Kris
Abrams-Draine.
Kris
Abrams-Draine.
Missouri· 5'11"· 179 lb· 4.44s 40
"A wide receiver until 2021 who turned into one of the SEC's most productive coverage corners — the ball skills are real, the question is whether 178 pounds survives NFL X receivers."Pre-draft read
Slot-capable outside corner who lived in press-bail and off-man at Missouri, and the calling card is instincts rather than mass. He plays with quick, disciplined feet at the line, mirrors releases cleanly, and gets his head around late to play the ball through the receiver's hands — 40 career pass breakups says the ball skills are real.
The transition story matters: a wide receiver until 2021, he still tracks the deep ball like a pass catcher and high-points it in traffic. Long speed is legitimate at 4.44, and he can carry vertical routes without panicking. The concern is the frame at 178 pounds, which shows up on stalk blocks and in run support, where he arrives on time but cannot always finish. The separator is anticipation.
Zone-heavy Cover 3 / quarters defense with press-bail rules that let a corner keep vision on the quarterback
Year 1: CB4 and core special-teamer with sub-package slot reps. Ceiling: full-time Cover 3 field corner who converts his ball skills into 3-4 interceptions a season.
A physical press-man defense that asks him to jam and re-route 215-pound X receivers every snap — his play weight makes that a losing assignment.
Best used with vision on the quarterback; his production spikes when he can read the route stem and break, not when he is turned and running blind.
Kris Abrams-Draine 2023 Full Season Highlights | Missouri DB
All-America season reel: the four interceptions, 16 breakups and press-bail coverage reps.
2024 NFL Draft: Kris Abrams-Draine | Denver Broncos
Broncos-produced cutup released after the No. 145 selection.
Missouri Cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine at the NFL Combine
Indianapolis workout including the 4.44 forty and positional drills.
Abrams-Draine is a converted receiver who became one of the SEC's most productive coverage corners in three seasons on defense, and the evaluation is a straight trade-off between elite feel and a slight frame.
He arrived at Missouri as a pass catcher, played five games at receiver in 2020, then moved to defensive back in 2021 and immediately led the team with 10 pass breakups and three interceptions. He started every game he played in 2022 and 2023, finishing with 43 career games, 34 starts, 135 tackles, seven interceptions and 40 passes defensed — plus 29 kickoff returns for 603 yards and a touchdown. The 2023 season was the peak: 50 tackles, four interceptions and 16 breakups, good for first-team All-SEC and second-team AP All-America. The flags were about weight and physicality, not coverage: at 178 pounds he can be moved by bigger receivers at the catch point and gets stalked out of run fits.
Boards had him as a Day 3 slot or Cover 3 corner with starting upside, and Denver — a press-heavy staff that values ball production — took him at 145. For a fifth-round corner with three years of high-level SEC coverage tape, that is a clean value call.
- 01
Ball production
40 career pass breakups and seven interceptions at Missouri, the product of late head-turns and hands that arrive through the receiver's frame.
- 02
Receiver's tracking
a converted pass catcher who plays the deep ball like one, locating it over his shoulder and high-pointing instead of panicking and grabbing.
- 03
Clean feet in press-bail
quick, patient mirroring at the line without lunging, which lets him stay square through the release and open at the right moment.
- 04
Verified long speed
a 4.44 forty that shows on tape when he carries vertical routes and recovers on double-moves without needing safety help over the top.
- 05
Positional flexibility
three years of reps outside and in the slot, plus 29 career kickoff returns, giving him a special-teams and sub-package path to a roster spot.
- 01
Play weight
178 pounds on a 5-11 frame gets him displaced at the catch point by bigger receivers and limits what he can do in contested situations.
- 02
Run support
willing but light; he arrives on time in run fits and still gets stalk-blocked out of the play by receivers with 25 pounds on him.
- 03
Grabby when late
when a release beats his first step he tends to reach and ride, which SEC officials flagged and NFL officials will flag more often.
- 04
Short experience on defense
only three seasons at cornerback, so the technique against layered route concepts is still catching up to the instincts.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.44sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missouri | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Missouri | 13 | 37 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| 2022 | Missouri | 12 | 48 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| 2023 | Missouri | 13 | 50 | 0 | 4 | 16 | 0 |
| Career | — | 43 | 135 | 0 | 7 | 40 | 0 |
Season lines from the Missouri/Broncos official release; the four seasons sum exactly to the career line (43 games, 135 tackles, 7 INT, 40 PD). He played wide receiver in 2020 and moved to defensive back in 2021, so no defensive stats are credited that year. TFL, sacks and forced fumbles are not broken out by season in the official release and are left null rather than zero-filled. Also returned 29 kickoffs for 603 yards (20.8 avg) with one touchdown.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Second-team AP All-America (2023)
- First-team All-SEC (2023)
Light, scrappy sub-package corner who carves out a real role as a CB3 and special-teams contributor.
Undersized instinct corner who built a long starting career on anticipation and takeaways rather than physicality.
Undersized cover corner who bounces between rosters when the frame limits every-down usage.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Denver kept him on ice as a rookie. He appeared in five regular-season games with one start in 2024 and one playoff game, logging eight tackles, two pass breakups and a 17-yard interception, working behind a corner room headlined by Pat Surtain II and Riley Moss. Year two brought real availability: he played all 17 games in 2025 with two starts and one playoff appearance, finishing with 30 tackles (21 solo) as the primary depth corner and a core special-teams contributor for a Broncos team that reached the postseason again.
In hindsight, this is exactly the fifth-round outcome teams want and rarely get: a corner who has stuck for two full seasons, held up when injuries forced him onto the field, and produced a takeaway in limited snaps. He has not broken through as a full-time starter, and the frame concerns that pushed him to Day 3 still cap how often a defensive coordinator wants him against big-bodied X receivers. But the coverage instincts scouts bought have translated, and behind an elite CB1 he is a legitimate CB3-plus with an argument for more if the depth chart opens up.
Data note: Season lines from the Missouri/Broncos official release; the four seasons sum exactly to the career line (43 games, 135 tackles, 7 INT, 40 PD). He played wide receiver in 2020 and moved to defensive back in 2021, so no defensive stats are credited that year. TFL, sacks and forced fumbles are not broken out by season in the official release and are left null rather than zero-filled. Also returned 29 kickoffs for 603 yards (20.8 avg) with one touchdown.