For Penn State's Kalen King, the NFL Draft Was 'Nothing But a Humbling Experience'

Once considered a first-round pick, the Nittany Lions cornerback went to Green Bay in the seventh round. "It's extremely motivating," he said.

Penn State defensive back Kalen King works out during the NFL Scouting Combine. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Penn State cornerback Kalen King did a 6-minute conference call with the Green Bay Packers media Saturay night after being selected in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft. A few times, he fought through tears describing the three days he spent waiting. And he was forced to answer the question, "What happened?" Or, "how does a player go from second-team All-American in 2022 to the 257th overall pick a year later?"

King laid bare the motion.

"It's extremely motivating," King said in an unguarded moment with the media. "Not going where you thought you would go, seeing all the names being picked ahead of you, just enduring all that and seeing all that, I feel like it put a chip on my shoulder — a permanent chip on my shoulder that I've got to keep there."

After his sophomore year in 2022, King earned some projections as a first-round pick after he led the Big Ten in pass breakups (21) and took all the passing fire directed away from Joey Porter Jr. King was at the top of his game. But then his productivity regressed last season, and King followed that by generating a lower-tier 6.68 Relative Athletic Score at the NFL Scouting Combine. On Saturday, King was among the last five compensatory picks of the seventh round. He watched as 33 cornerbacks were drafted ahead of him, including teammate Daequan Hardy in the sixth round. Ten cornerbacks went in the fifth round alone.

"Honestly, I feel like this whole experience definitely was one of the toughest things I have had to endure in my life," King said on the conference call. "I felt like today was a blessing and a curse. Even though I didn’t get drafted where I wanted to, I felt like God made the right choice for me. I feel like I’m in a place where I’m supposed to be and I’m happy that I got my name called."

King has called himself a "game-speed guy," the type of player for whom a 4.62 40-yard dash (his time at the combine) means little. But he'll have some convincing to do in Green Bay, even though general manager coach Brian Gutekunst liked King's fire.

"Our league has a long history of guys who felt they were overlooked and use that as motivation to drive themselves. Hopefully, that'll be the case [with King]," Gutekunst told reporters in Green Bay on Saturday. "Certainly he was a guy that we expected to go higher. And as we went through it, we felt very fortunate to be able to pick him where we did."

King said the draft represented where he was "slotted" and not the "player that I am." He studied the Packers' cornerbacks room and knows "exactly what I'm walking into." His career, King said, starts now.

"I feel like the Packers are going to get one of the most competitive guys in the country," King said. "A tough corner, a physical corner who's going to give 100 percent effort around the field at all times and make as many plays as I possibly can doing it at 100 percent."

King later added, "The experience I got the past three days, it was nothing but a humbling experience for me, and I’m going to use it as fuel to the fire. There's been a lot of doubters in my ear, there’s been a lot of doubters [about] me the last couple months. I know what I’m capable of and I’m ready to show the world."

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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich.