Kalen King Is A Player To Watch This Preseason

Following a stellar 2022 campaign, Penn State cornerback Kalen King was near the top of everyone’s 2024 draft boards. However, his fall from grace in 2023, instigated by a thrashing at the hands of Marvin Harrison Jr., saw him slide to the seventh round. Brian Gutekunst was happy to take a flier on him at that price. So far, it sounds like the 21-year-old is off to a good start in training camp, and he's a name to watch down the stretch of the preseason.

New defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is also a fan, shouting out King’s “really good instincts” and versatility, adding that he’s “not sure why he fell like he did.” It’s this time of year when diamonds in the rough begin to shine, with starters playing extremely limited time in the exhibition contests. Because of his Big 10 pedigree and relatively high name recognition for a seventh-round rookie, King has the makings of a potential standout.

Surely, getting cooked by Harrison, who is pretty much unanimously viewed as a generational talent, wasn’t enough to tank his draft stock enough to make him an undrafted player. His 4.55 40 time is below average for a corner, and such athletic intangibles have a heavy hand in how coaches and scouts value a player. However, Hafley may be on to something with his idea of how to take advantage of King’s physicality and instincts while minimizing the implications of his lack of downfield speed.

He has spent much of camp lining up in the slot, which he did part-time at Penn State. That role belongs to All-Pro return man Keisean Nixon, who inked a three-year, $18 million contract extension earlier this offseason. The price felt a bit steep for Nixon, but bringing back the versatile fan favorite was a priority for Gutekunst and the front office.

The overhauled kickoff play, which is expected to increase the percentage of returned kicks dramatically, should give him plenty of opportunities to pay off his contract. However, a $6 million commitment over the long term suggests that the coaching staff will continue utilizing his athleticism outside special teams. In addition to manning the slot in 2023, he carried the ball once on offense for 11 yards. It will be interesting to see if Matt LaFleur has an appetite for expanding his gadget package.

A potential King breakout would be noteworthy not only for the surplus value recouped from a seventh-rounder, which almost always has a mild impact at best, but also in deepening a cornerback room that enters 2024 with a lot of uncertainty opposite superstar Jaire Alexander. The 29th-overall pick in 2021, Eric Stokes, is finally back online after a series of significant injuries. Stokes was electric in his rookie campaign, but we have yet to see the sequel.

King is a question mark not only because of the amount of time he’s missed but also because major lower-body injuries and surgeries have put his greatest asset — speed — at risk. The early word is that he looks great on the practice field. Still, the potential loss of starters at a premium position can derail a contending team’s season if the depth is not there to keep them afloat. Despite his unquestioned stardom, Alexander has missed his share of time, and with Nixon playing exclusively in the slot, seventh-round sophomore Carrington Valentine is really the only relatively trusted piece of depth on the outside.

Amid the attrition of the 2023 season, Valentine racked up quite a bit of experience on the outside, including a handful of starts. The early returns were promising but not overwhelming enough to remove him from question-mark status. If King can string together a productive preseason, he’ll give himself a chance to be cemented as a depth piece in a cornerback room that feels like it needs a guy or two to step up in that role every season.

“Our league has a long history of guys who have felt they were overlooked and use that as motivation to drive themselves," Gutekunst said regarding King, "he was a guy that we expected to go higher.” And he’s right. David Bakhtiari and Aaron Jones were fourth-round picks. Donald Driver was a fellow seventh-rounder.

“At this point, it doesn’t matter where you were drafted anymore," Hafley said. "It’s what are you going to do moving forward.”

Kalen King is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing guys on that list for Green Bay.