The packers released a small part of their photo of the alignment this weekend, sending a sixth round choice in 2027 to the Eagles of Philadelphia for the offensive line Darian Kinnard. The movement solidifies the lower end of the depth table of the offensive line, probably sealing the fate of Kadeem line players Telfort and Donovan Jennings in the process.
But who is Kinnard, and what does he bring to packers? Here is the background of the new offensive line player for packers.
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Although it has not yet been up to his invoicing in the pros, Kinnard was a very decorated perspective dating from the school. Player of lines from all over Ohio, Kinnard was classified as a four -star recruit by ESPN and was appointed 101st best hope in the country by 247sports. With offers of 16 FBS programs, Kinnard chose Kentucky against Penn State, Ucla and Tennessee.
Kinnard appeared in nine games as a real recruit during the 2018 Kentucky season, starting two of the last three games in the left tackle. It would be the last time in his university career, he would be very close to a safeguard. Kinnard started each match in which he appeared for the rest of his time in Kentucky, established himself as a pillar on the right side of the offensive line.
During the 2021 season, he played under the offensive coordinator Liam Coen, now head coach of Jacksonville Jaguars. It ended up being Kinnard’s best collegial season, although he received many distinctions throughout his university career. That year, he was appointed consensus in the first All-American team, becoming only the 12th player in Kentucky football history to receive this honor.
Kinnard will never be confused for a slender line player, focused on finesse, but he was particularly large in Kentucky, switching the balance to more than 370 pounds during his university career. He struck before the draft of the NFL 2022, weighing 322 pounds at the combination of the NFL, where he posted decent but certainly not exceptional measures. Its division of 10 yards of 1.78 seconds in the dashboard of 40 yards has erased the typical thresholds of packers for automatic lines, and packers brought it for a visit.
Most analysts considered Kinnard enough before the project that year. Dane Brugler had it as the third best guard prospect in the 2022 edition of The Beast, ranking it as a hope of the second round. It is the highest that I saw anyone projecting it, but it is not so important. Eric Edholm projected it as a second or third -round choice for Yahoo Sports, an estimated offensive line assessor Brandon Thorn had done it as a third round choice for the Bleacher reportAnd Lance Zerlein had it as the third round for Nfl.com. He was the 66th perspective classified on the great advice of the NFL Mock Draft Database Consensus Big Board.
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But when the draft rolled, Kinnard was not selected before the fifth round, probably due to concerns about his ability to play at NFL level given his overall intermediate athletics. The two teams for which they have played so far seem to share these concerns, because Kinnard has spent his entire career bounce back between the guard and the tackle. The chiefs, which selected it with the 145th choice in 2022, aligned it exclusively with Tackle during the pre-season 2022 according to the PRO Football Focus sidewalk data. He did not take any Snaps in attack during the 2022 season (appearing in a match and recording six snaps on special teams), and by 2023, he was lining up. He was cut at the end of the training camp this season, spending the year in the Chiefs’ Training Team.
Kinnard signed with the Eagles in February 2024 and Philadelphia brought him back to the plate. He played there exclusively during the pre-season matches of the Eagles in 2024 and made the only start of his career in the NFL during the right striker at the end of the regular season of 2024, although he played three clichés on the left guard week 8.
And of course, we are forced to note that Kinnard was a member of three consecutive teams of the Super Bowl, although the fact that he did not play a single snap in any of them decreases the historic nugget a little.
This year, the Eagles had divided Kinnard’s time between the right tackle and the right guard, although most of his time came inside. 70 of the 101 snaps he played in this year’s pre-season games came to the right, perhaps an indication of what the Eagles had planned for him this year. He I have a little time with the first Philadelphia team at the left guard This summer and seems to have queue to make their list of 53 men out of the camp.
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Where does that drop him out with packers? Green Bay is rinsing with the plated at the moment; Zach Tom, Rasheed Walker, Jordan Morgan and Anthony Belton give them everything they could ask for this place. But if there is an uncertainty with the offensive line of the packers, it is with the three interior spots, in particular the guard.
Jordan Morgan is probably their best backup on the left and right guard at the moment (although if Aaron Banks breaks down, they could move Sean Rhyan and put Morgan on the right side, as they did when they mixed their line in week 9 of last year to compensate for Josh Myers lacking time). Beyond Morgan, things become a little hairy. Travis Glover would probably have been filled with it too, but he made for the year after a LAT injury which required surgery. Jacob Monk, Donovan Jennings and Kadeem Telfort are the other serious options, but none of the two really intensified to exercise his claim this pre-season.
Enter Kinnard, who almost certainly launches one or both of Telfort and Jennings from the list with Monk’s experience in the center probably saving him, at least in the short term. In any case, Kinnard looks like a guard for packers, although the experience in another position is never a bad thing when the packers come to call.
If nothing else, filling out last -minute list forecasts has become a little easier. We know that Kinnard makes the team, even if the place he plays is not yet completely clear.
