Kyu Blu Kelly

Career StatsC-

Year	Team	GP	INT	PD	Tkl
Career		19	3	6	47
2025		13	3	6	40
2024		4	0	0	2
2023		8

Season	Team	GP	Tkl	Sacks	INT	PD	Grade
2025		13	40	0.0	3	—	D D Bottom 20%
2024		4	2	0.0	0	—	D- D- Bottom 12%
2023		8	5	0.0	0	—	D- D- Bottom 12%

Grades reflect the player's performance in each season. Header grade shows the current season.

Current Contract

Contract Value Index (CVI)

Kyu Blu Kelly drew a B- on the Contract Value Index — a calibrated read on Las Vegas's cap allocation at cornerback. At $972,500 AAV across two years, the rookie scale deal represents minimal financial commitment, which insulates the Raiders from downside risk even as Kelly's on-field performance tells a concerning story: the 2025 season yielded 40 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 13 games played before a season-ending injury landed him on injured reserve, a threshold moment that crystallized durability questions the organization could no longer ignore. The cornerback market typically demands proven health and consistent snap availability; Kelly's early-career résumé—three years in the league with modest counting stats and now a documented injury history—leaves him without the production buffer to weather organizational skepticism. At 25 and in his third season, Kelly remains at an age where recovery and recalibration are theoretically possible, yet the Raiders' decision to non-tender him speaks volumes: Las Vegas saw enough injury risk and on-field inconsistency to conclude that even a minimum-level contract wasn't worth retaining. The non-tender effectively releases Kelly into an unrestricted free agency market where his leverage has collapsed entirely; his path forward depends almost entirely on clearing the medical checkpoint and demonstrating he can stay healthy in a training camp setting, as the current public narrative—anchored by injury doubt and organizational rejection—leaves little room for benefit of the doubt.

Contracts in the Same Value Band

Other same-position deals the Contract Value Index also places in the B band — a quick read on where Kyu's contract sits relative to comparable money.

Performance Analysis

Kyu Blu Kelly grades a C- performance mark, with his Pro Bowl-caliber stretches anchoring the read. The third-year cornerback posted respectable ball-hawking numbers in 2025—3 interceptions and 13 games played—that would typically signal developmental progress for a fifth-round pick, but the season-ending injury that sent him to injured reserve and the Raiders' subsequent decision to non-tender him expose the fragility of that promise. His 40 tackles across 13 games represent solid engagement in coverage, yet the real indictment is durability: a player who cannot stay on the field cannot command trust, and a single highlighted play—that end-zone interception against Justin Herbert—is too thin a highlight reel to overcome legitimate health concerns. At 25 and entering unrestricted free agency, Kelly now faces a market that will treat him as a reclamation project rather than a young cornerstone, a categorization that reflects not just his injury timeline but the Raiders' broader roster churn, with the organization making no meaningful effort to retain him despite his youth. The gap between his ceiling—a physical, instinctive cornerback with ball-production upside—and his current perception as a durability risk is as wide as it gets, and closing that gap will demand both a clean bill of health and a fresh start far removed from Las Vegas.

How Kyu Compares at the Position

Kyu Blu Kelly ranks 137th of 270 graded cornerbacks by performance. That slots Kyu between Quincy Riley (C) just ahead and Juju Brents (C-) just behind.

Current Sentiment

Kyu Blu Kelly enters the 2026 offseason with a sentiment grade of F — about as bleak a public perception as a young cornerback can carry — and the narrative surrounding him reflects a player who has gone from developmental prospect to question mark in the span of a single injury. The driving force behind that collapse in perception is twofold: a season-ending trip to injured reserve that confirmed the Raiders' worst fears about his health timeline, and the organizational verdict that followed, with Las Vegas non-tendering Kelly and effectively cutting ties with a player who was already on a minimum-level contract. His 2025 season numbers — 40 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 13 games played — represent genuine flashes of production for a fifth-round pick out of the 2023 draft, and his D performance grade, while poor, doesn't fully capture the injury-shortened context; yet the on-field output provides too thin a resume to counteract the durability concerns that now define him in the eyes of the league. The Raiders' recent roster activity only reinforces Kelly's peripheral standing — Las Vegas has been churning through low-cost signings at multiple positions with zero apparent effort to retain him, signaling that whatever organizational goodwill existed has evaporated. That pivotal end-zone interception against Justin Herbert remains the lone highlight on his resume that anyone is citing, which tells you everything about where the narrative sits: Kelly is currently a player clinging to league relevance, entering free agency as damaged goods and facing a market that will demand a clean bill of health before extending even a training camp invitation.