Boise State’s Correa lands in Mel Kiper’s mock NFL first round

Kamalei Correa’s decision to leave the Boise State football program a year early could pay big dividends if ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s projection holds.

Kiper released his latest NFL mock draft Thursday — and he has Correa slotted at No. 29 to the Arizona Cardinals.

“The Cardinals were fortunate that Dwight Freeney still had his spin move going into 2015, and they need to add more in the pass rush,” Kiper wrote. “Correa offers some of what we saw from a young Freeney as a quick-twitch edge rusher who can beat tackles with quickness and could be a useful situational pass-rusher early in his career for a team that needs to close out games as teams play catch-up throwing the ball. See the QB, get the QB.”

Correa, who was only at Boise State for two and a half years, decided to leave after his true junior season. He led the Mountain West in sacks as a sophomore in 2014 but was less productive in 2015, when he was named to the All-Mountain West second team. He finished with a flourish, though — he was named the defensive MVP of the Poinsettia Bowl.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 10:15 AM with the headline "Boise State’s Correa lands in Mel Kiper’s mock NFL first round."