Indianapolis Colts break established trend under GM Chris Ballard in 2025 NFL draft

In the 2025 NFL draft, the Indianapolis Colts deviated from what had been a pretty strong draft trend over the last four years.

From 2021 through 2024, the Colts drafted the most players in the NFL with a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) above 8.0.

In short, RAS takes into account a prospect's measurements and athletic testing numbers and turns all of that into an easily digestible figure that falls on a 0-10 scale and is relative to their position group. The higher the RAS, the better the athlete.

In this year's draft, however, there wasn't as strong a connection between the Colts' draft picks and their Relative Athletic Scores. Using RAS, Pro Football Network ranked this year's draft classes from the most athletic to the least athletic. And rather than being near the top like normal, the Colts came in at No. 22.

Relative Athletic Scores for Indianapolis Colts' 2025 NFL draft class

• Tyler Warren: N/A (not enough testing)
• JT Tuimoloau: 9.33
• Justin Walley: 5.97
• Jalen Travis: 9.08
• DJ Giddens: 9.78
• Riley Leonard: N/A (not enough testing)
• Tim Smith: 4.44
• Hunter Wohler: 9.26

Now, as you can see, the Colts still selected some high-end athletes and had Warren and/or Riley had a RAS, Indianapolis would have jumped up the rankings.

A player's athletic testing and size aren't going to be the be-all-end-all when it comes to determining their success in the NFL, but generally speaking, those abilities can increase the likelihood of a player establishing themselves and making an impact.

Beyond the athletic testing figures, it was clear that the Colts wanted to prioritize toughness in this year's draft. With a number of these draft picks, we heard GM Chris Ballard, Shane Steichen, or the Colts' scouts use that word to describe a player.

This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: 2025 NFL draft: Colts break established trend with their picks