In the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens selected Stanford CB Kyu Blue Kelly.
RSR staff react to the pick here.
Darin McCann
Kelly was only available here because of a lack of top-end speed, in my opinion. He’s long, started a ton of games at Stanford and is the son of longtime NFL DB Brian Kelly. The speed prevents him from being a great option as a starter, but this is a good player who can play in this league. Depth piece. A good depth piece.
Chris Schisler
I haven’t done much homework on Kelly, but I like what I see. He looks like a physical and aggressive cornerback who plays bigger than his 190 pound frame suggests.
I don’t know how much Kelly helps you on day one, but I can see him developing while being a strong contributor on special teams. There’s a lot of upside and potential with this pick. In a defensive back heavy draft, he wasn’t who I was hoping the Ravens would end up with, but it’s a solid stab at a team need.
Kevin McNelis
So immediately after I said that the Ravens may be willing to address CB elsewhere, they select a CB. Good ol’ EDC, just when you think he’s gonna zig, he zags.
No complaints from me on the Kelly selection. He’s a high-motor guy with a tremendous ceiling to his potential, and the camp battle at CB is going to get very interesting with his addition.
Receiver? Check
Linebacking depth? Check
Edge? Check
CB? Check
Get me a guard like Emil Ekiyor Jr. and we’ll be ready to call it a day.
Jared Pinder
Kelly was one of the late round fits for the Ravens we discussed here at RSR so I can’t complain. He may never be a star because of his lack of deep speed, but he plays press well and is good in man coverage. Kelly is explosive though and did put up great numbers at Stanford. Can’t complain about a solid starter in the 5th round.
Brennan Stewart
I have to admit, I was getting a bit tired of hearing “best player available” while the needs at cornerback, guard, and defensive end remained unaddressed. Trenton Simpson and Tavius Robinson look to be promising assets to the defensive line, but it is relieving to see some extra depth added to the cornerback position while Marcus Peters remains unsigned.
The shaky part about drafting a cornerback this late in the draft is the likeliness for immediate impact. Behind Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stephens are Jalyn Armour-Davis and Damarion Williams, each who have potential to be breakout candidates this upcoming season.
Kyu Blu Kelly is a sizable cornerback, weighing about 190 lbs at 6’0. While having the size to succeed on most jump balls, at Stanford his biggest weaknesses were anticipating routes and tracking down receivers after being beat. I don’t expect to see a lot of Blu Kelly this season, but he could serve as a solid backup should injury plague the position. We’ll have to see how training camp plays out.
2 Responses
It’s nice we drafted another CB but like with the other DBs we have like Stephens, JAD and Pepe, someone has to step up. This is a pass happy league and we need plenty of DBs. It appears there will be growing pains but we should be okay in due time. I guess we will have to pick up a few DBs in later in the off season.
I don’t know a lot about this pick. I like that he went to Stanford University. Players from Stanford tend to have a good head on them and really seem to excel at the game. Not always of course but a lot of times they do well in the pros. I attribute that to the solid program they run at Stanford University. I really believe we’ll resign Marcus Peters.