GREEN BAY, Wis. — Here’s what Kalen King was looking at if he had been able to enter the 2023 NFL draft: A signing bonus in the range of $7 million to $8 million as a mid-to-late first-round pick, a near-guaranteed roster spot and a shot at an immediate starting job.
Here’s what King got out of the 2024 draft: A signing bonus of $80,736 and nothing more than the chance to earn a roster spot in training camp.
Such is the difference between the dreamy life of a first-round pick if players were allowed to declare for the NFL draft two years after finishing high school and King’s reality as the third-to-last player taken in the entire draft after he had to return to Penn State for a third season.
King went from can’t-miss prospect to can’t-believe-what-he-was-watching cornerback as the draft unfolded. It wasn’t until the final minutes of the seven-round draft when he got a phone call from the Green Bay Packers, who picked him with the 255th overall pick out of 257.
“Honestly, I think they may have gotten the biggest steal of the draft,” said Terry Smith, Penn State’s associate head coach/defensive recruiting coordinator/cornerbacks coach.
No wonder King has “a permanent chip” on his shoulder, as he said at last week’s rookie minicamp.
“I feel like I’ll never forget that feeling,” King said. “And I feel like that’s only going to make me go harder and keep me going forward.”
In the way-too-early mock drafts following the 2023 draft, at least three of them — Pro Football Focus, The Athletic and Bleacher Report — projected King anywhere from the No. 15 to the No. 20 pick in 2024. Last July, ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller, in a story debating the top prospects at every position, wrote that either King or Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry was the No. 1 corner. McKinstry ended up as the ninth pick of the second round and the fifth corner selected in 2024. King was the 36th and final corner picked.
“The talent is there if he can get himself back in line and ramp up his effort,” Miller said this week. “I never saw him as an elite athlete but was a good technician. I wouldn’t be shocked if he found his way into a nickel or dime role.”
It all raises the question of what happened between his second and third years at Penn State?
In 2022, King started nine of 13 games
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