With their final pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers selected Penn State cornerback Kalen King. They used the No. 255 selection on King, one of five compensatory picks at the end of the seventh round.
It was certainly a spot the Packers didn’t expect King to be available at, as he was considered a first-round prospect by some evaluators entering the 2023 season. However, he did not perform up to the same level that he did in 2022, which led to his drop in the rankings.
It is something that Packers’ general manager Brian Gutekunst was pleased with. Green Bay had King rated much higher than where they selected him, giving the team some nice value with their final pick of the draft. Gutekunst is hoping that King will use what he sees as a slight going so late in the draft as motivation.
“I think our league has a long history of guys who felt they were overlooked and use that as motivation to drive themselves,” said Gutekunst about King. “Hopefully, that’ll be the case. I didn’t hear that interview. 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.
“He’s got a really nice skill set. Has played some high-level football at Penn State. He’s got some versatility to play outside and to play nickel as well. And again, I think his best football is ahead of him as well. He’s a young player. He was a three-year player coming out. So, hopefully, that does drive him. We’re going to have a very competitive secondary right now and I feel really good about that and it’s going to be fun to watch those guys excel.”
King brings a rare blend of experience and youth to the table for Green Bay. He has three seasons of experience at a major program, has reached All-American heights and is still only 21.
While seventh-round picks don’t normally see the field early in their career, King could be in the mix for playing time early on. The Packers have shown they are not afraid to give playing time to guys who earn it during the offseason regardless of draft status.
Just last season, seventh-round pick Carrington Valentine, another cornerback, forced his way into the lineup with stellar play during offseason workouts, training camp and preseason. He appeared in all 17 regular season games for the Packers, starting 12 games.
Valentine is one of the players that King will be competing against for playing time, along with former first-round pick Eric Stokes. With the safety depth chart unsettled beyond Xavier McKinney, King could factor into the mix there as well.
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