Top 10 tight-ends in the 2021 NFL Draft

#8 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Kenny Yeboah (Ole Miss)

6’ 4”, 245 pounds; RS SR

Kenny Yeboah

Just a two-star recruit back in 2016, Kenny Yeboah spent the first four years of his career at Temple, where he only caught one pass as a freshman, before transitioning from wide receiver to tight-end.

While his numbers slightly increased all three seasons, he barely cracked 500 combined yards and six touchdowns (with five coming in his last year there). Yeboah transferred ahead of the 2020 season, originally committing to Baylor, to reunite with the coach, who once recruited him in Matt Rhule, but then changing his choice to Ole Miss, when Rhule decided to coach the Carolina Panthers instead. His one year with the Rebels, though, saw him set career-highs with 27 catches for 524 yards and six scores, averaging 19.4 yards per grab in only eight games.

Yeboah actually spent the majority of snaps with Temple in-line, before he was in the slot almost half the time last season with the Rebels. However, he was heavily utilized from an H-back alignment from a blocking perspective, executing sift blocks on split zone runs, doing these wrap-around pulls and even on counter, where he took his steps as if he were the tailback. He initiates first contact with a wide base and keeps working his feet, while bringing some umph when coming in with charge.

Yeboah shows a competitive nature and solid hand-placement to take care of defenders in open space and get screen plays going, as well as open up yards-after-catch opportunities for his teammates. He also displays good effort and active feet in pass-pro, guiding edge rushers further upfield, to allow his quarterback to step up.

The Rebels’ coaches showed their trust in him, when they asked him to take care of some of the top edge rushers in the SEC for a few snaps every game, despite being on the slighter side. And off that, he is elusive with slipping underneath edge blockers, to get into the flats off different run-fakes.

As a receiver, Yeboah turns his head right away when he clears the linebackers on seam routes and slows down, to not run into the deep safety coverage, while forcing trailing defenders to grab cloth as he works down the middle. When he has inside leverage against man-coverage on shallow crossers, the guy responsible for him will have a tough time sticking with him and will have to hope he is able to chase him down at the opposite sideline.

Yeboah shows a natural ability to adjust to passes behind him, without having to stop his feet too much, and he has his mind set on getting upfield immediately after. There is some make-you-miss ability and he can pull away from second-level defenders after the catch.

He set Ole Miss single-game record against Alabama with seven catches for 181 yards and two scores, where the Crimson Tide’s linebackers and safeties had a tough time sticking with him, but he also had a couple of long plays down the middle off play-action, with the latter one finishing in the end-zone. What he did last season is even more impressive considering Yeboah was only targeted 33 times (and caught 27 of those).

He recorded five catches of 20+ air yards and averaged 9.0 yards after the grab, giving QB Matt Corral a passer rating North of 140 when going his way. Yeboah does a nice job creating those natural rubs on mesh concepts, to get one of his fellow receivers open, even if it means he will have somebody run into him at full speed.

However, Yeboah certainly won’t impose his will on front-seven members as an in-line blocker at the next level. He has more of an oversized wide receiver build and doesn’t have a ton of functional strength. He is too passive as an open-field blocker and allows defender to beat him to the spot at times.

As a receiver, he had 13 drops on 87 catchable passes in his career (three last season), as a bit of a body-catcher. Just over a third of his production last season came in that Alabama game and he averaged under 30 yards over the final three contests he was available for.

A large part of his production was thanks to the wide-open space in Lane Kiffin’s spread offense, without many deeper-breaking routes, which he chopped his feet on when he ran those during Senior Bowl week. Unfortunately, Yeboah only did the jumps at Ole Miss’ pro day, so we don’t know how fast he really is as a full-time option in the slot potentially.

Yeboah isn’t the type of guy you want to put his hand in the dirt and move edge defenders off the ball in the run game, but he shows the willingness to put hands on people and create lanes for his teammates. The drops and the one-year wonder thing in a wide-open offense is somewhat concerning. But I like Yeboah as that H-back and big slot option some time early on day three. For me, he’s a lesser and not as physical a version of Miami’s Brevin Jordan.