Photo via AtlantaFalcons.com

What is your CT grade?

You may not know, but if you were a Draft-eligible player, the Atlanta Falcons could probably tell you. According to a recent Stack.com article, the Atlanta Falcons have found a way to quantify the once immeasurable attributes of a player.

For a little over a year now the Falcons have been using what they call a CT grade.

The CT grade (which stands for Competitive Toughness) measures motor, toughness, effort, heart and pride of a player. It allows the coaching staff to assign a player’s most important intangibles into an easy-to-analyze number.

Falcons head coach Dan Quinn said the CT grade started in collaboration with the team’s general manager, Thomas Dimitroff.

"We really wanted to make our competitiveness and toughness come to life,” Quinn told AJC.com in February. “We did what's called a CT grade, with one being the lowest and highest being a rare number.”

How much do the Falcons value the CT grade?

Considering the team gave up its third- and seventh-round picks to move up just five spots to draft Takkarist McKinley, it seems that the new metric is a key data point for the staff.

After the team drafted McKinley, Quinn revealed that McKinley had one of the highest CT grades of any other prospect on their board, to go along with other impressive attributes.

“It’s the initial quickness that we look for as rushers,” Quinn told AtlantaFalcons.com. “He had one of our highest CT grades, what we’re looking for to add to our group, and like I said, we’re thrilled to add a player of his caliber to our defensive front.”

The CT grade is something Quinn and Dimitroff return to again and again when evaluating players.

"[Quinn] and I made a pact to each other that we were going to be very particular about keeping each other in check on that,” Dimitroff said. “When we get a little bit swayed by someone's speed or athleticism or brawn, we were always going to talk to each other about the CT. Come back to the CT."

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Evaluating players based on the CT grade seems to be a successful approach for the Atlanta Falcons, who reached the Super Bowl last season. If it’s similar to other trends that start at the professional level and trickle down to lower levels of football, the CT grade could be something that emerges in the college and high school ranks.