How Kyle Hamilton Became the Most Versatile Player in the NFL

Kyle Hamilton should be in the Defensive MVP conversation as the centerpiece of Baltimore's defense.

By Ryan Mink

When Ravens Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr starts working on his weekly game plan, it begins with a simple question.

Is Kyle Hamilton playing this week? If the answer is yes, Orr has his building block.

Jacksonville Jaguars rookie wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter has brought the two-way player back to the NFL. But with all due respect, the league's most versatile player is in Baltimore.

"It definitely starts with Kyle because he is an offense's No. 1 target. That's who they're worried about," Orr said.

"We understand that the offense is going to game plan around Kyle and find different ways to try to neutralize him. We use that to our advantage based off of what we like to do, what we've put on film, and then what offenses like to do as well. So, definitely, he's a chess piece that you want to use."

As the Ravens get to take on the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving's grand stage, Hamilton is the ultimate matchup for the Bengals' offensive arsenal. Orr said the only position he won't use Hamilton at is nose tackle. He can play the rest.

Because of Hamilton's versatility, the Ravens have been able to send him at whatever problem arises.

Midway through last season, after the Bengals' Ja'Marr Chase exploded on the Ravens twice with big plays over the top, the Ravens moved Hamilton from playing mostly in the box and slot corner to free safety. The bombs stopped dropping and Baltimore's defense was one of the best in the league the rest of the way.

Midway through this season, with the Ravens needing to create more chaos up front, Orr deployed Hamilton back closer to the line of scrimmage, where he could be a force not only in coverage, but as a run stopper and blitzer. The Ravens have given up fewer than 20 points in every game since.

Hamilton is becoming known as the Ravens' "Fixer," – “Winston Wolfe” in shoulder pads, a "Pulp Fiction" reference made by The Athletic's Robert Mays.

"There's one common theme, back-to-back seasons," Sr. Secondary Coach Chuck Pagano said. "The word unicorn gets thrown around a lot to a lot of different guys, but he really is the unicorn."

But how does Hamilton do it? It essentially comes down to three traits – intelligence, athleticism, and sacrifice.

'That's How His Mind Works'

Hamilton was scheduled to talk for this story in the locker room after a Friday practice. Across the NFL, Friday afternoons are one of the few windows players and coaches have to get home early and spend a full evening with family and friends.

When Hamilton wasn't at his locker, it seemed he had done the same. On the conrtary. He rescheduled because he stayed late to watch more film.

Pagano coached Ed Reed in college at Miami and then again in Baltimore. Hamilton is a very different player from Reed, but the way Hamilton learns reminds Pagano of the Hall of Famer.

"Like Ed, you know he has to watch a lot of tape and put the time in because to be able to make the plays that he makes, he's one step ahead," Pagano said. "The menu, and what we ask … like, very, very, very smart. By game day, it's amazing. He's got it all down."

The Ravens fill up Hamilton's plate like it's a Thanksgiving feast. He keeps chowing it down and taking seconds.

Orr said Ravens coaches have to be cognizant that Hamilton "still is human." They don't want to slow him down on the field by jamming too much into his head. But it hasn't slowed him down yet. There are still a lot more things they want to build up to with Hamilton.

"He makes it easy, because he can handle it," Orr said. "It's just phenomenal – the football IQ and the information that he can retain and then go apply it in real time. ... I'm just like, 'Hey Kyle, can you handle this?' And he says, 'Yes, I'm good.' That's all I need to hear, and he goes out there and executes it."

Hamilton's football intelligence stems from non-football intelligence. He's a member of Mensa, having qualified for the elite society while in the third grade with an IQ score of 132. He can recite 38 digits of pi.

Hamilton downplayed the mental difficulty of what he's doing. He handles all the different responsibilities by putting them into separate mental buckets.

"I keep everything independent to what my job is on a specific play," Hamilton said. "A lot of it is also just critical thinking and being able to listen and consume info."

Hamilton is so quiet in the meeting room that sometimes Pagano wonders if he's picking it all up. But Hamilton's a meticulous note taker, and when he speaks up, sometimes even a 36-year coach like Pagano learns something.

"He'll think of a motion, a shift, something within a call and ask, 'What if they do this?'" Pagano said. "The rest of the room is like, 'Man, I didn't think of that.' I'm in the back like, 'I didn't think of that. That's a great question.' But that's how his mind works."

Clark Lea was Hamilton's defensive coordinator at Notre Dame and is now the head coach at Vanderbilt. He was the first coach to envision a dynamic role for Hamilton near the line of scrimmage. Before Hamilton took it over, fellow Ravens safety Alohi Gilman was in that role at Notre Dame. Speaking from experience, Gilman said what's most impressive about what Hamilton does is the mental strain, which is much more advanced in the NFL.

"To have the knowledge up front in terms of stunt games, where the protection is going, what the running back likes to do in each situation, it takes a certain amount of studying and just playing ball to be able to do it and do it on a high level," Gilman said.

"Once he understands conceptually what's going on, what the offense is trying to do, then he just plays to his strength in that situation, and he makes a lot of plays because of it. It's pretty impressive."

Basketball Is the 'Secret Sauce'

Hamilton's father, Derrek, was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in 1988 and had a successful 17-year career playing in Europe. The 6-foot-7 small forward mostly starred in Greece, where Kyle was born, and Israel.

Derrek went on to train basketball players in Atlanta, including Rajon Rondo, Lou Williams, and Iman Shumpert. He also trained his son.

Kyle grew up playing in Atlanta's AAU basketball circuit against ballers such as NBA superstar Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves. In April, Kyle went viral when he jokingly offered the Los Angeles Lakers his assistance to guard Edwards in the playoffs.

Kyle was so good at basketball that he got a scholarship offer from Tulane when he was just a freshman in high school, even before he hit his growth spurt.

"He was small until the 10^th grade," Derrek said. "His body grew, but his footwork and agility stayed the same."

When Derrek watches his son play, he still sees those basketball movements – just in pads.

"Against Minnesota, his rush move was a Euro step. Against Cleveland, it was a spin move," Derrek said. "His feet are like a small forward. That's the secret sauce."

Kyle is built like a basketball player – 6-foot-4, 218 pounds. Linebacker Roquan Smith said Kyle's combination of size and speed is "something you breed in the lab" and gave Kyle's parents a shout-out.

On top of good genetics, Kyle agrees with his father that his hooping background helped with his mobility and with how he sees his versatile role.

"Pass rush, a lot of times I feel like it's just basketball on grass," he said. "You're trying to duke somebody and get them off the spot just like Kyrie [Irving] tries to do.

"I kind of equate it to basketball in [that] you go from playing guard in a smaller lineup, then you may go to a big lineup, and you may switch from ball handling to playing off-ball, to playing undersized power forward. It kind of gives the other team matchup issues, and they have to match up with your personnel, rather than you having to do that."

'That's What They Paid Me to Do'

While he moves like a basketball player, Kyle hits like a heavyweight fighter.

During pre-game warmups, Orr sometimes wonders if Hamilton is ready to play. He looks like it's just another day.

"But as soon as the ball snaps and the first whistle blows, he wants to bite your face off," Orr said. "I think he uses that to his advantage, the little baby face and curly hair. He's a monster out there."

Derrek remembers when Kyle was just 6 years old and it was his first time practicing at the local park. The football coach had to leave for a bit and before he did so, he told the parents not to let Kyle hit the other kids.

They unfortunately didn't listen. When the coach came back, three or four kids were on the sideline wanting to quit.

"A 6-year-old who liked contact, that's not normal," Derrek said. "He's a little crazy."

In Cleveland, Kyle lined up at linebacker and blasted through the middle of the Browns' offensive line. Guard Joel Bitonio is a seven-time Pro Bowler who outweighs Hamilton by about 100 pounds. Kyle sent him reeling backwards.

But plays like that also take a physical toll. It's a sacrifice.

Gilman knew that life wasn't for him in the NFL. It's too much pain banging around in the box with 300-pound offensive linemen or slamming into by a running back, play after play.

"I can do that one or two plays [a game], but for a long season, I can't do that to last that long. In college, I was doing those things, and I was beat up by the end of the year," Gilman said. "In the league, I'm trying to play longer than a couple years. I'm [in] Year 6. I want to keep playing. So, I was like, 'Go ahead, Kyle, you do all those.'"

Hamilton is feeling that pain. Last week, he was on the injury report with shoulder and groin injuries. He left Sunday's win against the New York Jets twice, once grabbing his shoulder and another time after tweaking his ankle. Hamilton missed just one practice Monday and was back on the practice field Tuesday.

In Hamilton's opinion, the most challenging part of his versatile role is not the mental lift. It's what he has to do to get his body ready to do it all over again.

"I'd say probably the hardest part for me is physically, because it is a lot," he said. "I'm a wiry guy, and it's just being able to get my body ready to endure whatever the team needs for that week. But, you know, it's part of what I signed up for , and I'm more than happy to do so. No quarrels or anything about it, but just me playing a game that I love."

Here's how Hamilton views it. The cons of playing closer to the line of scrimmage are that it's a lot more preparation – physically and mentally. The pros are that he's closer to the ball and can have a bigger impact on the game.

This is why the Ravens made him the NFL's highest-paid safety this offseason with a four-year extension worth a reported $100.4 million.

"You know, it might be a lot on my plate, but that's what I wanted, and that's what they paid me to do, and I'm more than happy to do so," Hamilton said. "When we're 1-5, people were like, 'Let's change what you do, and it's the reason why we gave you this contract.' Essentially, 'Let's make you earn that money.'"

Despite the pain, Hamilton still thinks he could do more. He teases his coaches that he's going to bulk up to 250 pounds this offseason and come back as an EDGE rusher. After sacking Shedeur Sanders in Cleveland, Hamilton joked that he wasn't going to do individual drills with the defensive backs anymore.

Maybe he could become the highest-paid safety and the highest-paid outside linebacker?

"There is a big difference [in money]," Hamilton joked. "I think I do have a future there if I were to get to a size that is sustainable at EDGE or something like that. Maybe if my body type was a little bigger, then that would be my actual life. But, you know, I work with what I got, and whatever they need me to do."

'Wish We Could Have 11 Kyle Hamiltons'

Kyle Van Noy has been in the NFL for a decade and is a two-time Super Bowl champion. He's played with a lot of really good players, including Tom Brady.

It's hard to find more flowers than the bouquet Van Noy gave Hamilton last week.

"We all wish we could have 11 Kyle Hamiltons. We just want to try to be Kyle in that regard and make plays like him and continue to make [offenses] fear when you're out there," Van Noy said.

"I know people can't hear the communication of teams and O-linemen and quarterbacks. They're pointing at him. They're scheming it up to stay away and go away from him, and he still is making hay and doing damage. It's awesome to play with a player like that. I've played with amazing players, and I put him at the top of the list with the other one [Brady]."

Van Noy said Hamilton deserves to be in the conversation for Defensive Most Valuable Player because of the number of jobs he executes at a high level. Problem is, the film shows Hamilton's impact more than the box score.

The two stats that win hardware are sacks and interceptions. Hamilton has one and none, respectively, so far this season. It's Hamilton's blend of production – 69 tackles, five tackles for loss, and six passes defensed – that makes him special. He's the NFL's highest-graded safety, according to Pro Football Focus.

Right now, Browns pass rusher Myles Garrett is running away with the Defensive MVP award, considering he's on pace to smash the all-time single-season sack record.

"I don't think I'm winning that unless I catch some picks," Hamilton said with a laugh. "I don't really care too much about stuff like that. I mean, it's a blessing just being in the situation that I'm in right now and to even be mentioned in the same breath as people like Myles and all these other guys who have won it before and will be Hall of Famers."

However, Hamilton thought being mentioned in the same breath as Hunter, the Jaguars' two-way rookie, was amusing. Who is the more versatile player?

"See, that's an interesting question because, in my heart of hearts, I think I could play receiver in this league," Hamilton said. "That's my dream to play a snap at receiver in the NFL."

Doesn't he already have enough on his plate?

"Just tell me what route I have, and we can do it," Hamilton said.

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