Kalen King 2024 NFL Draft Profile
Well, I suppose it’s time I eat my crow. The test of any good scout or writer in general, honestly, is to accept and own up when they are wrong on a take. Before the season began, I wrote that Penn State’s Kalen King was the best corner in the country. That take aged like milk left out on the porch in the summer. King has had a terrible pre-draft process, but what does his draft profile look like? Let’s talk about it.
Total stinker at the NFL Combine. Before that, King had an awful performance at the Senior Bowl as well, showing up on my losers list. The production and overall play took a major hit when he took over the CB1 role from Joey Porter Jr. who left last season. King played three seasons at Penn State, totaling a whopping three INTs, all of which came last season. The passes defended also fell from 15 two years ago to a whopping two last season. Marvin Harrison Jr. kicked his ass too in the game against Ohio State.
I don’t think there is anyone who has fallen more during the pre-draft process than Kalen King. I went from all in, would’ve taken him round one before the season, to debating taking him at all honestly. This is the part of the profiles where I normally go over the strengths of a player before moving on to the weaknesses, but man this season was so bad that the tape doesn’t even show a ton of strengths.
I have MAYBE two strengths for King but there’s just so much negative. 4.61 40 time is slow as dirt for an outside corner, and it showed on tape. His teammates might as well have called him toast how much he was burnt in coverage. Hips are stiff, can’t change direction very smoothly, often relying on safety help on in-breaking routes in the middle part of the field. Not a great tackler. His anticipation on throws took a huge step back last year as well. Pad level runs a bit high for my liking, but the footwork isn’t bad.
Honestly, should he just convert to Safety? That might be the only thing that would save his draft stock because he just isn’t a very good corner. How the mighty have fallen. Kalen King gets a sixth-round grade from me, and I would only take him just to sit him down and ask what happened to the old King. The one that had people like me fooled he was a top corner in the class. Try and dig that old guy out of him, because a drop-off like this is just unheard of.
Click here for more 2024 NFL Draft content!
