Every time No. 59 took the field at Buccaneers mini camp, and kept making plays, rosters were checked. He wasn't a draft pick, nor even an undrafted free agent.
David Kenney was just a tryout player, one of 27 brought in for the weekend to go up against 30-plus Buccaneers first-year players already under contract. The unanswered questions, after two days of impressive work: Who is David Kenney? And where has he been for the last three and a half years?
“He gets to come back Tuesday,” coach Bruce Arians said, via The Athletic, meaning the 24-year-old pass rusher would be back with the team — under contract and on the 90-man roster — when the full squad begins OTA workouts. “When you get past the quarterback on just about every play, that catches everybody’s attention. Let’s see if he can do it against the next group.”
After being a 4-star recruit out of Indianapolis, Kenney played as a true freshman in 2013 at Indiana, listed at 6-foot-2 and 272 pounds, but managed only nine tackles and zero sacks. The next fall, he left school and never returned due to academic issues. He landed at Division I-AA Illinois State in 2015 and posted 11 tackles in seven games with a single sack. By the next spring, problems with grades caught up to him again.
That’s the last time he played football.
Now he's on an NFL roster.
The only hurdle remaining to Kenney signing an NFL contract with the Bucs was going in for a physical exam on Monday morning. Now, Kenney faces a four-month audition for the Bucs 53-man roster.
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