PurplePTSD: A Look At Kene Nwangwu's All-Pro Rookie Season

Press release from the PurplePTSD:

Josh Frey

2022-02-18

During his time at Iowa State, Kene Nwangwu never stood out as a guy that was going to change an offense with his impact out of the backfield. He had just 143 career rushes over the course of four years and was under 200 yards in three of his four seasons. Most of this had to do with him living in the shadow of 2022 draft prospect, Breece Hall.

That said, Nwangwu always had a flare to him that was intriguing. Over the course of the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he averaged nearly six yards per carry. He also quickly became the lead return man for the Cyclones, returning 92 kicks over the course of his collegiate career for an average of 27 yards per return. Undoubtedly, this aspect of Nwangwu’s game was the main allure that drew the Vikings to him this past April.

The Pick

Kene Nwangwu was the Minnesota Vikings sixth draft pick of the 2021 class (the previous five have already had their own deep dives this offseason). They used the 119th overall pick in the fourth round to select him. Here’s what I wrote about him when the pick happened. The Vikings’ biggest struggle on their special teams was definitely the punt return unit, but they also lacked explosive playmaking skills from their kick returner, Ameer Abdullah.

The middle of the fourth round felt very early for a kick returner when it first happened, but the Vikings knew they desperately needed to inject some talent into the position. Minnesota has had some success historically with RBs as return men (i.e. Cordarrelle Patterson). They knew what they wanted and went and got it.

A Slow Start Quickly Catches Fire

As seems to always be the case for rookies in the Mike Zimmer era, Kene Nwangwu got very little run in the first portion of his rookie season. This time though, it’s not because of Zimmer and instead because of injury. The rookie suffered a hyperextended knee during the first preseason game against Denver and never saw the field again during the exhibition games.

He was then placed on IR going into the regular season and missed the first six games prior to Minnesota’s bye. In the Week 8 game against Dallas (the infamous loss to Cooper Rush), Nwangwu finally got some run on the special teams, but he did not get to take any returns.

Week 9 in Baltimore is when things changed. The Vikings offense jumped out to a 17-3 lead over the Ravens in the first half, but a two-minute drill by Lamar Jackson (aided by a Xavier Woods DPI that overturned a Cam Dantzler INT) helped Baltimore cut the lead down to 17-10 going into half. Minnesota was about to get the ball in need of a quick score to regain momentum.

Nwangwu decided to take matters into his own hands, though. On his second career NFL kick return, Nwangwu took the second half’s opening kickoff to the house, giving Minnesota a 24-10 lead. Nwangwu also got a carry for nine yards on the offense. The Vikings ultimately lost that game, but the rookie had a terrific opener to his NFL career.

Three weeks later in San Francisco, Nwangwu took another kick to the house in a terrific effort where he returned four kicks for 171 yards, averaging nearly 43 yards per return. Again, it was ultimately in a losing effort against the 49ers, but the rookie proved that the first return TD wasn’t just a fluke. In the end, his rookie campaign ended with 18 kick returns for an average of just over 32 yards per return, earning him a spot on the NFL’s All-Pro list as the KR man.

Kene Nwangwu’s Future with the Vikings

Barring injury, Kene Nwangwu goes into the 2022 season as the surefire starter at the kick return spot; that much is obvious. However, can he develop into a larger role on the offense? The opportunities were very limited, but Nwangwu proved to have some good instincts as a rusher. Maybe this was a result of Klint Kubiak’s selections of his moments, but it seemed like the rookie picked his spots well and had great burst through lanes created by the o-line.

I would also like to see him take on a larger role as a receiver out of the backfield. Again, this would be a similar to a Cordarrelle Patterson-type role. In his prime, Patterson had very similar burst and acceleration on his returns, and they share a sort of slippery quality that makes them difficult players to tackle. This feels like an area where the previous regime fell short in developing Nwangwu’s game, and I believe it will be something that Kevin O’Connell does much more of in 2022 to take some pressure off of Dalvin Cook.

This press release was produced by the PurplePTSD. The views expressed here are the author’s own.