*Walt taking 2014 and 2018 |
Charlie Campbell, Senior Draft Analyst |
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Kinnard Struggled with Senior Bowl Coaching
Updated March 6, 2022
By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell.
The 2022 NFL Draft is a quality year for offensive tackle prospects. There should be at least two, if not three tackles who go in the top 10, and there could be 2-4 more who get selected in the first round of the draft. One tackle prospect who was viewed as potential solid player for the second day of the draft was Kentucky tackle Darian Kinnard. After being a multi-year starter in the SEC, the massive Kinnard enters the next level with a lot of experience to go along with a nice skill set of size, strength and some athleticism. However, in speaking to team sources, they were disappointed with Kinnard at the Senior Bowl, and that hurt his chances of being a late first-round pick.
Sources say that Kinnard was not abused in Mobile, and did not get dominated by the all-star defensive linemen. However on the reps that he lost, Kinnard was not interested in the coaching points to teach him why he lost that rep and how he can correct his technique. According to sources from multiple teams, not being coachable was a bad impression for Kinnard to give pro evaluators.
Kinnard was also being coached by the Detroit Lions staff that just produced an excellent rookie year with offensive tackle Penei Sewell. Sewell was the youngest player in the NFL and sat out the 2020 college football season. After some early growing moments, Sewell was superb in the second half of the year starting at left and right tackle for Detroit. The Lions staff also developed guard Jonah Jackson into having his first Pro Bowl season in 2021. Thus, Kinnard had a great opportunity to get coaching points from a proven NFL coaching staff and work on those issues to show technical improvement at the combine, pro day and pre-draft workouts.
By showing teams that his attitude is viewed as not coachable, Kinnard dealt his first-round hopes a fatal blow, and that issue could lead to him having a significant slide in the 2022 NFL Draft.
