Miami Hurricanes talent gap will show up again in this year’s NFL draft, but ESPN draft expert Matt Miller says Kam Kinchens should land in second round

As the Miami Hurricanes look to build toward the college football playoffs under coach Mario Cristobal, one of the ultimate signs of success is going to be how much NFL top talent UM can stuff on its roster.

For now, the pickings remain slim.

It was all the way back in 2007 that Miami had a trio of first-rounders (S Brandon Meriweather at No. 24, LB Jon Beason No. 25 and TE Greg Olsen No. 31), but in the 16 years since the program’s only had seven total players go in the opening round.

In 2022 the team had all of three TOTAL draftees (Tyrique Stevenson in the second round, Will Mallory in the fifth and DJ Ivey in the seventh). The prior year? Only one draftee, Jon Ford in the seventh round.

Which brings us to this year’s NFL Draft. Several players are expected to be taken, including safeties Kam Kinchens and James Williams, DT Leonard Taylor and OL Javion Cohen. C Matt Lee and DB Jaden Davis may slip into the late rounds but are mainly projected as free agents. It’s not expected that DT Branson Deen or CB Te’Cory Couch will be drafted.

ESPN NFL Draft Analyst Matt Miller, asked by CaneSport about where the top Canes fit into the draft, says he sees Kinchens as the UM player taken followed by Taylor … with Williams likely a fourth-rounder. Cohen is projected as a round 5-6 pick based on recent mock drafts.

Miller’s most recent mock draft has Kinchens going in round 2 at No. 57 to Tampa Bay and Leonard Taylor going at No. 59 to Houston.

Could Kinchens sneak into Round 1 and give UM a guy going in the opening round for the first time since 2021?

“As far as getting into the first round (for any Miami player), Kinchens is probably the most likely because of the ball skills – 11 interceptions the last two years,” Miller said. “He was an All-American in 2022 and comes back and has arguably a better year in ’23. So he would be the player. But I would be surprised (if he goes in Round 1) because every time I do a mock draft you try to run through team need, positional value and player rankings. And I have such a hard time getting him into the top 32. I think it would take some type of free agency surprise or a cap casualty that we are not expecting to get him up there.”

As for Taylor?

“He is hard to watch sometimes because I think they played him out of position asking him to play nose tackle a lot,” Miller said. “It’s not really who he is. Combine week is going to be big for him to show what he can do athletically as a penetrator.

“A lot of times on tape he’s done a very good job of collapsing the pocket, causing chaos. He had one sack last year, just is not the guy pulling the quarterback down. So he’s a player I don’t think will get into round 1, but as a round 2 player – he’s going to be more productive in the NFL than he was in college because he’s going to be put in better situations to make plays.”

As it pertains to Williams, Miller pointed to an issue he had at Miami – the fact he played safety but probably projects as a linebacker in the NFL.

“Got a chance to see him at the Senior Bowl – he’s fascinating because I don’t know where you play him,” Miller said. “I think you have to probably play him at linebacker because of his size, but I have him right now as a fourth round prospect because he’s a tweener a little bit. Somebody who has played safety, and played safety very well, but he’s just so big that you’re looking at a Jeremy Chinn, Kyle Dugger type player almost where if he’s going to play safety so much of it is going to be in the box. And safeties, everyone is running two-deep these days. There is not that alternating guys and getting one of them in the box consistently anymore. So he’s coming into the league at a time where a move to weakside linebacker feels really, really likely for him.”

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