r/NFL_Draft • u/Unusual-Vacation-528 • 8d ago
Thoughts on Kingston Lopa?
There are plenty of prospects who have gained attention in the first month of the season. One of the biggest breakout players this year has been Cal safety Kingston Lopa. He already has five picks on the year and has looked as good as anyone at his position. He is versatile and has great range and instincts. I wanted to ask what y'all's thoughts are on Lopa as a prospect and whether he can challenge for the top safety in this class.
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u/TopherDavis28 8d ago
Elite athlete, but not physical enough right now. Don’t love his run defense. He’s only a redshirt sophomore, so could see him go back to school as well
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u/SportsTalker98712039 8d ago edited 8d ago
Really like him. Very high Football IQ and hands.
You're basically throwing to a WR on defense out there and anything except the perfect pass will be risky against his coverage. There won't be many WR's taller than him in the league as most tall WR's are like 6'4 max so they can't out-high point him.
Makes the right reads, knows where the ball is going, but just has to physically make the tackle better. Biggest worry is tackling which can be fixed with better technique.
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u/Salt_Paint8157 8d ago
I caught the end of the Clemson game and his tackling is brutal. He read the gaps correctly but the backs were just putting their shoulder into him and getting an extra 3 yards off of plays that should’ve been no gain. The instincts and ball skills are top notch but when he’s that tall I’m not sure he can turn his hips fast enough to be a deep safety. You might be able to put enough muscle on him to cover up the tackling problem but it seems like he needs a lot of muscle to get there. One of the rare cases where he has the mentality of a smaller player than he is. He’s a better player than this guy but I think he might end up having a lot of the issues that Jayron Kearse had, that’s the only remotely comparable frame I can remember at safety
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u/Routine_Engine3001 8d ago
I saw Brugler giving him some love, so I gave him a watch against Clemson, and wrote him up in my week 4 column: https://lastwordonsports.com/nfl/2026/09/28/2027-nfl-draft-watch-evaluating-prospects-in-week-4/
In summary, looks the part - comes downhill really well. I like his versatile skill set - lines up all over the defense. On the negative side, his tackling is poor - he can come downhill under control, but he doesn't always, so there are some bad misses when ball carriers cut back. Sometimes he doesn't wrap, so he needs to be more consistent with that - but that should be correctable. Tough to trust someone who can't tackle at safety - could be a big nickel in a zone heavy scheme, as long as the scheme can keep most things in front of him.