Scrutiny doesn’t bother Kendricks
Linebacker aims to keep disproving his doubters
While at UCLA, inside linebacker Eric Kendricks racked up big tackle totals — and a number of major awards.
In four seasons, he set a Bruins career record with 481 tackles. His 101 solo stops last season led major-college football.
He won the 2014 Butkus Award as the top college linebacker and the Lott IMPACT Trophy as the nation’s best defensive player in character and performance.
And he even possesses NFL bloodlines. His older brother, Mychal Kendricks, was a secondround draft pick in 2012 who led the Philadelphia Eagles with 83 tackles last season and is one of the league’s better all-around interior linebackers.
But in the buildup to the NFL draft, even the most productive players get dissected.
At 6 feet, 232 pounds (as determined at the NFL scouting combine), Kendricks is about 2 to 3 inches and 10 to 20 pounds shy of prototypical size for a pro inside linebacker. So instead of being an automatic first-round pick, he seems more likely to go in the second, especially given the devaluation of inside linebackers at the NFL level, where defenses often employ a nickel back on more plays than a starting inside linebacker.
How has Kendricks handled the switch from being lauded at awards banquets to going under the NFL microscope?
“I don’t really care. I’ve kind of always been under scrutiny and criticism. And I think I’ve always proved it wrong,” he said in a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports.
After his career as a linebacker, quarterback, running back, kicker and punter at Herbert Hoover High School in Fresno, Kendricks was ranked the No. 42 middle linebacker nationally and the No. 88 high school prospect in California by Scout.com.
“I’ve kind of learned to just do my own thing, and whatever I do is good enough. I truly believe that if I just work hard everything will come into place,” said Kendricks, who redshirted as a UCLA freshman and graduated last summer with a degree in political science.
Kendricks, who plans to spend draft day with relatives and friends in Los Angeles, says he hasn’t paid attention to media projections and mock drafts, which rarely list him as a firstround prospect.
“I haven’t even looked at any mock drafts or anything. I kind of just do my own thing,” he said.
UCLA coach Jim Mora, for- merly head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks, notes there is a phase in the scouting process in which teams are “ripping everybody apart trying to find the flaws.”
Mora says the teams that do it right find the redeeming qualities in a player.
In the case of Kendricks, Mora said, “I think it’s his body of work over the last few years. ... It really doesn’t matter what film you turn on; you see a guy that goes sideline to sideline and makes plays.”
The coach is also a fan of his former defender’s intangibles.
“You’re always looking at highcharacter individuals you can trust, and he’s a very trustworthy young man,” Mora said of Kendricks.
At the scouting combine in February, Hendricks solidified his draft standing by running the 40yard dash in 4.61 seconds and posting above-average marks in the vertical jump (38 inches) and the standing broad jump (10 feet, 4 inches).
He could be an NFL inside linebacker in a 3-4 defense. But he also might have enough athlet- icism to play outside with passcoverage duties in a 4-3 defense. He had three interceptions last season at UCLA.
“I think I’m very versatile, and I really don’t care (about position). I just want to play at this point,” Kendricks said. “I think I could do well in both positions.”
In his visits with teams, including the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, he has been asked to demonstrate his understanding of defensive schemes on the drawing board.
“I’m definitely doing a lot of board (work),” Kendricks said. “That’s my part of the game that I love. Get me on the board, let me explain how much I know about the game. I definitely pride myself on my knowledge of the game, so all of that’s easy.”
And counsel from his older brother has kept him focused.
“The main thing he’s taught me is to be myself and that myself is good enough,” he said.
Wherever and whenever he’s drafted, he just wants a shot.
“I just want to play,” he said. “I just want to be there and be part of the NFL.”