{"id":205015,"date":"2024-12-17T11:30:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T16:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=205015"},"modified":"2024-12-17T11:30:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T16:30:19","slug":"2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-bilhal-kone-wmu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/17\/2025-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report-bilhal-kone-wmu\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFL Draft Early Scouting Report: Bilhal Kone, Western Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Western Michigan\u2019s Bilhal Kone has been an early media favorite as a small-school prospect and is slated to play at the 2025 Senior Bowl. 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 of <b>Western Michigan DB Bilhal Kone<\/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;\">190 lbs<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Player Background:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/bilhal-kone-46118134\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">zero-star recruit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the 2020 class, Bilhal Kone began his collegiate career at Iowa Central Community College. The corner put up two strong seasons with two Second Team All-Conference mentions. There are no available stats for his first season with the team, but he was a season-long starter. In 2021 he made 35 tackles, picked off two passes, and broke up another six. He transferred to Indiana State for the 2022 season, playing in eight games before a season-ending injury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In said games, Kone racked up 34 tackles, six PBUs, and recovered a fumble against North Dakota State. He transferred again to Western Michigan and played in 12 games during the 2023 season. He started four of those games and made 42 tackles, two tackles-for-loss, an interception, and eight PBUs. In his final campaign with the Broncos in 2024 he made 70 stops, batted away another eight passes, and had another INT.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Accolades:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reese\u2019s Senior Bowl Invitee (2024)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Strengths\/Pros:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kone\u2019s smoothness in his feet and hips alone makes him an intriguing secondary developmental project. He cuts on a dime sharply, is a savvy mover when setting up coverages, and has the instincts and speed to plant and drive toward the ball. He has the length to smother wideouts at catch point and he can stay lateral and calm when they work downfield, keeping himself in a good position to make plays on the ball.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His downhill pursuit is technically impressive and he fights through plays to keep himself a factor for as long as possible. Kone recovers really well when initially losing leverage vertically and knows how to use his frame to attack deep balls. He often matches the footwork of WRs when in outside leverage, and he\u2019s disciplined enough to lock down his zone and maintain a commanding presence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Weaknesses\/Cons:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kone desperately needs to become more aggressive in man coverage and learn to latch onto WRs more often. He doesn\u2019t use his hands to get physical in press coverage and doesn\u2019t have the high-end speed to prevent deep shots consistently. He also needs to become more physical in the tackling game to stop plays quicker. While his hips are fluid for his size, he can get trapped rotating too much and get left behind at the top of routes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He can definitely improve on staying in a more consistent movement pattern, sometimes getting too bouncy in his heels. He keeps his eyes too far into the backfield and can give up too much space on sharper cuts. Kone is quite passive against the run and needs to be a bigger factor with his size against outside runs. He gets moved off his stance too easily when blocked and doesn\u2019t lock down and drive his legs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Potential Team Fits:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/saints\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New Orleans Saints<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bengals\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cincinnati<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Bengals<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/ravens\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baltimore Ravens<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>NFL Projection:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kone isn\u2019t the physical specimen that other corners of his size are that allows them to become elite starters, but his prowess in zone coverage could make him a valuable asset. If he enters a system that plays a majority of Cover 2, he has all the tools to be a playmaker. His instincts and length let him cover a ton of ground and he should be able to thrive as a starter with some refinements.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Prospect Grade:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Early to Mid-4th 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. Wisconsin<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. Ohio State<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 vs. Bowling Green<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Main Photo: [Jeff Hanisch] &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview And Film Analysis Of 2025 NFL Draft Prospect And Western Michigan DB Bilhal Kone, A Lengthy Zone Defender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5364,"featured_media":205057,"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":[32605,33081,27083,33080,33079],"class_list":["post-205015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-bilhal-kone","tag-scouting-report","tag-western-michigan-broncos","tag-western-michigan-football"],"modified_by":"Michael Zimmelman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205015","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=205015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205058,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205015\/revisions\/205058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}