How did Carrington Valentine nearly go undrafted?

Carrington Valentine came from college football's premier conference and has already moved to the upper reaches of one of the NFL's top cornerback rooms. So how did he last until the end of the draft?

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As Monday's practice neared its conclusion, the Green Bay Packers went through their move-the-ball period. One particular play pitted starting wideout Romeo Doubs against one of the team's rookies, cornerback Carrington Valentine.

Doubs, now in his second year, has grown into a favorite target of quarterback Jordan Love. The two have connected regularly throughout the Packers' offseason program and training camp to great effect even against top corners Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas. At this stage, a throw to Doubs usually goes well for Love and the offense.

Monday followed a different script, however. With Valentine in coverage, Doubs ran an out, one of his most effective routes. The receiver gained a step on the rookie at the breakpoint, separating as he cut to the sideline and turned his head at the quarterback. Love didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger, anticipating yet another easy completion to Doubs.

But the ball never reached its intended destination. Instead, Valentine jumped underneath the route and plucked it out of the air, turning a routine pass into a pick-six.

"He did a great job, made a great break on it, and was able to get that pick," Love said of Valentine's interception. "Credit to him. It's one thing you got to learn from right there."

The house call represents just the latest successful moment for Valentine. The rookie has exceeded every expectation since landing in Green Bay as a seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. After starting at the bottom of the cornerback rotation, Valentine caught the coaching staff's attention with one stellar play after another. By the time the Packers' preseason opener arrived, he had clawed his way into the No. 3 spot at boundary corner.

That elevation put Valentine in the spotlight. With Alexander missing some time with a groin issue and third-year cornerback Eric Stokes still on the physically unable to perform list, the rookie spent most of last week's practices as the starter opposite Douglas. That trend continued into the Packers' preseason tilt with the Cincinnati Bengals during which Valentine held receivers to just two catches on six targets for 16 yards, broke up multiple passes, and recorded his first NFL interception.

(via @packers)

"Even though I'm taking reps with the ones, you still got to be humble about it," Valentine said of his promotion. "But my confidence, being out there with those guys and making plays against the guys going onto Year 2 or 3 and stuff like that and seeing how you fare against them, it really helps a young guy like me. And even the other rookies I see running with the ones, when they make plays against your vets, it really helps your confidence. Like, yeah, I really do belong here."

Valentine shouldn't lack confidence. Prior to joining the Packers, he played for the Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC, college football's premier conference. While there, Valentine saw no shortage of future NFL pass catchers, including DeVonta Smith, Jonathan Mingo, and Jalin Hyatt. That sort of trial by fire can go a long way toward preparing a young cornerback for the next level.

Still, the rookie has more than just an SEC pedigree working in his favor. Standing a hair under 6-foot with arms longer than 32 inches, Valentine has an impressive frame for a cornerback and can use that length to redirect receivers and make plays on the ball that many defenders cannot. He also has top-end speed, acceleration, and explosiveness, all physical traits that can help him overcome mistakes. Valentine's 9.30 Relative Athletic Score, a composite rating that factors in multiple tests and measurements, places him among the very elite performers at his position.

"Well, I think he's got the skill set that you'd look for," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said of Valentine. "He's athletic, he's long, and he competes. He's not afraid, and I love that about him. He's got a great demeanor. I think he's extremely coachable. I think he's been working really hard. Quite frankly, from the moment we've gotten him, he's had a great attitude. Comes into work each and every day. And you saw it early on and you continue to see it. The guy just shows up in practice and he makes plays and he competes. Really excited about what he could turn into and develop into."

Valentine proved his mettle in the SEC. He emerged from college with a professional demeanor and unimpeachable physical tools. In just a few short months, he has impressed his coaches and teammates and has positioned himself for a substantial role early in his NFL career.

All of which begs the question: How did Valentine nearly go undrafted back in April?

No single cause can fully account for how such a promising prospect fell through the cracks. Rather, a multitude of factors led to Valentine waiting until the final moments of the draft to hear his name called.

Underclassman prospect from program known for upperclassmen

The SEC has a well-earned reputation for delivering more NFL talent than any other conference, but its programs produce prospects in different ways. Whereas the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs regularly send waves of players to the next level, the Vanderbilt Commodores and Missouri Tigers do so far less frequently.

As for Kentucky, plenty of draft picks have come out of the program, including four first-round selections and 18 top-100 picks since 2000. That list doesn't include Tim Couch, the former Wildcats quarterback who went No. 1 overall in the 1999 NFL Draft to the expansion Cleveland Browns. In all, 70 former Wildcats have found jobs in the league since the turn of the century.

However, of all the players Kentucky has sent to the NFL since 2000, only a select few departed without spending at least four years in college. During that span, just seven draft picks left the program three years after graduating high school, the minimum amount of time allowed for eligibility under the league's collective-bargaining agreement. That figure grows even smaller when considering that one of those players, defensive lineman Jeremy Jarmon, only decided to leave early after the NCAA suspended him for his senior season and essentially pushed him into the supplemental draft.

A dearth of early playing time in the program also contributes to so few underclassmen declaring for the draft.

"They are maybe the best developmental program in the SEC," Michael Bratton, who has covered the conference for over a decade and now hosts That SEC Podcast, said of Kentucky. "They don't really get the five-star talent. It's very rare for them to get that caliber of player, but they're making do with what they got. It's usually Year 2, Year 3 when those players begin to break into the lineup like (former Wildcats pass rusher) Josh Allen."

All of this underscores an unmistakable pattern: Kentucky's players seldom leave early for the NFL.

In that context, Valentine stands out as an extreme outlier for Kentucky. The cornerback played in 10 games as a true freshman before serving as a full-time starter each of the next two years. And not only did he spend just three years in college, but he actually had multiple seasons of eligibility remaining due to the NCAA's policy for the COVID-affected 2020 campaign. With so much time still available to Valentine and scouting resources finite, NFL personnel departments had little reason to do their homework on a cornerback that most assumed would stay in Lexington for another year or two.

That type of situation can lead to a prospect flying under the radar, and a report from one of the league's two major scouting services reinforces that notion. National Football Scouting, a service used by double-digit NFL franchises, rated Valentine as a "preferred free agent" entering the 2022 college season, a source with knowledge of the report told The Leap. The same source explained that underclassmen considered unlikely to declare early for the draft often receive such grades as they can go "underscouted."

Exactly how the assessment of Valentine would have changed if teams knew he would turn pro following 2022 remains unknowable. However, it seems reasonable to wonder whether he might have garnered more attention from scouts and a higher pre-draft grade if not for the timing of his departure and the school at which he played.

High-profile game skewing perception of Valentine

Over the course of Valentine's career in Lexington, he delivered some stellar performances. This past year against the ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs and their Mike Leach-directed air raid, the corner allowed just one catch for 2 yards and also registered a sack of quarterback Will Rogers. Valentine arguably played even better against soon-to-be back-to-back champions, holding his assignments to four catches for 16 yards to help Kentucky hold the high-powered Georgia offense to just 16 points.

Those games rank at the top of Valentine's résumé, but that doesn't make them total anomalies. He yielded 50 yards or fewer in seven games last season while boasting a defensive passer rating of 90.0 or lower six times. Those figures might not place him shoulder to shoulder college football's premier corners. However, given the context -- an SEC schedule that included three matchups with offenses ranked in the top 12 overall by FEI -- Valentine held up well.

However, when Kentucky had its brightest spotlight in 2022, nearly everything went sideways for Valentine and the defense. A prime-time matchup between the No. 19 Wildcats and the No. 3 Tennessee Volunteers resulted in a 44-6 blowout defeat for Big Blue Nation that seemed completely out of hand by halftime.

"It was a trainwreck of a performance for Kentucky," Bratton said of the game. "They kind of held it in check for about a quarter. But then Tennessee hit them for two touchdowns in essentially the span of a minute. And obviously, the breakout star of the team was Jalin Hyatt, and that's the one guy you have to have recognition of."

Valentine had the worst performance of his college career, allowing five catches on six targets for 82 yards and two touchdowns. A miscommunication between him and the other defensive backs led directly to one of Hyatt's two scores on the night.

Those types of performances happen to every cornerback at some point. But given the scant attention Valentine likely received from the NFL prior to entering the draft, it seems possible if not likely that the Wildcats' lopsided loss to Tennessee held undue weight in the minds of scouts, many of whom probably only seen him play in person that night.

One game shouldn't form the crux of an evaluation, and NFL teams would never admit to approaching a prospect in such a manner. But scouts are human and have limited time and attention. They can't dive into the granular details of every player let alone one that wouldn't have seemed likely to come out after 2022. As such, Valentine's poor showing against the Volunteers almost certainly had a significant impact on his draft stock.

Too few picks and too many penalties in college

During his roughly four months with the Packers, Valentine has displayed a nose for the football. He has multiple takeaways already between training camp and the preseason and many more pass breakups. These are the type of plays that garner attention from decision-makers, a concept the rookie well understands.

"Picks get you paid here," Valentine said. "PBUs in college can take you far. But picks are the thing, and that's the standard. That's my standard. The PBUs are great, but picks are amazing."

But while Valentine has intercepted a few passes already in Green Bay, that marks a new development for the young defensive back. He finished his college career with just one pick despite numerous opportunities. Worse still, that lone turnover came against the Youngstown State Penguins, an FCS program.

NFL front offices evaluate cornerback prospects primarily on their coverage skills, and not all have high interception totals. However, most cases where the player doesn't have many picks stem from opposing offenses avoiding him. For example, former All-American and current All-Pro corner Patrick Surtain II started at Alabama for three full seasons but finished his career with just four interceptions, the result of seeing targets on just 157 of his 1,541 coverage snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

College offenses didn't build their game plans around attacking Valentine, but they didn't avoid him either. Passers threw at him 152 times over his 903 coverage snaps, an almost identical number of targets to Surtain on more than 600 fewer opportunities. Yet, Valentine only turned one of those passes into an interception.

But while Valentine didn't produce many turnovers at Kentucky, he did rack up penalties. The corner drew five flags during his final season in Lexington, including one in the disastrous tilt with Tennessee. That figure marked an increase from the season before in which Valentine had four.

And it remains uncertain whether the rookie will avoid those mistakes in the NFL. Valentine didn't draw any penalties during the Packers' preseason opener, but he probably contacted Bengals wideout Andrei Iosivas early on one of his pass breakups. A different officiating crew might have flagged him for defensive pass interference.

Those issues don't seem huge in a vacuum. But given the uphill battle Valentine faced for recognition in the pre-draft process, they certainly didn't help his cause.

"I've always been a playmaker. Maybe at Kentucky, I didn't quite show it," Valentine said. "But here, I'm really just growing, you know what I mean? But I've always been a playmaker. Just having a knack for the ball and stuff like that."

Clearly, the surplus of penalties and lack of interceptions during Valentine's college career hasn't held him back in the NFL so far. But they help explain why teams might have overlooked him during the draft process.

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Ultimately, the reasons Valentine lasted until the final round of the draft don't matter to the Packers. They took a shot on him and, at least so far, appear to have uncovered a diamond in the rough. Valentine has become one of the main stories of training camp and continues to build on his momentum. In a joint practice against the New England Patriots, he blanketed No. 1 receiver DeVante Parker to force another incompletion.

But many nice stories come to an end by the time the real games arrive. When Week 1 comes, Valentine will have to show that his skill set and approach hold up against the NFL's best. That kind of pressure can wear down many rookies, but Valentine seems to have the right mindset.

"I'm just a mild-mannered guy, but my confidence is there," Valentine said. "Even when bad plays happen, you still got to stay confident in yourself because you're not going to make every single play at corner. But when you make plays, you get that nice little sensation and you get happy about it. You got to just remember to just stack plays. It's one day. Tomorrow's a new day. Try to keep doing it."

-- Jason B. Hirschhorn is an award-winning sports journalist and Pro Football Writers of America member. Follow him on social media: @by_JBH on Twitter / @by_jbh on Instagram / @JBH@mastodon.social on Mastodon / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads