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Kamren Kinchens 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For Miami S

Originally posted on The 33rd Team | By Greg Cosell | Last updated 4/11/24

The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.

Here's our report on Kamren Kinchens.

Kamren Kinchens' 2024 NFL COMBINE RESULTS

Height: 5-foot-11 1/4"
Weight: 203
40-yard dash: 4.65
10-yard split: 1.59
20-yard shuttle: DNP
Vertical jump: 55"
Broad jump: 9-foot-2
Arm length: 31 1/4"

Kamren Kinchens 2024 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT

STRENGTHS

Good size for safety position with plus straight-line speed and range on the back end. Covered ground easily.
At his best playing downhill from the back end with aggression and competitiveness. Played with some physicality.
Showed plant and drive burst from split safety alignment on routes in front of him. Physical at point of contact.
Burst and physicality as a top-down safety, showing range as a tackler and delivering solid hits on receivers.
Post safety snaps, he showed vision to read the quarterback and the play speed to range to the sideline and play the ball.
Reps in which tackled with good fundamental technique, coming to balance and squaring up to attack the ball.
2023: Extensive experience aligning in multiple positions in the defense, including in the box and overhang.
Excellent play speed and range with a second explosive gear. Covered ground with excellent closing speed.
Not afraid to be physical. That’s a foundational component of his game. He will throw his body and deliver blows.
Explosive downhill and sideline-to-sideline with extra gear. Outstanding closing speed with physical components.
Showed needed technique to make strong form tackles playing downhill. At times, he stopped runners in their tracks.
What continued to stand out was his play speed was faster than timed speed. Played with outstanding range.
Showed plant and drive quickness and burst from off coverage when matched on detached TE. Fluid transition.
Good feel for reading the QB as a back-end safety and the range to make plays on the ball (last two interceptions).
Played with good vision on the QB as back-end safety. Played with strong eye discipline and route processing.

WEAKNESSES

At times, he is too upright and stiff in his pedal as a post safety. Transition and change of direction are a little segmented.
He looked a little tight-hipped at times when transitioning, a little sticky opening, and flipping his hips on the back end.
Showed a tendency as a tackler to bend at the waist and throw his body at the runner. That can be cleaned up.
2023 – Showed a tendency to drop his head as a tackler when playing downhill from the back end. Did not see the ball.
At times, there was a reckless and undisciplined nature to his pursuit just running at the ball with no technique.

NFL TRANSITION

Kinchens is a compactly built safety who has extensive experience playing on the back end in single-high and 2-shell structures and in the box and overhang alignments. That gives him the needed versatility to fit into any defensive scheme.

What consistently stood out on tape was that Kinchens' play speed and range were faster than his disappointing timed speed, which the tape tells you is not at all representative of his play.

One of the defining traits of his game was his build-up acceleration and tracking speed to make plays downhill from the back end and sideline to sideline. Kinchens, as a back-end safety, showed top-down plant, drive burst, and quickness on routes in front of him. He delivered big hits on receivers in the middle of the field and showed the range to work from post safety to the sideline to make plays on the ball.

Kinchens put together good tape in 2022 and 2023. While he has some things to clean up, he is an alignment versatile safety who can transition to the next level in multiple schemes with his ability and experience playing on the back end and in the box with the man-to-man chops to match up to TE.

What you love about Kinchens is his highly competitive and aggressive playing personality. While he is, at times, reckless and undisciplined, he brings an attitude and a swagger to a defense that all coaches will like.

The more I watched Kinchens, the more I liked him, and two players came to my mind in terms of playing style, mentality and overall traits: Darnell Savage and Budda Baker

OTHER NOTES

Kinchens came out of Miami Northwestern High School as a highly recruited four-star, turning down multiple SEC and Big 10 offers to play at Miami. Kinchens started 27 games in his three-year Miami career and was named First Team All-ACC in both 2022 and 2023.

In 2022, Kinchens almost always was the safety to the field in split safety coverages and the post safety in single coverages. There were snaps in which he lined up over the slot, depending on the offensive formation. In Miami’s man coverage concepts, Kinchens matched up to both TE and running backs. All three interceptions versus Georgia Tech in 2022 came as the post safety.

In 2023, Kinchens again lined up on the back end in single high and 2-shell coverage structures and in the box or in an overhang alignment. There were snaps in which he was deployed as a blitzer, at times coming from a distance. Kinchens also matched up man-to-man on TE, both attached and detached from the formation.

This article first appeared on The 33rd Team and was syndicated with permission.

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