How athletic is the Lions’ 2026 NFL Draft class?
Taking a look at the athleticism of the Detroit Lions’ 2026 draft picks through Relative Athletic Scores (RAS).
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 24: Former Detroit Lions Calvin Johnson waves during Round Two of the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium on April 24, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images Last year, Brad Holmes, Dan Campbell, Sheila Ford Hamp, and the rest of the Detroit Lions’ war room wore black hoodies with the letters H-S-W crossed through. After sporting “Positional Villains” hoodies during the 2024 NFL Draft, the Lions were turning their draft day wardrobe into a mission statement.
“It’s just a line through height, weight, speed,” Holmes said of the HWS attire. “Height, weight, speed, it is the opposite of film evaluation, and we’re all about film evaluation, and that’s the hard part of scouting. Height, weight, speed is easy.
Stats are easy. A position listed is easy. But film evaluation is hard to figure out.
” Now, that’s not to say the Lions general manager avoids athletic prospects. In 2024, the Lions’ draft class had the eighth-highest average Relative Athletic Score and finished 10th in 2025. Here’s a breakdown of what RAS gives us as a picture when it comes to a prospect’s athleticism : Relative Athletic Score (RAS) is a metric that combines the various categories measured at the NFL Combine — height, weight, wingspan, drill exercises — into one aggregate number that’s then contextualized against other athletes of the same position.
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