NFL Draft
2/19/25
6 min read
Kobe King 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Penn State Nittany Lions LB
Height: 6010 (unofficial)
Weight: 248lbs (unofficial)
Year: Redshirt Junior
Pro Comparison: Benardrick McKinney
Scouting Overview
Penn State Nittany Lions linebacker Kobe King is a stout linebacker with a run-defending resume that will offer him NFL value from the jump. King’s length, hands, and functional power allow him to frequently negotiate or knock back blocks and keep him free to pursue the football.
He isn’t the most dynamic athlete, and there are concessions to be made with his lateral agility and transitions in space as a coverage player. Still, King boasts early down value plus good production and consistent pressure in blitz opportunities to help bolster and prop up his passing down value.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Illustrates powerful punch and textbook block deconstruction techniques in the heart of the defense
- Length allows him to play at the fringes of his wingspan with power as both a wrap-up tackler and when stacking blocks
- Offers good football IQ and processing ability — he trusts his keys and is patient not to get suckered by false action upfront
Negatives
- Has not made a lot of impact plays in the passing game — can struggle to run over traffic to match backs quickly out of the backfield
- Does not possess ideal lateral agility or short-area transitional quickness to shine in space
- Offers a career missed tackle rate of 13 percent. He can be stressed with coming to balance on tackle challenges outside the numbers
Background
King is from Detroit, MI, and played high school football for Cass Tech. There, he was a two-time team captain and was named Honorable Mention All-State at linebacker his senior season. King was a 3-star recruit (247 Sports) who garnered interest from Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, and plenty of other programs in addition to Penn State, where he would go on to enroll as a member of their 2021 recruiting class.
As a true freshman in 2021, King played in four games before redshirting the season, maintaining his four years of eligibility. In 2022, as a redshirt freshman, King appeared in 13 contests and played more than 300 snaps on defense and an additional 103 on special teams. In 2023, King assumed a starting role with 11 starts in 13 games and was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten for his play. His second season as a starter, in 2024, saw King named Second Team All-Big Ten, and he finished second on the team in solo and total tackles.
King was invited to play in the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl but withdrew his name after Penn State’s deep run into the College Football Playoff.
Tale Of The Tape
King is a powerful, physical run defender who can serve as a key piece for an NFL front seven. A two-year starter at Penn State, King has illustrated impressive qualities that are a little bit “throwback” in nature but nonetheless offer significant value in today’s game with the right pieces around him. King is one of the best run-defending backers in college football and has the potential to claim that title in the pro game as well.
This is a stocky, powerful linebacker with length and hand power. He stacks blocks like a defensive lineman, offering significant knockback power with his hands and savvy stack ability to extend and separate his chest to control the point of attack.
When flowing with the front, he’ll wallop linemen who are sweeping up at an angle and can completely overwhelm them on the second level. As a plug player, he offers heavy pads that can slam the door shut on a gap and spill a blocker back into the running back’s lap.
He’s an impressive tackler playing off of contact who can thrive in close quarters while patiently discarding blocks and sorting through to the ball carrier. His motor runs hot, and he’s a tackle magnet, accounting for tackles on nearly 20 percent of run plays he was on the field for across his two seasons as a starter.
King offers sufficient range laterally to fit outside run concepts — he’s more of a linear-burst player, so once he gets his momentum rolling, he can struggle with gearing back down. Accordingly, as he scrapes horizontally, some of his run tackles do come after backs turn the corner on the edge, and he will make those tackle fits a few yards downfield for conceded yardage.
He can be prone to cutbacks and struggling to come to balance outside the numbers once the back forces him to fully open his stride length. This is an expected byproduct of playing at nearly 250 pounds and the change of direction challenges this can provide. King is better with his short-area fluidity when playing square to the line of scrimmage in the box.
In the passing game, King is a more potent defender as a pressure player than he is in coverage. As a blitzer, King shows some desirable fluidity pressing hip to hip with offensive linemen and simultaneously is capable of jarring a blocker with pick stunts and twists inside. He understands the value of execution of blitz schemes and can win as the pressure player or the post player setting the pick. King has enough length to attack skill players early who draw him as an assignment and can play with power against them to create soft edges.
As a coverage defender, his ceiling is modest. He possesses good football instincts and was used as a shallow spy in the middle of the field as an underneath robber in man coverage looks. His attempts to match backs out of the backfield were stressed with enough open grass in the middle of the field.
In instances where King needed to filter through traffic and work outside the numbers against swings and flats, his anticipation of spacing did not do him favors in gaining an open pathway, and he was too often picked or rubbed. In zone coverage, his transitional quickness is modest, and he relies on his linear explosiveness to pop and trigger to cut shallow routes that work across his face.
King’s ability to process his run reads and then get into zone drops in a timely manner will be tested. As such, he’ll be better implemented on passing downs as a pressure player or perhaps ceding reps to a better coverage option.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
King projects best as a MIKE linebacker at the NFL level. He served as one of the quarterbacks of the Nittany Lions' defense and flashes control, processing ability, patience in his run keys, and the deluxe ability to negotiate blocks as a plug player in the middle.
He should be considered a potential NFL starter early on in a scheme that can limit the coverage stress of their inside backer.
Grade: 75.50/100.00, Third Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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