Kahlil McKenzie, DT
Nathanael: 7th round
Will: 6th round
William: 7th round
Charley: undrafted
Cole: 7th round
Coming out of high school, Kahlil McKenzie was a five-star prospect with high hopes of becoming the next great Tennessee defensive tackle. That never panned out for him, though, and a lot of his value in the NFL is based on potential rather than production.
Scouts really like what they’ve seen from McKenzie at workouts and at the NFL Combine, but the fact that his work in drills and practices don’t line up with what he did in college causes concerns. There’s still the assumption from most draft analysts that at team will take a chance on McKenzie in one of the later rounds of the draft, but there’s a chance he goes undrafted too.
Injuries played a part in McKenzie not living up to expectations early in his Tennessee career, but he was mostly healthy last season and still didn’t do what most expected him to do. McKenzie will be an interesting player to watch in this year’s draft. Will he sneak onto someone’s board in one of the last two rounds on Saturday? Or will he fail to get drafted and end up signing with a team of his choosing?
In 31 career games with Tennessee, McKenzie totaled 72 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, a forced fumble, and two passes defended.
