From Hickory to Foxborough

It didn’t take long for any coach at Lenoir-Rhyne University to recognize Kyle Dugger as an NFL prospect. That was evident every time he stepped on the practice field. It was clear when a player of his size returned every punt. You’re not supposed to move like that when you’re 6-foot-2, 220 pounds.

The fact that a player of his caliber was playing at the Division II level was uncommon, but not rare for a late bloomer. Dugger was hiding in plain sight of the NFL until March 2019.

That’s when Seattle Seahawks scout Ryan Florence traveled to Hickory, North Carolina. In the NFL, most teams subscribe to one or two scouting services – BLESTO or National Football Scouting. It’s up to the scouts to measure and time underclassmen a year before they are eligible for the draft and then upload the information to the website.

Florence measured Dugger’s arms, height and weight for the NFS service. For a safety, Dugger’s wingspan (78.5 inches) was extraordinary. Then he had him run the 40-yard dash. Then again. And again. Florence looked at the watch and back at Dugger. That was the moment he knew that this kid from Decatur, Georgia, was special.

This is also how Dugger got on the radar for the Senior Bowl and NFL Combine.

That spring, Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, was in the process of identifying players for the next college all-star game, which features prospects for the upcoming draft. Nagy scouted in the NFL for 18 seasons, including for the Patriots.

Nagy worked with Florence in Seattle and called to ask about Dugger after an agent tipped him off.

Florence told him he timed Dugger three times and the stopwatch read 4.41, 4.45 and 4.5.

“He really liked him,” Nagy said. “And he had him as fast as 4.41. Well, now he goes from being a really good Division II player to being a legit pro prospect. When you're talking about a kid that's 6-2, 220 pounds, that's flying.”

Dugger’s life changed on that day. As soon as Florence uploaded his report, the Division II safety was on the NFL’s radar. Soon, he’d be coveted by Bill Belichick and the Patriots.

Early impressions

When David Cole first laid eyes on Dugger, he saw the potential. It was in 2016, and the underclassman was still growing into his body. He did things on the practice field that were rare at the Division II level. The reason Dugger wasn’t in Division I was because he was a late bloomer. He was 5-foot-9 as a junior at Whitewater High School but grew to 6 feet as a senior. He added two more inches in college.

Cole was Lenoir-Rhyne’s secondary and special-teams coach at the time. He had previously coached seven NFL players as an assistant at California (Pa.) University and did an internship with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2013. He saw a future NFL player in Dugger. He set out a plan to make Dugger the first player drafted from Lenoir-Rhyne in 20 years.

First, Cole had to convince Dugger to switch from cornerback to safety – after he was named the conference Defensive Freshman of the Year.

“I had to talk him into being a safety because he fancied himself the next Jalen Ramsey,” said Cole, who’s now at Mercer. “We just talked about making that move that would be the best to get him to the next level. … We really just talked about refining the skills, footwork, being more aggressive, being a better open-field tackler, and becoming more of a student of the game and loving it.”

Two years later, Drew Cronic took over as Lenoir-Rhyne’s coach. He knew Dugger when he was a student at Whitewater. Cronic was an assistant at Reinhardt University and recruited Dugger to the NAIA school, but lost him to Lenoir-Rhyne. Those were the only offers Dugger had.

When Cronic took the new job in 2018, he heard the stories about Dugger. There were moments in the secondary that defied logic. There were times in practice he’d hit someone so hard, he’d knock a teammate out for the day. Then there were the punt returns. At his size, Dugger’s returns were legendary.

“(When I recruited him), he was probably 6-foot, 185 pounds,” said Cronic, who now coaches at Mercer. “When I saw him again, he was 218-220 (pounds), and he looked like he belonged at Clemson or Alabama. Then they start talking about him returning punts. I'm going, ‘OK, whatever, a 218-pound guy returning punts.’ Then I watched film on it. And I got to see it live and in color that fall … and I was a believer.”

The NFL soon was as well.

All the right things

Lenoir-Rhyne was a popular destination for NFL teams in the fall of 2019.

After Dugger’s times were posted, NFL teams raced to Hickory to see him. There were an estimated 10 scouts a day at practice. Front office personnel came to games. The Carolina Panthers’ general manager visited. The Buffalo Bills were there more than anyone.

“That fall was crazy. All NFL teams came to practice,” Cole said. “That doesn't happen at a lot of smaller collegiate programs. It was just neat. It was a time to always remember, you know, but it was definitely crazy.”

“It was the normal process of scouts checking in on us. We obviously were pretty high on Kyle and they’d get a little film,” Cronic added. “Then one team comes a couple of times and it blows up. All the guys can share information. By that fall, every team in the National Football League came by.”

Dugger was named the Division II defensive player of the year last season, but it was how he handled himself that fall that truly impressed those around him. Scouts were on him every day. He was bombarded with calls from NFL agents. It was stressful, but Dugger handled it like a professional.

When players were coming off the practice field, he stayed in the end zone to work on his technique. He was the first player in the meeting room and kept copious notes in a black notebook. He was the first person to raise his hand. He took coaching and didn’t get down when a coach ripped into him.

There was no baggage here. He took care of his body, was careful in what he ate and when the weekends came, he usually stayed inside to watch movies.

“He just stayed away from the wrong things, and he absorbed information well, very intelligent,” Cronic said. “All the pieces kind of lined up. If you saw a kid like that at a Division II school, you would assume he was transfer that came from a big school because he has problems.”

Final testing ground

The Patriots earmarked Dugger as a potential draft pick in the spring of 2019. That fall, they sent scouts on multiple occasions to Hickory to get a closer look. By the time January came, they saw Dugger play in several games.

Still, they needed more.

That’s where the 2020 Senior Bowl came in. It wasn’t just the game on Jan. 25, during which Dugger made a game-high seven tackles, but the week before in practice. That’s where they saw the safety go up against top Division I players.

“I knew he would stack up physically with the guys here. And I knew he would stack up athletically,” said Nagy. “What you never know with the small school guys is how they're going to step up against competition, just from a mindset standpoint. … Some guys are wide-eyed. Some guys, they get down here and it's a little too big for them. They don't have that self-belief. They don't have that self-confidence, and it shows, and it shows on the practice field.

“With Kyle you saw it the first day, like this was not going to be too big for him at all. He's a confident guy. He came down here ready to compete.”

Dugger put on a show in front of Belichick, Nick Caserio and other scouts. Even before the NFL Combine, where Dugger shined, the Patriots had enough information to put him high on their draft board. When they selected him with the 37th overall pick, Belichick and Caserio noted how important it was for them to see Dugger perform well at the Senior Bowl.

The moment wasn’t too big then. It’s not now.

Dugger is already playing meaningful snaps as a rookie for the Patriots. He’s doing this after playing Division II football and having a shortened offseason with no preseason games.

“He never shied away from anything because this is what he wanted,” Cole said. “From the day I met Kyle Dugger, we talked about this and trying to achieve it. He was really ready for this moment.”

Kyle Dugger’s time has arrived.