“It’s the best of both worlds.”
That is how Kiran Amegadjie (KUH-ron Ah-meh-gah-G), an ambitious 22-year-old with considerable NFL Draft buzz, describes the balance of Ivy League football and education.
Growing up just outside of Chicago, Amegadjie always believed football would be his future, but his path has been much different than most. Despite numerous roadblocks along the way, though, he is on pace to be a top-100 draft pick this spring and a Yale graduate this summer.
Call him underrated or a sleeper — he is both. But as Amegadjie said: “In my opinion, I’m the most interesting prospect in the draft.”
For as long as he can remember, Amegadjie wanted to play football. He enjoyed watching the NFL and dreamed of one day playing at the highest level. But his parents were unfamiliar with the sport and stressed education.
His father, Boris, grew up in the West African nation of Togo and played soccer in college in France before moving to the United States to continue his studies. His mother, Gislaine, is from Cameroon in Central Africa and lived in Canada before moving to the States. Boris and Gislaine met at Strayer University in Maryland in 1994.
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In the summers, when many kids are involved in organized sports, Amegadjie and his twin sister, Maiwen, instead spent time visiting family in Togo. Based purely on accessibility, Kiran adopted basketball as his go-to sport throughout middle school. In the eighth grade, however, he finally put on pads and joined the football team.
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It didn’t go as planned because of what he called a “bad experience” with a coach.
“It really deterred me from playing football,” Amegadjie said.
Amegadjie instead chose to remain focused on basketball after enrolling at Hinsdale Central (Ill.) High School and didn’t play football as a freshman. But at the urging of his friends, he gave the sport another chance as a sophomore and started down an improbable path.
As a junior, Amegadjie became Hinsdale’s starting left tackle, and over his final two seasons, he helped the team to a combined 16-5 record and two playoff appearances. College coaches started to take notice of his play during his junior year, too. Scholarship offers soon followed. First, it was Indiana State. Then, Southern Illinois.
Amegadjie finished with 22 offers in all. The list, however, included just one FBS program (Central Michigan), though nearby Northwestern also showed interest. Rather than waiting on those bigger schools to discover him, Amegadjie — after falling in love with Yale — committed to the Bulldogs before his senior year of high school.
“I’m super competitive and feel like I was under-recruited, but it all worked out like it was supposed to,” Amegadjie said. “If I could go back and attend any school in the country, I would still pick Yale.”
Amegadjie was full of optimism after signing with Yale. Despite getting a late start as a football player, his goal of playing the game at the highest levels finally appeared to be on track.
But then, a roadblock.
Soon after Amegadjie enrolled, in the fall of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Ivy League to cancel its entire football season. No games. No practices.
That could have derailed Amegadjie’s progress, especially given how relatively little football he’d played to that point. However, it turned out to be a “blessing in disguise.”
🗞️Amegadjie, Gargiulo Earn NFL Combine Invites#ThisIsYalehttps://t.co/X6DgR1zAOI
— Yale Football (@yalefootball) January 30, 2024
“It gave me a year to train in a college weight room and learn the playbook,” said Amegadjie, whose glass-half-full maturity is as impressive as his football highlights. “My mentality was: ‘I am going to do everything possible to learn and grow so when the opportunity comes, I’ll be ready.’”
Once viewed as a project, Amegadjie showed up when Yale restarted its workouts in the spring of 2021 with a reshaped body, added strength and a knowledge of the offense that impressed his coaches. He earned the starting left guard role for the 2021 season, before playing at left tackle for the past two years and earning All-Ivy League honors.
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A political science major, Amegadjie had to handle all of those football responsibilities — staying in shape during a year off, digesting the playbook, developing at multiple positions — while dealing with Yale’s typically heavy course load. Particularly during his first two years in New Haven, Conn., it was a daunting challenge.
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“In the Ivy League, it’s all a level playing field,” Amegadjie said. “You’re not getting extensions because of football. I know these four years will probably be some of the busiest of my life, but knowing I can handle all that stress and develop my time management will help develop other important skills for the rest of my life.”
Off his first-team all-league selection in 2022, Amegadjie could have followed a path carved by so many other college football players in recent years and hit the transfer portal — he would have had an opportunity to play in a Power 5 conference last season. He never gave much thought to leaving.
“I love Yale too much to imagine playing somewhere else,” Amegadjie said.
However, he ran into another roadblock during his final season there.
Four games into 2023, during a midweek practice in October, Amegadjie suffered a partially torn left quad. After seeking out a second opinion from a doctor in New York, in hopes of being able to return at some point during the ’23 season, he opted for surgery, which came with an expected recovery time of four to six months. With that, Amegadjie considered returning to Yale for a fifth season and delaying his NFL Draft dreams until 2025.
But he has never been shy about taking the road less traveled.
“I wasn’t sure how my injury would affect my stock,” Amegadjie said. “But I got a lot of positive feedback from scouts and thought the NFL was my best opportunity. That’s all I’m looking for: an opportunity. And I’ll make the most of it.”
With his basketball-built athleticism and rare 36 3/8-inch arms, Amegadjie is straight out of NFL central casting.
Teams at the next level covet offensive tackles with light feet, coordinated movements and long arms to keep defenders at bay. Amegadjie possesses those traits plus explosiveness and a resolute mentality, hence scouts spending more time than usual on Yale’s campus last fall.
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“The NFL was always a dream, but my mentality shifted when I got to college,” Amegadjie explained. “I never want to say that I just made it to the NFL. I want this to be my life.”
When veteran offensive line coach Stefon Wheeler joined the Yale staff last offseason, he took one look at Amegadjie and immediately saw his new left tackle’s NFL potential. But he also soon realized that Amegadjie had the work ethic and drive to get the most out of those physical gifts.
“Kiran is all about getting better,” said Wheeler. “He’s always asking, ‘What can I do, coach?’ and trying to improve. We’ve worked really hard to add more tools to his toolbox and fine-tune some technical things.”
.@yalefootball LT Kiran Amegadjie (6051v, 321v, 36 3/4 arm 👀) is @seniorbowl highest-graded small-school prospect. Few OT in 2024 class stack up when it comes to measureables or upside. Doesn’t take expert evaluator to see how athletic he is 👇. 😳#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE™️ pic.twitter.com/ajbLzQMVZG
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) September 16, 2023
It’s a sizeable leap from the FCS to the NFL, so Amegadjie sought out additional resources in the offseason to help ease the impending transition, including workout sessions with 13-year NFL veteran lineman Willie Anderson. When he returned to campus, Amegadjie headed back into the film room with Wheeler.
As he was still recovering from his in-season surgery, Amegadjie was unable to participate in this year’s Senior Bowl, a missed opportunity, as it would have allowed him to show what he could do against stronger competition than he faced in the Ivy League. For what it’s worth, Amegadjie insisted he would have “put on a show.”
He still traveled to Mobile, Ala., last month and met with several NFL teams during Senior Bowl week.
“Once he’s healthy, I think he can walk into an NFL building and compete for a job,” said Wheeler. “He’s a tackle in the long-term, but if someone needs a guard right way, he can do that with no issue.”
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Amegadjie is currently working out at EXOS in Florida and is ahead of schedule with his rehab. He’s expected to be cleared for full activity this month, which would leave him enough time to get in front of NFL scouts before the draft. The current plan is for Amegadjie to hold a pro day in April, an essential final step before draft weekend.
Until then, he’ll continue to focus on interviews, including those he’ll have with coaches and GMs at the upcoming NFL combine.
“I think I’ll be able to show them how much I love football,” Amegadjie said. “I’m not just an Ivy League kid who is smart in the classroom. I’m smart on the field, too. I don’t fit any of the models that people put me in.”
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(Photo: Gregory Fisher / USA Today)
