Cal Bears: Kyle Kragen Follows His Dad’s Footsteps, Signs with Broncos

Former Cal Bears defensive end Kyle Kragen has signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Denver Broncos, following his father’s footsteps.

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On Friday, the California Golden Bears‘ official football twitter account announced that former defensive end Kyle Kragen had signed with the Denver Broncos after going undrafted in the 2016 NFL Draft. The younger Kragen is following in the footsteps of his father, Greg Kragen, who also signed with the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of Utah State.

The senior Kragen tried out for the Broncos and was initially cut, but made the team for the 1985 season and became a stalwart for a Broncos’ team that was annually among the frontrunners in the league. Greg played nine seasons for Denver, starting 116 of the 136 games he played as a nose tackle, and racking up over 700 tackles and 22.5 sacks during his tenure. He was a Pro Bowler in 1989, an All-Pro in 1989, 1991, and 1992 and was a starter for the Broncos’ Super Bowl teams in Super Bowl XXI (1986 season), XXII (1987 season), and XXIV (1989 season).

Now, with his father’s former teammate running the show for the Broncos, Kyle has an opportunity to make his own name in the NFL. John Elway, the Broncos’ general manager and executive vice president of football operations, was teammates with Greg from 1985 to 1993, all of his nine season in the Mile High City. The former number-one overall pick out of Stanford Elway is giving the Cal product a chance to earn his way on to the field.

Kyle spent three seasons with Cal, one year with a redshirt, after an outstanding junior college career at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California, where he totaled 28.5 tackles for loss and 19.5 sacks in two seasons. In his first year at Cal, Kragen picked up three sacks and five tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

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2014 was supposed to be a big year for Kragen, but a bout with mononucleosis kept him off the field for the entire season as he dropped 25 pounds of weight. The redshirt season gave him another year of eligibility, and after putting the weight back on, he came back as a dominant force on the Cal defense.

Kragen was an unquestioned leader on the defensive side of the ball for Cal, and was a catalyst for a much-improved year from that side. He finished the season with a team-leading seven sacks and eight tackles for loss, and also forced two fumbles while recovering another. Kragen was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week after Cal’s battle with the Washington Cougars, during which Kragen recorded 1.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and a pass breakup. He was also named Third-Team All-Pac-12 after the season.

He stood out during the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl after the season, recording 2.5 sacks and recovering a fumble that led to his team’s game-winning field goal.

Kragen isn’t an overly talented player, but he has a motor that coaches fall in love with. Much like his father, the younger Kragen is a very smart player that reads plays well and put himself in good position to make plays and prevent big gains.

He also isn’t a very big player, being listed at 6’2″ and 245 pounds, so he may not play with his hand in the turf as much as he did in college. Kragen seems like a candidate to move to linebacker, where he will play standing up and only occasionally go after the quarterback.

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Greg Kragen played 13 seasons total in the NFL, playing one year with the Kansas City Chiefs and three years with the expansion Carolina Panthers where he started 46 of 48 games. His son has big footsteps in which to follow, but if Kyle works as hard in the NFL as he did at Cal, he’s certainly capable.