Kamren Kinchens scouting report: Exploring the Miami safety's strengths and weaknesses

A four-star recruit in 2021, Kamren Kitchens immediately got major playing time as a true freshman with the Miami Hurricanes (44 tackles and four PBUs), before ascending to a first-team All-American in Year two. He racked up 59 tackles, six interceptions (one returned for a TD) and pass break-ups each, along with a fumble forced and recovered each.

This past season he put up.almost identical numbers, if you take off one pick, PBU and forced fumble each, which still made him a first-team all-conference selection.

Profile: 5’11”, 200 pounds; JR

Breaking down Kamren Kinchens' scouting report:

Run defense & blitzing:

• Races up the alley with reckless abandon from split-safety looks to create quick stops in the run game

• From single-high alignments, he works under more control, but tracks the ball well and places himself into cutback lanes to limit those plays

• Rapidly erases the space to the slot receiver on bubble alerts off RPOs and breaking down for the tackle

• Happily drops down into the box and shoots or blitzes through gaps to disrupt the offensive backfield

• Capable of creating TFLs when blitzing off the edge and dipping underneath pullers to his side with good flexibility

• Has some true maniac tendencies, where he’ll launch himself into an offensive lineman in the open field and send those guys airborne if they don’t really see him

• Provides impressive stopping power against guys who have 20-30 pounds on him and doesn’t mind sticking his face in the fan if he’s taking the worst of the collision

Zone coverage:

• Led all safeties in the country with a 90.0 overall PFF grade and a 90.7 coverage grade in 2022

• The step frequency and ground he cover in a straight back-pedal after showing down low initially is impressive

• His closing burst and ability to put his helmet at the ball against seam routes and benders as a single-high safety really pops a few times

• You see receivers break towards the middle of the field or curl up in front of him and Kinchens’ awareness for the defense being vulnerable there from two-high looks, to barrel down and deliver shots onto their backside that challenge them holding onto the ball

• Displays high-end ball-skills to make sideline picks, haul in deflected passes and rarely allowing the ball to hit his chest – only failed to haul in two of 13 potential interceptions over the past two years

• Takes excellent angles against completions in front of him and adjusting them accordingly as the recipient makes his moves on the run

• When pursuing guys turning up the sideline, Kinchens does a good job of using the sideline as a 12th defender and not allowing himself to get crossed up

• Had an awesome game-sealing tackle against N.C. State in 2022, when he brought down the slot receiver on a quick out route on fourth down, where it looked like that guy would be able to get to the sticks, but was immediately brought to the turf

Man coverage:

• Balanced in his back-pedal and is locked in on the hips of the receiver when covering the one-on-one

• Does well to ID route stems and anticipate breaks in off-man assignments

• Has some impressive plays where he’s responsible for a tight-ends, who leaks underneath the formation (off play-action) and he chases them down for minimal yardage at the opposite side of the field

• Manages the catch-point exceptionally well when playing off, where he times it just right to initiate contact when the ball arrives at the target and swipes through the hands in order to force incompletions without drawing flags – only penalized twice on 1064 career coverage snaps

• Takes optimal paths behind the hip of fellow receivers blocking when he triggers on his man running screen passes

• In 2022, he held opposing quarterbacks to 12-of-21 for 221 yards and two TDs, compared to his six INTs, and while the numbers were a little bit worse, he still picked off five, broke up two passes and created stops on eight that were completed of the 34 targets his way (44.1% of those leading to positive plays for the defense)

Weaknesses:

• For somebody who ends up as the last line of defense quite regularly, Kinchens doesn’t square up the ball-carrier and make sure he’s not vulnerable to getting turned around well enough

• Looked a bit more reserved involving himself in the run fit this past season, with an average depth of tackle at 8.89 yards

• Leaves his feet a lot trying to bring down the ball-carrier – missed 14 of 71 attempted tackles in 2022 (19.7%) and still 13.7% last year

• Gambles on some plays, where the offense has a double-move built in or the quarterback is locked in on one of his targets and Kinchens flies over there blindly, voiding his landmarks

• His overall PFF grade plummeted last season, down from 90.0 in 2022 to 67.8, allowing a 82.4% completion percentage and double the touchdowns (four, compared to still five INTs)

Kamren Kinchens' 2024 NFL Draft prospect

Since the end of the 2022 college football season, it felt like a two-man race for the title of first safety selected in this draft between Kinchens and Minnesota’s Tyler Nubin. Some people certainly fell out of love with him, at the very least once he tested at the combine. He was tied with Miami teammate James Williams for the worst time in the 40-yard dash among safeties (4.65) and the 10-yard split (1.59), along with finishing bottom-five in both the jumps.

That doesn’t pair well with already being slightly undersized. With that being said, the apparent fall is a little exaggerated. I do believe he’ll need to work on his eye-balance between the quarterback and receivers, along with staying on his feet as a tackler.

However, he moves a lot better than the timed speed would indicate, he has rare ball-hawking skills and quickly eliminates weaknesses within his defense. Because of that, I prefer him in a split-safety based defensive structure – at least early on – which also enables him to be more ferocious in run support. I still think he belongs in the second round, even if closer towards the back-end.

Grade: Second round