{"id":204833,"date":"2024-12-15T16:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T21:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=204833"},"modified":"2024-12-15T15:38:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T20:38:26","slug":"2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-kalel-mullings-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/15\/2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-kalel-mullings-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFL Draft Early Scouting Report: Kalel Mullings, Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To the surprise of many, Kalel Mullings took the Michigan RB1 role by storm over Donovan Edwards and ran with it. Here is a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/11\/defensive-nfl-draft-risers-in-2024-conference-championships\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2025 NFL Draft<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Early <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/14\/2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-elijah-arroyo-miami\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scouting Report <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and film analysis on him.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Overview, Film Analysis, and Early 2025 NFL Draft Scouting Report\u00a0 of <b>Michigan RB Kalel Mullings<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Measurables:<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6\u20192\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">233 lbs<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Player Background:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A linebacker-to-running back conversion, Kalel Mullings graduated from Milton Academy in 2020 as a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/kalel-mullings-46038392\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">four-star LB recruit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. One of the top players in Massachusetts, he got immediate playing time in all six of Michigan\u2019s games in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He made one tackle in said games and broke up a pass. He played in all 13 games his sophomore season, making 11 total tackles in a mixture of defense and special teams time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mullings converted to running back at the end of the 2022 campaign, racking up 12 tackles at linebacker and 31 yards with three scores at running back. He fully transitioned to offense at the start of the 2023 season and has remained since then. He put up 222 yards and a score on 36 carries in 13 games while catching two passes for 32 yards. Breaking onto the scene as the starter in 2024, he set career highs with 948 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Accolades:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Third Team All-Big 10 (2024)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Strengths\/Pros:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mullings&#8217; best aspect is his ability to consistently execute plays as they\u2019re drawn up. He follows the game plan to a tee and rarely misses openings at his first line of vision. He uses his size to invoke decent physicality and lurch forward on his runs. His strength allows him to break leg tackles, and he is a pretty prototypical power back on designed inside runs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He runs well between tackles and understands the line of scrimmage enough to prevent excess negative plays. Mullings\u2019 early footwork in the backfield is sharp, and he makes defenders miss and attacks holes at his first cut. He plays like the former linebacker that he is and runs with a forceful attitude that creates some downhill runs that strike through the defensive middle.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Weaknesses\/Cons:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To put it bluntly, the biggest detriment to Mullings\u2019 game is terrible ball-carrier vision. He routinely misses holes as they open up mid-play and makes some incredibly questionable running decisions. On top of that, his speed is nowhere near the top end of the spectrum. This further limits his effectiveness when bursting through gaps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mullings struggles to work laterally, with both below-average speed and fluidity that renders him unable to hit the edge often. He usually gets caught before breaking off big runs and his iffy acceleration does him no favors. His pass blocking is very technically incomplete, and he gets beat by smarter edge rushers. He isn\u2019t a high-profile receiving threat and can be corralled easily without any route-running prowess.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Potential Team Fits:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/broncos\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Denver Broncos<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/texans\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Houston Texans<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>NFL Projection:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mullings projects as a decent RB2\/3 option for a team looking to implement some extra power into their position group. He\u2019s likely too slow to be a bell-cow back and has vision issues that restrict him to an inside rusher. He could find himself a decent multi-year role if he can prove to be effective in short-yardage situations. However, there doesn\u2019t seem to be much of a path for him to become much more than that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Prospect Grade:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Early 6th Round<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Film Exposures:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. USC<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. Minnesota<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. Texas<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Main Photo Courtesy of Junfu Han &#8211; Detroit Free Press &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview and film analysis of 2025 NFL Draft Pprospect and Michigan RB Kalel Mullings, a tough-running power back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5364,"featured_media":204836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647],"tags":[32605,33077,33068,1657,27083],"class_list":["post-204833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-kalel-mullings","tag-michigan-football","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-scouting-report"],"modified_by":"Drew VonScio","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204833"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204837,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204833\/revisions\/204837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}