Kobee
Minor.
Kobee
Minor.
Memphis· 5'11"· 188 lb· 4.56s 40
"Mr. Irrelevant with a blitz package: the last pick of the 2025 draft was a three-school nickel who spent his final college season attacking downhill instead of waiting for the ball to find him."Pre-draft read
A compact nickel corner who plays inside the numbers, Minor lines up over the slot in sub packages and does his best work moving forward. He is a trigger-and-tackle defender first — he reads the three-step game, drives on flat routes, and arrives with his shoulders square rather than diving at ankles.
The separator is the blitz. Memphis turned him loose off the slot edge and he produced 7.0 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks and two forced fumbles as a senior, numbers a defensive back almost never posts. In coverage he is functional rather than sticky, with a 36-inch vertical and 4.56 speed that says he is an athlete without being an outlier. He plays angry in run support and he finishes plays that most 188-pound defensive backs let go.
Sub-package defense that blitzes its nickel and asks the slot defender to play the run first in 11 personnel
Year 1: special teams core with emergency nickel snaps. Ceiling: a long-term NB2 who plays 150-250 defensive snaps a year as a designated blitz and run-support piece in obvious sub downs.
A pure man-coverage system that isolates its nickel against quick separators with no help underneath — his 4.56 speed and 7.23 three-cone get exposed the moment the scheme stops letting him play forward.
Value is scheme-dependent in a way most defensive backs are not: he needs a coordinator who blitzes his slot, otherwise the best trait on his tape never gets called.
Kobee Minor | Cornerback | 2024 Memphis Highlights | 2025 NFL Draft
Full senior-season cut-up from Memphis, including the blitz reps.
2025 NFL DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS: Kobee Minor | DB | Memphis
Pre-draft reel focused on run support and slot pressure.
Patriots Draft Breakdown: Kobee Minor
New England's film breakdown of the final pick of the 2025 draft.
A fifth-year slot defender who wore three uniforms, Minor is a 5-11 3/8, 188-pound nickel whose identity is blitzing, tackling and playing in traffic. He is the son of a former NFL defensive back, and it shows in the way he processes route concepts underneath — the instincts are ahead of the athletic testing.
The production came late and it came all at once. Two nearly invisible seasons at Texas Tech (13 total tackles over 22 games), a solid transfer year at Indiana with 29 tackles and four breakups in nine starts, and then a Memphis senior campaign that changed the evaluation: 38 tackles, 7.0 for loss, 2.0 sacks, six pass breakups and two forced fumbles. The blitz reps were the tape. The flags were just as clear — zero career interceptions across 45 games, a 4.56 forty, a 7.23 three-cone, and a body that will get moved by NFL tight ends and pulling guards.
Boards had him as a priority free agent or a last-day flyer with special teams value. New England spent the 257th and final pick on him, making him 2025's Mr. Irrelevant.
- 01
Blitzing
7.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks as a senior slot defender; he times the snap and finds the crease off the edge better than most nickels.
- 02
Tackling
a willing, square open-field tackler who fits the alley in run support and does not let ballcarriers through his frame.
- 03
Ball disruption
two forced fumbles in 2024 and 12 career pass breakups; he attacks the ball at the catch point even without interceptions.
- 04
Instincts
the son of a former NFL defensive back who reads three-step concepts quickly and drives on flat routes without false steps.
- 05
Special teams profile
five years of coverage-unit reps across three programs, the exact background that keeps a seventh-rounder employed.
- 01
No interceptions
zero picks in 45 college games is a genuine red flag for a defensive back whose calling card is playing near the ball.
- 02
Speed
a 4.56 forty and 7.23 three-cone leave no margin against NFL slot receivers who win vertically off the line.
- 03
Size
188 pounds with sub-32-inch arms; NFL tight ends and stalk-blocking receivers can wall him off in the run game.
- 04
Late developer
the entire draftable profile rests on one season at Memphis after three quiet years in the Big 12 and Big Ten.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.56sp50
- Vertical
- 36inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Texas Tech | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Texas Tech | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Texas Tech | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2023 | Indiana | 11 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2024 | Memphis | 11 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Career | — | 45 | 80 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 2 |
Three programs across five seasons: Texas Tech (23 G), Indiana (11 G), Memphis (11 G). The zero interceptions and zero fumble recoveries are verified true zeros across all 45 games, not placeholders.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Small-framed nickel whose roster value leans heavily on special teams and situational sub packages.
Undersized slot defender who stuck because he tackled, blitzed and played every special teams unit.
Late-round defensive back who bounces between practice squads without carving out a defensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Mr. Irrelevant label came with the usual math problem: no roster guarantee. Minor was released at the August 26, 2025 final cuts and re-signed to the practice squad the next day, spending most of his rookie year developing behind a Patriots secondary that was one of the league's better units. New England signed him to the active roster on January 1, 2026, and he finished the regular season with four games played, zero starts and one tackle — every snap on special teams or in garbage-time defensive work.
The honest read is that year one went exactly as well as a 257th pick can go. He was not cut and forgotten; he was kept, developed, and promoted to the 53 before the season ended, which is more than most last picks ever get. The evaluation still holds — no interceptions, average speed, a light frame — and nothing in 2025 suggested a defensive role is coming. His path is core special teams and emergency nickel depth, and at 23 with a full offseason on the active roster, that path is at least open.
Data note: Three programs across five seasons: Texas Tech (23 G), Indiana (11 G), Memphis (11 G). The zero interceptions and zero fumble recoveries are verified true zeros across all 45 games, not placeholders.