NFL Draft: KJ Henry will make an impact on any team that chooses him

KJ Henry led another ACC championship-winning defense in 2022.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Thu Jan 26 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2023

With multiple players showing NFL draft first-round potential and talent, some forget about the other Clemson players that will most likely not get drafted until the later rounds. Fifth-year defensive end, KJ Henry, has officially declared for the NFL draft after earning his major in Sports Communication in December of 2020, followed by a Masters in Athletic Leadership one year later. Henry is a smart player who shows high potential going into the draft.

His greatest strength is his pass rush ability, which ranks in the No. 83 percentile among defensive linemen going into the draft this year. In addition, he ranks in the No. 77 percentile in tackling. While he may not possess the elite stats of teammates Myles Murphy or Bryan Bresee, he does show that he is a quality player and well-rounded.

In addition, he also shows good speed, ranking in the No. 79 percentile among defensive linemen coming into the 2023 NFL draft. What is probably going to hurt him the most is his size. His height ranks in the No. 55 percentile, while his weight is in the No. 20 percentile. He also ranks low in hand size (No. 59 percentile), arm size (No. 26 percentile), and wingspan (No. 26 percentile). Teams may view his lack of size comparatively as a lack of physicality, but that is not true. He does show good physicality, although he does need to improve in setting the edge as a run defender a bit more.

However, Henry has the advantage of being able to show off his talent at this year’s Senior Bowl on February 4 (2:30 p.m./NFL Network) where he will be among two Clemson players (the other being tight end Davis Allen) to participate in this game. This will give NFL teams even more of an opportunity to see him against high-level players and to show off his talent to teams that may not be giving him as much attention.

One thing that works in Henry’s favor is that there are teams in need of a pass rusher, which is where is he strongest. This makes him a good fit for teams that struggled to get sacks last season, such as the Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, and Las Vegas Raiders. They were the only three teams in the NFL with less than 30 sacks. However, the Bears are most likely addressing their defense in the first round and have other needs that they would probably address in the later rounds. This leaves the Falcons and the Raiders as potential candidates for Henry, although if he falls to later rounds, then this really puts every team in the running for potentially picking him.

Looking at the Falcons, they are perhaps a little less likely to draft Henry. They have the second-highest amount of salary cap room to work with out of any NFL team, meaning that they could choose to address their defensive concerns in free agency instead of waiting until the draft. However, they are potentially in the market for a quarterback and would want to save some of their money to be able to pay the rookie contract for a first-round quarterback, which does leave them with a little less room.

The Raiders have less money to work with as their salary cap space currently sits at $21,829,005. While this sounds like a lot of money, it doesn’t give the Raiders a lot of room to address their needs in the offseason. So, they may try to do this in the draft. For this reason, they are probably more likely to draft Henry than the Falcons are.

An alternative possibility is to stay local and get drafted by the Carolina Panthers. They are in need of a defensive lineman, although it is not their top priority. This would suggest that they could address this more in the later rounds of the draft, particularly since they are also in need of a quarterback. Further, they do not have a lot of money to work with in the offseason; they are currently set to be over the salary cap and thus have to release some of their players. Potentially, they could trade defensive end Brian Burns since he is the one of the highest-paid players on their team, which would mean that they would need someone to step in and take his place.

Of course, there is a lot that can happen in the offseason in the NFL that could affect where KJ Henry may end up. Nonetheless, he is a player sure to get drafted and will make an impact on any defense he winds up playing for.