Silver And Black Pride
Kudos to Kyu Blu Kelly for putting in the hard work to not only impress the coaching staff, but also earn a starting spot at outside cornerback for the Las Vegas Raiders.
After not being able to find a foothold in the league after being selected in the fifth round (157th overall) of the 2023 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens, the Stanford product was initially an afterthought — nothing more than camp fodder — for the new regime in the desert. But the son of productive cornerback Brian Kelly not only boasted the prerequisite size and length that Raiders head coach Pete Carroll oh so desires — 6-feet, 191 pounds, with 32-inch arms — he progressively showed in the offseason he not only deserves to stay but earn a starting gig.
Kelly supplanted third-round pick Darien Porter as a starting outside corner after preseason tilts and here we are.
Kelly, a seven game starter as Las Vegas is in a much-needed bye week at 2-5 overall. The 24-year-old is playing the most substantial snaps of his three-year career with 423 total through the first slate games. And that accounts for 93 percent of the Raiders defensive total.
As our Tristian Kuhn noted in his Time for Raiders to play rookies piece earlier this week, the Kelly’s struggles are apparent. And the bye week and ensuing week is an opportune time for the Raiders to end the Kelly experiment and give Darien Porter substantial amount of snaps to see if he can fare better.
On the season, Kelly has 30 total tackles (24 solo, six assists) with one stop for loss, three pass deflections and a fumble recovery. Depending on which charting you prefer — in this instance Pro Football Focus (PFF) or Pro Football Reference (PFR) — the data on Kelly isn’t flattering.
PFF charts Kelly with 25 receptions allowed (seventh most amongst cornerbacks) and an average of 16 yards per catch. That’s 400 yards yielded and the group stamps the cornerback with a 50.2 grade, good for 97th out of 112 charted.
PFR, meanwhile, tracks Kelly with 24 receptions allowed on 36 targets. He’s charted with 330 yards and two touchdowns given up (243 air yards, 87 yards after the catch). Quarterbacks targeting Kelly sport a 114.4 rating and 66.7 completion percentage.
Porter, the Iowa State product who also fits the Carroll bill at nearly 6-foot-3, 195 pound, and 33 1/4-inch arms, in comparison has logged 112 snaps on defense (24 percent) and 92 snaps on special teams (45 percent). He played zero defensive snaps in Week 6 and then 13 in Week 7. His highest participation on defense was the Week 5 loss to the Indianapolis Colts: 66 defensive snaps (100 percent) with two total tackles. On the year, Porter has six total tackles with one start. And PFR charts him with two completions on four targets for 19 yards.
Porter is just a tad older than Kelly — born on Jan. 6, 2001 compared to Kelly...
