The first impression of Kelee Ringo is always the same.<\/p>\n
The still-22-year-old Ringo is a 6-foot-2, 207-pound outside cornerback who ran a 4.36 in the 40-yard dash coming out of Georgia in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat stands out most about Kelee is that he is a freak of nature,\u201d Adoree\u2019 Jackson said last week. \u201cJust his tangibles. Being that tall, being able to have speed, his movements.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as Ringo prepares for his third NFL season as a potential starter, he knows his freakish traits aren\u2019t enough anymore. He\u2019s at the point of his career, where he wants to do anything he can to refine his game.<\/p>\n
If Ringo can do all those little things to enhance his God-given abilities, then he has a chance to reach his ceiling as an NFL cornerback.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s talking about my talent and things like that, but talent only takes you so far,\u201d Ringo said. \u201cComing into the league and seeing that talent, of course, can definitely help you to get places where you want to go. But taking that next step of focusing on your technique. From little things like stretching, I learned the playbook. All different things that can help you get an edge over all besides just your talent. That\u2019s the main thing I\u2019ve been focusing on right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a technique perspective, Ringo has been trying to work on his footwork to keep his balance playing outside cornerback with a bigger body.<\/p>\n
Another thing Ringo has been working on is learning the other positions in the secondary. No, he\u2019s not going to play nickel or safety anytime soon but understanding the responsibilities of his teammates has allowed him to recognize where his help is going to be. Ringo has been working with defensive backs coach Christian Parker to expand his knowledge of those others spots.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just another thing he\u2019s done in an attempt to slow the game down.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never really understand how much something can help you until you tap into it,\u201d Ringo said. \u201cSomebody can always tell you but until you step your foot in there, you don\u2019t really understand why. I\u2019ve always been a person to understand \u2018Why am I doing this? How can this help me? How can this help my game?\u2019 Just always getting smarter and understanding the game overall can definitely enhance myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ringo, who will turn 23 later this month, was a fourth-round draft pick out of Georgia back in 2023 after garnering first-round buzz that spring. He played more as a rookie than he did in Year 2 after the Eagles added Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Isaiah Rodgers in 2024.<\/p>\n
But now that Darius Slay and Rodgers are gone, there\u2019s a huge opportunity in front of Ringo. He\u2019s competing with the veteran Jackson for that starting outside corner job opposite Mitchell.<\/p>\n
And you\u2019d have to think the Eagles are rooting for Ringo to grab the reins.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just needs reps,\u201d defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. \u201cHe needs to learn to play the game, and that comes with reps. To quote what Nick (Sirianni) said in a meeting recently, ‘Repetition is the burden of leadership.’ It’s up to us to get him enough reps in practice, expose him to all the things he needs to be exposed to so he can play a full NFL game. When I say full, not physically conditioning-wise, but be a competent corner throughout a full game in a full season.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the two practices open to reporters this spring, Ringo and Jackson split those first-team reps and DeJean played that right cornerback job in the base package. But there are a lot of reps up for grabs this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though he didn\u2019t get to play very much on defense in 2024 (he played just 112 defensive snaps) Ringo said he got better just watching the pros in front of him. He was also a core special teamer and was named a fifth-alternate for the Pro Bowl.<\/p>\n
But now it\u2019s time for a bigger role. What will it take for him to win this job?<\/p>\n
\u201cJust continue to keep my feet where they are and taking it day by day,\u201d Ringo said. \u201cContinue to grow. Just trimming up the little things. I feel like everybody as a whole, if we all continue to do that, all of us will be in a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first impression of Kelee Ringo is always the same. The still-22-year-old Ringo is a 6-foot-2, 207-pound outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,4904,7,6,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-115949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-eagles-blog","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","14":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114653233502584722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}