NFL Analysis
4/11/24
5 min read
Kris Jenkins 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For Cincinnati Bengals DT
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 Kris Jenkins.
Kris Jenkins' 2024 NFL COMBINE RESULTS
- Height: 6-foot-3
- Weight: 299
- 40-yard dash: 4.91
- 10-yard split: 1.70
- 20-yard shuttle: 4.78
- Vertical jump: 30"
- Broad jump: 9-foot-7
- Arm length: 34"
Kris Jenkins 2024 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT
STRENGTHS
- Showed some natural strength coming off the ball in the run game. Played low, getting underneath OL with force.
- In run-game snaps, he showed strong hands to control and displace OL and split double teams at POA.
- POA strength in the run game to stalemate and defeat double teams with balance and body control to make plays.
- Excellent quickness off the snap and through the rep. Light feet with some juice to his overall movement.
- Made plays in the run game, playing off contact and working down the LOS. Showed excellent lateral quickness.
- Consistently won one-on-one battles with interior OL in the run game. Came off the ball low to high with strength.
- Outstanding strength and explosion off the snap in the 6-to-10-inch area, then power and lateral agility to defeat the block.
- Two-gap traits with his short-area strength to control interior OL and then displace them to react to the runner.
- The more 2022 tape I watched, the more dominant snaps there were as a run defender. Strong and powerful.
- Showed strength and power as an inside pass rusher, getting inside and driving back interior OL into the pocket.
- 2023 – Showed quick, effective arm-over-swim move that beat OL off the snap. Subtly sudden with his hands.
- In run game snaps, he showed sudden quickness off the snap in combination with quick, active hands.
- Played to his arm length effectively in the run game with powerful extension to lock out, creating separation.
- What consistently stood out was strong, heavy hands that controlled OL, allowing him to win leverage game.
- Showed an effective inside spin move as a pass rusher. Good quickness with the balance to close with speed.
- Flashed a club-rip move as an inside pass rusher. 2023 showed some expansion of his game as an inside rusher.
WEAKNESSES
- Can Jenkins develop into a quality inside pass rusher?
- There were run-game snaps where he was double-teamed and too easily moved and driven out of the POA.
- 2023 – Played much more as a two-gap DL. Can he be effective as a one-gap penetrating DT?
- QB sacks and pressures predominantly came from pursuit plays, stunts and games. Can Jenkins win 1-on-1?
- Limited pass rusher at this point. Not likely to be played in sub-fronts on third down or in defined passing situations.
- He did not make many impact plays or negative plays and did not show any true playmaking dimension to his game.
- In big games, he only played about 50 percent of defensive snaps. He was a rotational player in college. Is that a concern?
NFL TRANSITION
Jenkins will be an interesting projection and transition to the next level, given how he was deployed at Michigan. He was predominantly aligned as a two-gap DL working off contact rather than attacking and penetrating gaps. There were run-game snaps in which he showed sudden quickness off the ball, slanting into gaps (function of defensive front call) and making plays.
That is not the same as being as a true one-gap penetrator in an even front scheme. Coaches must project whether Jenkins has the physical and athletic traits to be a one-gap penetrator or if he is a two-gap DT with a defined set of traits. That transitions him to the NFL in a less expansive way, becoming team- and scheme-specific.
There was no question Jenkins showed flashes of playing with the kind of off-the-ball suddenness and lateral quickness that would be needed to play as a one-gap DT. But that was not the foundation of how he was deployed in Michigan's defense.
Jenkins' game is built on leverage, power and force with the off-the-ball explosiveness and strong, heavy hands to get inside and underneath interior OL to control and displace them to make plays in the run game. The question is whether there is more to his game, taking him beyond being a rotational piece to more of a foundational player who can play 40-50 snaps a game and be a factor on all three downs.
As Jenkins enters the NFL, the bottom line is his lack of a meaningful pass-rush profile and one-gap penetrating traits will significantly limit his early deployment.
He is an A’Shawn Robinson kind of player who will begin his NFL career as a rotational second-unit base DT (likely best deployed in a five-man DL front), hoping that with coaching and natural development, he can become more than that.
There were a few individual snapshots of pass rush throughout his tape, including an effective spin move. So, the question becomes whether that can be a starting point to develop into at least a functional inside pass rusher at the next level.
OTHER NOTES
Jenkins was a three-star recruit out of Maryland and played four years at Michigan, becoming a full-time starter in his junior season of 2022.
In 2022, Jenkins lined up at DT and DE in Michigan’s defensive fronts, including some snaps outside the OT to the open side. He was the 4i-4 technique in Michigan’s five-man fronts with snaps at 3-technique and
2i in the four-man fronts. Jenkins was not normally part of the sub fronts on third down, which said the coaching staff did not see him as a strong inside pass rusher.
In 2023, Jenkins again lined up at DE and DT, including snaps at 0-technique. He was a rotational player in
Michigan’s deep defensive front, playing only approximately half the snaps. Jenkins' best game of the season regarding pass rush came in the National Championship game vs. Washington. He showed some interior quickness to win with a spin move and a club rip move.
