{"id":847897,"date":"2026-04-01T20:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847897\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:59:12","slug":"top-athletic-testing-prospects-at-key-positions-for-colts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847897\/","title":{"rendered":"Top athletic testing prospects at key positions for Colts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 1, 2026, 4:45 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Looking ahead to the 2026 NFL draft for the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Indianapolis Colts<\/a>, here are some of the prospects from this year&#8217;s class who have stood out above the rest in the athletic testing portion of the pre-draft process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">To compare the athletic testing and measurements of each prospect, we will be using Kent Lee Platte&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ras.football\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Relative Athletic Score<\/a>\u00a0(RAS).<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In short, RAS is a way to compare a player&#8217;s athleticism and size to the rest of his position group through an easily digestible number based on height, weight, and athletic testing numbers. The RAS scale ranges from 0-10, and the closer to 10 a player scores, the better the athlete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While a player&#8217;s athletic testing certainly isn&#8217;t the be-all, end-all when it comes to the evaluation process, it very much is something that NFL teams pay attention to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/indianapolis-colts\/338\" data-autotag=\"d3fda36a-3eb5-4700-8763-caba831c06ae\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Colts<\/a> specifically under Chris Ballard, he has often gravitated towards the top athletic performers at each respective position group. From 2021 through 2024, the Colts\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MathBomb\/status\/1912097656047804541\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">drafted the most players<\/a>\u00a0in the NFL with a RAS above 8.0 &#8212; although the 2025 class <a href=\"http:\/\/coltswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/colts\/2025\/05\/02\/indianapolis-colts-break-established-trend-under-gm-chris-ballard-in-2025-nfl-draft\/83405361007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deviated<\/a> a bit from that.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Here are this year&#8217;s standout performers at a few select positions of need for the Colts.<\/p>\n<p>Top RAS at defensive endDani Dennis-Sutton, Penn State: 9.96Malachi Lawrence UCF: 9.90Michael Heldman, Central Michigan: 9.88Zach Durfee, Washington: 9.77David Bailey, Texas Tech: 9.65Top RAS at linebackerSonny Styles, Ohio State: 9.99Jake Golday, Cincinnati: 9.85Anthony Hill Jr., Texas: 9.81Jack Dingle, Cincinnati: 9.81Jack Kelly, BYU: 9.72Top RAS at strong safetyJa&#8217;Qurious Conley, Charlotte: 9.94Zion Washington, Boise State: 9.76VJ Payne, Kansas State: 9.74Dillon Thieneman, Oregon: 9.71Jalon Kilgore, South Carolina: 9.59Top RAS at wide receiverJeff Caldwell, Cincinnati: 9.99J. Michael Sturdivant, Florida: 9.96Bryce Lance, NDSU: 9.95Ted Hurst, Georgia State: 9.91Skyler Bell, UCONN: 9.83<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 1, 2026, 4:45 p.m. ET Looking ahead to the 2026 NFL draft for the Indianapolis Colts, here&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[95878,7,6,15,49915,95900,95882,95930,95903,95896,95888,116161,95906,96948,95902,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-847897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","13":"tag-sstsncolts","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","16":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","17":"tag-tagnational-sports","18":"tag-tagnfl","19":"tag-tagnorth-dakota-state-university","20":"tag-tagoverall-positive","21":"tag-tagpenn-state-nittany-lions","22":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116331463776083642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}