Where Does Penn State's Kalen King Rank in the NFL Draft Mocks?

The cornerback seek to make up some ground at the NFL Scouting Combine.

The NFL Draft is a long game, played over months of nitpicking and hyper-evaluations. Players rise and fall, in reality and perception, and few truly know where they stand. Former Penn State cornerback Kalen King is spinning on that ride now.

King, who did not play in the Peach Bowl despite joining the Nittany Lions in Atlanta, had a mixed week at the 2024 Senior Bowl. It followed an uneven junior season at Penn State, in which King was voted second-team All-Big Ten but lapsed against some leading receivers, notably Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr. According to Sports Info Solutions, King allowed a completion rate of 53.6 percent on his targets (it was 35.4 percent in 2022) but did not allow a touchdown.

King began the 2023 season seeking to become the first Penn State defensive back selected in the NFL Draft's first round. So where does King rank now, as the NFL Scouting Combine approaches? NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah projects King still being available on Day 3.

"He has good quickness. I'm curious to see the top end speed, how he runs," Jeremiah said on a recent NFL Network conference call. "He's good working downhill, and he can play top-down. I think he is a little more comfortable, a little more natural. I just thought there were too many times where he struggled to stay in phase and find and play the ball down the field with his back to the quarterback. That was a little bit of the issue there.

"The grade that I have him right now puts him kind of in that fourth-round range. I'm sure some others might have him a little bit higher, but that's where I have him positioned at this point in time."

RELATED: One Nittany Lion's draft stock rises, another falls ahead of the NFL Combine

King doesn't show up in first-round mocks anymore, and ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. does not rank King among the draft's top-10 cornerbacks. Again, perception matters, though, particularly regarding cornerbacks and their coverage assignments.

"I don't think Kalen had the year that he would want," Jeremiah said. "The tough thing is, when you have marquee players in yourconference at a position that you're going to go up against, that's the first tape everybody is going to watch. So when you are watching Penn State and you've got a corner, you are going to pop on the Ohio State game. That's the first game you're going to watch, and Marvin Harrison got after him a little bit in that game. That's the firstimpression that's hard to shake."

King can reclaim some draft credit at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, which begins Feb. 29 in Indianapolis. Ten Penn State players, a record under head coach James Franklin, will participate in the annual NFL job fair at Lucas Oil Stadium.

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