INDIANAPOLIS — How many smaller defensive tackles will be disregarded due to their size before the NFL figures it out? John Randle was undrafted at 6-foot-1 and 290 pounds in 1990, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010. Aaron Donald, the best defensive player of his era in a peak value sense (I will brook no argument) fell to the 13th overall pick in the 2014 draft because of his size (6-foot-1, 280 pounds) and despite the fact that he was demolishing dudes at Pitt before he ever saw an NFL field.
Geno Atkins. Grady Jarrett. As much as we like to say, “Low man wins,” there is an obvious bias against shorter, smaller interior defensive line prospects despite the high hit rate at the position(s).
The next guy who will almost certainly deal with this bias to a greater or lesser degree is Calijah Kancey — a PItt alum like Donald, but whose game reminds me of more of an unholy combination of Jarrett and Atkins. We now have Kancey’s official measurements from the scouting combine: 6-foot-1, 281 pounds, arm length of 30 5/8’,’ hand size of 9 1/8’.”
Oh, by the way, he also ran the fastest 40-yard dash for anybody at his position in quite a few years.
Pitt DT Calijah Kancey officially ran a 4.67
That's the fastest time at the Combine for a DT since 2003 🤯pic.twitter.com/m9xr575XyV
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) March 2, 2023
Kancey’s 1.64-second 10-yard split is the fifth-fastest for any defensive tackle since 1999 — Donald had the fastest at 1.59. So, there’s that.
Now, the question is whether any or all of that shows up on tape.
The answer: Decidedly so.
In 2022, Kancey had eight sacks, nine quarterback hits, and 30 quarterback hurries in 275 pass-rushing snaps, and he had 21 stops in 179 run defense reps. Basically, wherever he lined up, anybody in the opposing backfield was in trouble.
Calijah Kancey is the Energizer Bunny in a very bad mood pic.twitter.com/E5CeWd9uar
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) March 2, 2023
That was one of three sacks Kancey put up against Virginia last November 12. He also had two quarterback hits and six quarterback hurries in that game, and one of those pressures resulted in a 39-yard pick-six by cornerback Marquis Williams. A block and a half isn’t going to go well against Kancey — you might want to work the full double-team in cases like this.
Does Kancey’s arm length — among the shortest for interior defensive linemen since 1999 — show up on tape? At times, like in this rep against Louisville. Kancey has to strike proactively with his hands and shoot gaps with authority to make up for the fact that he can get himself enveloped at times.
More often than not, though, Kancey’s adaptive strategies pay off with defensive win after defensive win.
“Grady Jarrett, Javon Hargrave, Quinnen Williams and Aaron Donald,” Kancey said Wednesday from the combine about the players who have inspired his play. “Those types of guys. They paved the way for smaller defensive tackles and showed we could play at the next level. Lots of quickness, speed, technique, block shedding and aggressiveness.”
Kancey has all those attributes in total, and whether he’s downgraded or not due to the NFL’s overall size bias for players at his position, he’s put up more than enough on tape — and on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium — to transcend all of that when it’s time to disrupt at the next level.
