The Green Bay Packers have played their first preseason game and have their second one coming up. Before that second game hits, we’re going to try to hit a handful of these mini film rooms and look and individual players. Today, we’re looking at Nyjalik Kelly.
Kelly signed with the Packers this spring as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Central Florida. I’m not going to talk about him as a prospect, because the great Jon Meerdink already did that. You should absolutely read Jon’s profile if you haven’t already, but the big takeaways are this: long-armed athlete with great explosive grades in his RAS score.
His best path to make the roster is as a pass rusher. His flashes in college were good, though he was a bit inconsistent.
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Here are a handful of notes I jotted down as I went through his snaps. Our own Justis Mosqueda charted the day and had Nyjalik Kelly with 10 snaps as the Edge Defender with the Packers second team defense.
As far as a player and usage, Kelly looks like a typical Wide-9 rusher at this early point in his career. That is to say, he will line up outside of the widest player on the line and rush the passer or set the edge. Kelly has a wide array of moves, but he doesn’t appear to have a clear plan snap-to-snap. Sometimes it seems like he’s just throwing every move at the wall to see what lands. “How about a cross-chop? Maybe a Eurostep? A spin? Any of those work?” It’s cool to see those options in his arsenal, but he doesn’t really have an attack plan.
Beyond that, there’s a tentativeness to his game at the moment. A false step before launching. A feeling-out period against an offensive tackle that leaves him a tick slow in his rep. That’s something that can get better simply with more reps, so maybe that improves as the preseason rolls on. It’s something to keep an eye on.
He bites on a lot of misdirection as well. I don’t want to say he doesn’t seem to know where the ball is, but that seems to be the case at times. Again, that’s something that could improve with more reps. The transition from college to the NFL is tough for any player. Right now, it looks like he’s so dialed into doing whatever his assignment is on the play that he’s not always tuned into what’s going on around him.
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We’ll close out with a couple of nice things I saw from him.
The strength and recognition isn’t always on display (for the reasons outlined above), but when it shows up, it’s pretty nice. This next clip shows a run play with Kelly on the right side of the screen (#47) in a four-point stance. He takes on the tackle, stands him up, then sheds and takes down the ballcarrier.
That’s on display again in this next clip, knocking back the tight end and shedding to make the tackle (right side of the screen).
You can see the jolt in his hands in this next clip, knocking back the tight end on the left side.
On the right side of the screen, you can see his speed & burst off the line, and his dip to get under the tackle.
On the left side, you can see his long arms at work, with a one-arm attack against the tackle before dipping underneath on a straight path to the QB. He knocks knees & is tripped up on his way to the sack, but that initial approach shows some real promise.
Kelly has an intriguing skillset. It’s not hard to look at the flashes and see something that could be useful in a somewhat limited capacity this upcoming season. Plus, I’m no special teams maven, but it seems like a dude with long arms could be useful in that area of the game. Still, he’s far from a refined player. I’m curious to watch him through the next two preseason games to see what he looks like.
Albums listened to: Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Weekend; John Carpenter – Cathedral
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