The NFL Draft features hundreds of the country's best football players, all vying for a limited number of spots in an inevitably cutthroat environment. When sorting through incoming prospects, teams tend to have their own little quirks and preferences when it comes to the players they ultimately roll the dice on.
On one hand, you have teams that believe in their coaching staffs so strongly that they'll draft a prospect because he's as big as a sumo wrestler, fast as a track star, or can jump as high as an NBA phenom, irrespective of how he actually performed on the field. Then, there are the more traditional teams that throw measurables to the wind, opting instead for players who excelled on the football field, even if they don't boast otherworldly athleticism and size.
In an effort to gauge the way each NFL team approached the 2026 draft, we created a dataset with each draft pick — and for those that qualified — their Relative Athletic Score (RAS) and PFF grade. With RAS serving as our measuring stick for athleticism and PFF grade as our production evaluator, we were able to get a glimpse into the mind of each NFL GM and how they balance these inextricably tied metrics.
As far as Andrew Berry is concerned, Browns fans have every reason to be excited.
The Browns didn’t just draft athletes — they drafted real producers too
The 2026 Cleveland Browns draft class ranked second in RAS, with their qualified picks boasting a 9.39 average. The initial reaction is naturally to question whether these prospects were excellent football players or merely athletes on whom Andrew Berry has spent hopes and prayers.
Have I got news for you. As far as PFF grades go, the Browns' draft class average of 78.1 ranked ninth in the league. Berry managed to walk the tightrope with astounding precision, selecting not only top-tier athletes but proven performers on the football field to boot.
There has been heaping praise for Berry's draft class around these parts, and this development continues to indicate that the Browns may truly be on the right track. It's difficult for Browns fans to get excited after so many letdowns, and that's understandable. With cautious optimism, though, the Browns might be building something sustainable here.
For comparison's sake, here's how the Browns' AFC North rivals fared in the RAS–PFF evaluation: Bengals (9th, 22nd), Ravens (16th, 15th), and the Steelers (18th, 27th). The Bengals provide us with — admittedly shocking for the always conservative Cincinnati franchise — a look at a draft class that prioritizes athleticism over production. The ever-steady Ravens struck an uninspiring balance, with average athletes and average performers.
Browns fans can grin as the Steelers apparently are careening back into their 1960s-era ineptitude, with an embarrassing draft-day blunder in their own city the icing on the cake.
This is just the latest measure of a great draft class for the Cleveland Browns. While there remain admitted question marks at the game's all-important quarterback position, it's safe to say whoever is under center this season will have much more support than the team's 2025 QBs did. Don't count out the 2026 Cleveland Browns just yet — they just might be on to something.
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