The Unpacking Future Packers Countdown is a countdown of 100 prospects that could be selected by the Green Bay Packers in the 2024 NFL draft.
On paper, the Green Bay Packers appear to have a solid group of cornerbacks. Jaire Alexander is an all-pro caliber player. Carrington Valentine showed promise last season as a seventh-round rookie. Keisean Nixon is back to man the nickel position. If Eric Stokes can rediscover his rookie form, the Packers could be cooking with gas.
Can Alexander and Stokes stay healthy? Are the Packers willing to put all their eggs in the Valentine basket? On top of the injury concerns, Alexander, Nixon and Valentine are the only ones under contract after next season.
There is no denying that the room has talent, but clouds are approaching, ready to damper expectations.
Considering all those factors it would not be shocking to see Brian Gutekunst add a cornerback early in the 2024 NFL Draft. A potential target with the 25th overall pick is Kool-Aid McKinstry. The Alabama cornerback checks in at No. 10 in the Unpacking Future Packers Countdown.
A five-star recruit, McKinstry started in six games during his first season on campus and recorded 26 tackles, one sack and one interception. The following season the Alabama native recorded two tackles for loss, one sack, one interception and 15 pass deflections. This past season McKinstry recorded two tackles for loss and seven pass deflections.
“Despite his outlandish name, Kool-Aid was a quiet personality with sticky coverage abilities, leading to him rarely being noticed whatsoever on any given broadcast,” Brent Taylor, the editor for Roll Bama Roll said. “Going back, he was thrust into a starting role as a true freshman when both starting corners got hurt in the playoffs back in 2021 and played admirably, though he did give up one long completion to a veteran George Pickens. He then took the full-time starting job as a sophomore, and I’m not sure he gave up another big play the next two years.”
Calm, cool and collected. That’s McKinstry. The Alabama cornerback never looks panicked out on the gridiron and has only given up two receptions of 30-plus yards over the past two seasons. He’s a lockdown, boundary cornerback who smothers wide receivers.
He’s a well-balanced athlete with coordinated feet to mirror. The former five-star recruit has the oily hips to open up and stay hitched to the wide receiver’s hip pockets downfield. McKinstry has the length to choke passing lanes and is disruptive at the catch point.
“He’s calm, patient, and balanced,” Taylor said. “No matter where a receiver goes or what they do, Kool-Aid knows how to stay with them and never panic. He’s the kind of player who’s just always a step ahead and has a feel for a receiver’s routes before they run them. He’s also fairly impressive at pressing off the snap to start.”
McKinstry isn’t a fighter against the run. There are times when he explodes downhill to disrupt a bubble screen and when he can fly downhill uncontested he’ll make the tackle behind or near the line of scrimmage. He’s a reliable tackler, it’s just the fight isn’t always there, sort of like Alexander. Turn on the game against Kentucky and you’ll see McKinstry impacting the run. Throughout his career, he was tagged with just nine missed tackles.
“This is his biggest hangup, in my opinion,” Taylor said. “Kool-Aid will get washed by perimeter blocks, and he’s prone to poor efforts on tackling, which can lead to his arm tackles getting blown by.”
Along with being a lockdown cornerback, McKinstry provides special teams value as a punt returner. In 2022, McKinstry averaged 15.8 yards per return and finished his career with 35 punt return attempts and an 11.9 yards per return average.
Fit with the Packers
With question marks both in the short and long term surrounding the cornerback room at 1265 Lombardi Avenue, Gutekunst may opt to add a player of McKinstry’s skill set.
The Alabama cornerback has the ability to take half the field away and at times looks like a 10-year veteran. Terrion Arnold had the eye-popping production, while McKinstry just quietly went about his business, getting targeted 39 times, and locking down the man across from him.
“Kool-Aid has a few flaws that I think keep him from being an elite, All-Pro type of corner,” Taylor said. “He’s a poor tackler, he struggles to make interceptions, and he just doesn’t really make game-changing plays. Still, he’s about as good as you can get at mirroring receivers and covering, and you’ll pretty much always have nothing to worry about on one side of the field. Any team that needs that kind of stability at one corner position would/should be more than happy to grab him in the first round.”
McKinstry checks all the boxes. He doesn’t give up the big play and when he was targeted regularly he led the SEC in pass deflections. He’s only 21 years old and brings special teams value as a punt returner. If he’s on the board when the Packers are on the clock, the Packers could have a new cornerback to pair with Alexander for the foreseeable future.