Tennessee football: Kyle Phillips was undrafted, now ranked a top rookie

Kyle Phillips left Tennessee football for the NFL but was undrafted. After his first season, Pro Football Focus has ranked him as a top rookie.

As the draft season comes back around once again and, with that, we look back at what rookies did throughout the 2019 season, and which rookies performed better than others. Tennessee football’s Kyle Phillips found himself on the top-50 list after going undrafted.

Yes, that’s right, Kyle Phillips, the defensive lineman that graduated from Tennessee, went undrafted in the NFL, earned a spot on the Jets, and went on to earn a spot in the top-50 rookies from the 2019 season.

Phillips was ranked as the 44th best rookie from the 2019 season, which is higher than Clelin Ferrell, who is also a defensive end at Clemson and was drafted fourth overall in last year’s draft. Now try to tell me Tennessee Orange doesn’t own the Southeast.

Anthony Treash is the one who ranked the top-50 rookies and praised Phillips over Ferrell in his reason why the Tennessee alum ranks higher than the fourth pick in last year’s draft.

"“Yes, that’s right — undrafted free agent Kyle Phillips was better than the fourth overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft,” Treash said. “His pass-rushing wasn’t up to speed compared to others at his position, but Phillips’ 76.6 run-defense grade ranked 17th among all edge defenders.”"

Former Tennessee football player Shy Tuttle also found himself on the list all the way up at 11, and he had an amazing season, so his spot on the list is well deserved.

I think both VFLs surprised a lot of fans not only in their own fanbase but throughout the entire NFL.

Phillips played in only 13 of the Jets’ games, and he made an impact almost immediately. Now let’s hope he and Tuttle can take their successful first season and make it an even better second season.