What to Make of Kelee Ringo on Game Film

The star cornerback (CB) of back-to-back National Championship winning Georgia, Kelee Ringo has always been on top; the number four player in the recruiting class of 2020, and he has been talked about as a first-round pick since the day he came to the Bulldogs. But what does Ringo’s film really suggest about his potential draft stock?

Kelee Ringo was blessed with abilities and a physique uncommon to others.

Ringo was born for it

The star CB of Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart’s defense came in his freshman year at 6-foot-2, 205 pounds. He stayed that way for majority of his college career, putting on five pounds his junior season.

You see 6-foot-2, 205-210 pounds, Georgia cornerback, and you find yourself putting the label “shutdown corner” on Ringo based only on his physical talents alone.

However, like any player, the tape needs to translate to those abilities.

Ringo has it in him to be a shutdown corner, we have seen it in certain scenarios, but not in others.

For Ringo, that ability he was born with, but it will take NFL coaching to get unleash the full form of it.

In high school, Ringo was a Division III state champion on the track team in the 100-meter and the 200-meter races, posting a time of 10.43 and 21.18, respectively. He has some of the most eye-opening measurables – something that helped him in the off-season pro testing.

Looking at film of Ringo

Kelee Ringo is a really good football player. But he is still raw.

Ringo has shown multiple reps of being an elite talent. It was the inconsistency in his play that hurt his draft stock. This is why we’re talking about him not going in the first 20 picks.

The biggest problem with Ringo is in his man-coverage skills.

A guy with his size and speed should be maintaining a good base with the receiver the whole route. Ringo breaks too early in the sequence to ever have success.

The Tennessee game in 2022 was a perfect example.

The Volunteers were throwing on him for a decent amount of the game. The receptions he was giving up were often instances of him flipping his hips in the first five yards of the route; completely losing any leverage he had on the play.

With that being said, Ringo had an interception in that game where he mirrored Tennessee wide receiver Cedric Tillman down the field perfectly. Ringo kept his technique on this play and flipped with Tillman once he knew he was running a go-route.

We have seen it work with Ringo. We need to see it more often.

With the size Ringo has, NFL teams want to select him with confidence that he can play press-man at a high level, but that just is not him. Inconsistent jam technique shows up.

He will need to keep developing in this part of his craft.

Projection for Ringo

He cannot survive early-on being the number two corner.

However, I still feel Ringo deserves to be a first-round pick.

There is something to be said to be CB1 two years in a row on the best defense in the country.

Smart entrusted Ringo with a lot of responsibility. Combine that with the natural athleticism, he is a prospect you feel much more comfortable in your ability to mold him into one of the better cornerbacks in football.

If all is clean underneath the helmet and off the field, he is a first-round talent.

Grade – Late First-Round | Expectation – Late First-Round Early/Second-Round

Ringo has the traits and he has shown he has elite CB film. It is up to the player development program of whatever NFL team selects this Georgia corner to get that ability out of him.

• Player Comparison – Xavier Rhodes (Vikings)
• 2021 Game Film Reviewed – Alabama (SEC Championship Game), Clemson and Arkansas
• 2022 Game Film Reviewed – Tennessee, LSU and South Carolina

Garrett Hearl is an aspiring NFL Draft Writer with a unique passion and love for scouting and player evaluation. Continuously wanting to learn more about football than he knew yesterday, he is currently attending Michigan State University where he is working to a degree in Journalism and Sports Journalism. Garrett lives for watching game film, learning more about the game, and is driven by his ultimate goals. Garrett writes for FirstRoundMock.com and he can be found on Twitter @garrett2hearl.