Denver Broncos NFL Draft: Scouting DT Darius Kilgo, Maryland
When the Denver Broncos popped on the clock in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft, they opted for a massive defensive lineman that can come in and contribute, hopefully right away, in Maryland’s Darius Kilgo.
Kilgo was relatively unheralded as a three-year starter for the Terps. He was ESPN’s 32nd ranked defensive tackle this year, and some felt like was a late-round, priority free agent type. The Broncos obviously saw his near 6-foot-3, 313 pound frame and felt like he had the ability to play some nose tackle in Wade Phillips’ defense.
Let’s take a closer look at Kilgo, what he brings to the table, and how he can carve out a role on the Broncos this year.
MEASURABLES
Ht: 6-3
Wt: 313 pounds (Pro Day)
40 time: 5.17
Bench Press: 33 reps (225 pounds)
QUICK SUMMARY
Kilgo is a bookcase on the football field, a really hard body to move in the middle with heavy hands and great upper body strength. He needs to work with Bill Kollar (Broncos DL coach) on developing pass rush techniques, along with stack/shed consistency, but he offers an immediate help as a run stuffing 0- or 1-technique on the defensive line.
Memorable Game
The game against Iowa was perhaps Kilgo’s best performance as a college athlete. He was dominant in this game, and I remember it because when I heard his name pop up in pre-draft talk, I remember watching him man-handle Iowa live.
He was almost unstoppable for the interior Iowa offensive line. Here’s a taste:
And here’s the main course:
POSITIVES
When Kilgo fires out of his stance and keeps good leverage, he’s an absolute monster to contain. The problem is, we didn’t see it as often as we need to. His hands are like big, strong clubs to move offensive linemen out of the way — when he wants to.
This right here will earn him a lot of money in the NFL if he does it consistently.
I also saw plenty of really good lateral movement (for a big man) from Kilgo. What I mean by that is when he was forced to move side to side rather than just explode upfield, he did pretty well. There were a lot of eye opening, big plays on tape from Kilgo. He showed excellent upper body strength and an ability to explode through the line of scrimmage with his wide body and make life hell for opposing quarterbacks.
NEGATIVES
The previous section was all about the positives, and the only negative I could see on tape was that he doesn’t use those great traits at all times. Kilgo doesn’t have consistent get-off on the snap. He plays too high at times. When he faces a double team on the interior, he didn’t always keep his feet going and try to push the pocket. Rather, he seemed ‘content’ at times to make an initial effort, and then just occupy the block.
There were times when it seemed like Kilgo was having a tough time reading the play, or he played into a misdirection the offense was trying to fool him with to open a running lane on the other side of his body. It seemed he didn’t make an impact on a play as much as he is capable of doing at times.
OVERALL
For a sixth round pick, there were a lot of splash plays that made me wonder if we’d seen it on a more consistent basis, we might be talking about a day two pick. Certainly, the measurables were there. The consistent production, however, wasn’t. Now, he did finish last year with a very respectable 43 tackles, 8 TFL, and two sacks. For an interior lineman, especially a zero/one technique in a 3-4 operation, those are solid numbers.
The only problem I have with it is, watching the tape, there were more opportunities out there that could have been taken advantage of. As you can see in the .gifs throughout this post, the explosiveness is there. The power is there. The hand usage?
There.
Everything is there for Kilgo, he’s just a boxed set of LEGOs and someone needs to put it all together. Bill Kollar might be the perfect guy to do that. The Broncos have Sylvester Williams and Marvin Austin as nose tackles, but Kilgo is a really interesting player that I think provides more in the way of pass rush potential than many scouting reports are leading on. His future in the NFL is going to be as a penetrating nose that can eventually take up blockers once he figures out how to consistently fire off the ball and disrupt plays before they get started.
The sky is the limit there.
This was a good pick by the Broncos, as I stated during the draft. Here’s my stunning analysis and reaction to the pick from Twitter that day:
Darius Kilgo is a good pick
— Sayre Bedinger (@SayreBedinger) May 2, 2015
In all seriousness, after watching Kilgo play a little more, I’m impressed by his physical qualities as well as the flashes of NFL quickness and strong hands I saw. There’s a lot of potential here, and it’ll be up to DL coach Bill Kollar to extract it.