players have a RAS greater than six, beginning with Oklahoma State safety Kolby Harvell-Peel who has good size and explosion, okay speed, but poor agility. Baylor safety Jalen Pitre has elite speed, great agility, okay explosion, but poor size. Auburn safety Smoke Monday has great size, good speed, but poor explosion and agility.
The final player with an above five RAS is Texas A&M safety Leon O’Neal, who has good explosion and agility, okay size, but poor speed.
Only two players have a below five RAS, starting with Louisville safety Qwynnterrio Cole who has good explosion and agility, okay size, but very poor speed. Oregon safety Verone McKinley has a very low 2.39 RAS with okay explosion, but poor size, speed, and agility.
The data shows the strong athleticism in this class with 17 of the 19 qualifying players with a RAS above five!
Next, I wanted to provide context with a size score using the RAS for the players height and weight, which includes all the combine invites since all the players are measured:
Here we see 18 of the 23 combine invites (78%) with an above five size score, important context with most players at the position offering above average athleticism! Hamilton takes the cake in regards to size, with a score in the high nines to go along with his +9 RAS! Bell was the only other player with a size score above nine, with an even stronger RAS!
Three players have a size score above eight, with Anderson topping this group along with an above nine RAS! Monday has a low eight size score but important to remember his poor explosion and agility. Bolden is the final player of this group and is also one of the ten players with a +9 RAS!
Another tier of three players have a RAS above seven, starting with Thomas who has a plus eight RAS. Cross has the top ranked RAS to go with his 7.26 size score, and Cine’s low seven size score pairs with the second ranked RAS at the position!
There are five players with above six size scores, beginning with Illinois safety Kerby Joseph but he unfortunately didn’t test fully. Harvell-Peel has a mid-six size score and RAS and important to remember his poor agility. Cincinnati safety Bryan Cook was another player that didn’t run, followed by Belton with a low six size score but +9 RAS. UCLA safety Quentin Lake rounds out this group, but also didn’t qualify for a RAS score.
The next five players have an above five size score, with Kentucky safety Yusuf Corker being the last player who didn’t test fully. Brisker provides value in this group with his +9 RAS, and O’Neal has a RAS and size score in the fives and important to remember his poor speed. Cole’s +5 size score is where he fared best, recalling his RAS in the fours and important to remember his very poor speed. Woods has the third ranked RAS in the high nines to pair with his 5.68 size score to close this group.
Five players have a size score below five, and interestingly there was not as strong of a correlation to more athleticism that would be expected overall. Hill was an exception with his +9 RAS that pairs with his size score in the fours. The other was Butler, who has a size score in the threes to go with his low eight RAS. Pitre’s low three size score pairs with a RAS in the six range. McKinley’s 2.85 size score pairs with the bottom ranked RAS at a low score of 2.39, and important to remember his poor size, speed, and agility! Lastly, Turner-Yell’s bottom ranked 2.08 size score pairs with a RAS in the seven range that is below average for the class.
To wrap up, here is a visual layering the RAS and size score:
This visual really highlights the points made through the article, with several players at the position offering the athleticism and size that most teams look for. The top tier with above nine scores in both data points are Hamilton and Bell, with Anderson and Bolden matching in athleticism with less yet respectable size. Cross and Cine have the best athleticism of the bunch with above the mean size, along with Thomas being the final player above the mean in both data points.
While most players tested at the combine, I was really hoping to see numbers for the ones that didn’t (especially Cook and Lake) considering the current need at the position. It will be interesting to monitor the pro days and continue to see how the men stack up in the coming weeks when Platt updates the site with the unofficial numbers.
What are your thoughts on the data? Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
