Calijah Kancey, who won two state titles at Miami Northwestern, goes in Round 1 of Draft
Calijah Kancey has heard the same criticism dating back all the way to his time at Northwestern. He was too small for the highest-profile college programs to give him a look and now he has spent the last few months hearing about how he might be too small for the NFL.
All along the way, Kancey has done everything in his power to overcome the frustrating narrative and it all paid off. The 6-foot-1, 281-pound defensive tackle from the Pittsburgh Panthers is headed to Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the No. 19 overall selection in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday.
He’s the first player from South Florida to be picked in this NFL Draft, and he did it by embodying the South Florida speed typically thought of as a trait of wide receivers and defensive backs. At the NFL Scouting Combine in March, Kancey ran the 40-yard dash in just 4.67 seconds — a new record for a defensive tackle, solidifying his place as a first-round prospect.
He also tested in the 95th percentile among interior defensive linemen in his 10-yard split, the 99th percentile of the three-cone drill and the 94th percentile of the short shuttle, but measured in the ninth percentile in height, sixth percentile in weight and third percentile in arm length. It made him one of the more polarizing prospects in the Draft.
He’s about much more than just his Combine measurements, though. Kancey became only Pittsburgh’s 15th unanimous All-American after recording 31 tackles, 14 1/2 tackles for loss and 7 1/2 sacks last year to earn Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors as a redshirt sophomore — because of the COVID-19 year.
In high school, he was also a local star, even though he was only a three-star prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2019. He earned first-team all-county honors from the Miami Herald as a senior, and won back-to-back state titles with the Bulls in 2018 and 2019.
Still, the Panthers were one of only six teams from the Power 5 conferences to offer Kancey, with concerns about his size mostly overshadowing his production. Four years later, the defensive lineman’s play has become undeniable.
This story was originally published April 27, 2023 at 10:23 PM.
