The Vikings’ New Guy Sends an Early Message to Minnesota’s Coaches
Kobe King is one of the Vikings’ new guys. He comes across as a cool customer, someone who tries to keep a level-head as he works on proving that he belongs in the NFL.
The linebacker spoke with the media for a few minutes last week, striking a balance between articulating confidence in himself while nevertheless suggesting that he’s aware of how he needs to grow. Early on, King expresses a specific desire for what he wants his coaches and teammates to see in him: trustworthiness and dependability.
The Vikings’ New Guy — LB Kobe King — Has Lofty Goals
Currently, the linebacker position is sitting in a fascinating spot.
The LB1 is Mr. Blake Cashman, someone who is from Minnesota but who got his career off the ground with the Jets before then exploding with the Texans. He can do it all. Cashman is strong against the run, is good in pass coverage, and can blitz, as well. The lone blemish on his résumé is that he sometimes gets dinged up, forcing him to miss time in the infirmary.
Next up is Ivan Pace Jr., the super-aggressive LB2 who was an UDFA addition from 2023. He has proven to be a nice addition for the Brian Flores defense. The DC wants to be aggressive and Pace is happy to oblige.
Otherwise, the most prominent names are Eric Wilson and Brian Asamoah. The veteran — Wilson — looks locked into the LB3 job due to his $2.6 million contract, the kind of payday that suggest he’s a solution for both the defense and special teams. Meanwhile, Asamoah looks like a long shot to make the final roster, in no small part due to the addition of Kobe King.
When talking to the media, King clarified what he’s looking to show his teammates and coaches: “Go out there show my teammates and my coaches that they can trust me, that they can have confidence in me.” Working within the front seven means filling a specific role that makes the broader whole function. A simple way of understanding things would be to just boil things down to something like gap responsibility. If, for instance, King needs to have the B-gap covered on 1st down, then he wants to ensure that the players and coaches know he’ll be shutting that gap down.
Not too long afterwards, Kobe King indicates that he has some lofty goals. More specifically, Mr. King is looking to “eventually show that [he] can be one of the best linebackers in this league.”
Other words that come up when he describes himself include “dominant,” “hunger,” “anger,” “vicious,” and “selfish.” There’s even a mention of having the “eye of the tiger.”
King’s self-confidence shines through when chatting with the media, but the most compelling part of his different answers rests in his repeated emphasis on wanting coach and teammate alike to know that he can be trusted. With his play and words, then, he’s looking to communicate that message to those around him.
Ask PFF and the website will insist that Mr. King demonstrated promise in 2024. Overall, the linebacker finished with a strong 83.6 grade, mostly due to an exemplary 89.2 grade against the run. Where he appears to still need work is when blitzing (66.7 grade) and in pass coverage (65.4 grade).
The final category — pass coverage — is something King addressed in the same media session, describing his commitment to “evolve in [his] pass game effectiveness.”
In his final season in college, Kobe King put together an impressive collection of statistics. He played in sixteen games for Penn State. Those games resulted in 97 tackles, 3 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble, and 1 pass defended.
Do remember, as well, that Kobe King is more than just physicality and aggression. There’s leadership and intelligence in his game. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah gets that idea across in the description of King being the “Maestro.”
The current outlook suggests that King will be the Vikings’ LB4 and a key special teams contributor. Continuing to grow his abilities will obviously be the key to rising above that placement within the lineup.
Editor’s Note: Information from Sports Reference CFB, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and Bluesky (@VikingsGazette). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.