Mohamed Kamara has never needed any extra motivation. After falling to the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, Kamara has exactly that.
In his first interview with the Miami media, the 2023 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year told reporters that while he is both excited and appreciative for the opportunity to play with the Dolphins, he is also very angry about being the 158th pick.
“That’s just my personality,” Kamara said.
“I knew I could’ve went higher and I wanted to go higher, but the lovely team of Miami picked me up and I’m going to give them that burning desire.”
“I have a chip on my shoulder, so it just got even greater,” he continued.
“So everybody else, all 31 other teams, look out because the way I’m about to play against these guys, you should’ve picked me before.”
Kamara is coming off of an impressive three-year run in which he recorded 29 sacks and 42.5 tackles for loss over a span of 36 games. His 30.5 career sacks over five seasons is the second-most in school history, trailing only the late Clark Haggans (33). And his 13 sacks in 2023 is the third-most in a single season by any Ram ever.
Considering the type of consistent production that he had in the Green & Gold, as well as his solid testing throughout the pre-draft process, many analysts projected Kamara to go on Day 2 of the draft, potentially even as high as the late second round.
“I’m a Mohamed Kamara fan, and there are teams around the league who feel exactly the same way,” the NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said last week. “I don’t believe he’s getting out of day two, let’s put it that way.”
For whatever reason, Kamara found himself waiting to hear his name called for much longer than anticipated this past weekend. Whether it’s because teams thought that he is too small or that his numbers will not translate, it really does not matter to Mo, the former CSU star is using all of the doubt as fuel for his fire.
“Every thing that people knock me for, I use it as fuel — every single thing,” Kamara said.
“I’m going to make some things up just to push me to keep going. That’s just the type of person I am. I’m never satisfied. I will never be satisfied. So if you want to call me short, watch out. If you didn’t believe in me, watch out. That’s just the type of person I am, that’s what keeps me going every day.”
Kamara embraces competition
It’s a good thing that Kamara is going into the league with the mentality of proving his skeptics wrong because he is not exactly going into a locker room that lacks talent.
In addition to Kamara, Miami selected Chop Robinson in the first round and signed Shaq Barrett over the offseason. The Dolphins also have Jaelen Phillips and Bradley Chubb to round out a deep crew of outside pass rushers.
“Man, I’ve got to put my foot in the ground and keep moving forward,” Kamara said.
“As much as I respect them, hopefully they will respect me and we all work together. Hopefully we all get to push each other, and hopefully I’m in that room for a long time.”
Anybody that watched Kamara in Fort Collins knows that you’ll never need to question his motor. Even in practice the 6-foot-1, 250-pound QB killer was absolutely relentless. It’s just the way that he plays the game. And according to Kamara, that’s the same approach that he intends to keep at the next level.
“Make practice super, super hard so the games are easy,” he said.
“Be relentless in practice so when you get to the game, you’re just letting yourself free. Fail, succeed, mess up in practice so when you get to the game, it’s easy and you’re just doing what you have to do. That’s just how I look at it, so I’m always going to be relentless in practice. That’s just how I am.”
