Khalil Dinkins came to Penn State as a pass-catcher.
At North Allegheny High School in the Pittsburgh Area, Dinkins was a receiver, and a good one, developing himself into a four-star recruit and one of PA’s best players.
But Penn State looked at Dinkins, who weighed between 210 and 220 pounds, and saw a tight end.
Dinkins knew how to catch footballs, but before he’d have a chance to do that, Penn State needed him to do something else.
“The first thing my coach ever said to me was basically ‘you’re not going to be able to get the ball if you don’t block,” Dinkins told reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis Thursday afternoon. “So I kinda just integrated that into my game. Being a receiver in high school, learning how to block as a tight end was not easy, but through repetition, hard work, putting your head down, just getting stuff done on scout team. It’s definitely not fun, but it’s just something that you have to learn how to do if you want to be a tight end, especially a tight end in the league and be there for longevity.”
Dinkins didn’t end up catching a lot of passes in his five seasons at Penn State, ending his college career with 37 receptions.
But it wasn’t because he couldn’t block.
Playing behind Brenton Strange, Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren over his time at Penn State, it was hard for Dinkins to do much in the pass-catching game.
But he made his presence known to Penn State fans by becoming, maybe, the best blocking tight end in the country by the time he left.
Dinkins has embraced his reputation as a blocking tight end, but also knows he can catch the ball, and is eager to show that to the NFL world when he works out Friday.
“I’ve been talking about that a lot, but being able to go out and show that, just something that I can prove and do…,” Dinkins said. “I wasn’t able to show everything I could do at Penn State, so being able to show that and do that tomorrow would be something good for me.”
With the crowded tight end room blocking Dinkins from putting up the numbers that he might have at another school, he certainly showed that he could be patient, which is a virtue.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.But when Dinkins was called upon, he answered the bell, as evidenced by the fact that seven of his 37 career catches were touchdowns.
He credits the veterans who played ahead of him for helping him always be prepared.
“Be ready when your time comes,” he said. “Having Brenton, Theo, Tyler ahead of me, guys who know how to do it, been through it, so having those guys is kind of like a cheat code, a little bit. But it’s good to have those guys up ahead, just asking questions, and knowing the system, learning the system.”
Dinkins said he learned different things from each of those three tight ends.
Strange was the best blocker of the three, which helped Dinkins hone that skill.
Warren was, well, the best tight end in the country by the time he left, so there’s a lot to choose from, but Dinkins mentioned Warren’s football IQ as something that rubbed off on him.
Johnson is a quality route runner, which is one skill Dinkins is hoping to show off to the NFL.
In the era of the transfer portal, it would have been easy for Dinkins to go somewhere where he could put up bigger numbers.
But he stayed at Penn State and feels this was the best place to prepare him for the next level.
“(Former tight ends coach) Ty Howle and (former assistant tight ends coach) David Rocco did a great job, just preparing me for this next stage. All the walk-throughs that we did, extra stuff, extra meetings, going through those last four years at Penn State was definitely a lot of development, and I’m definitely thankful for it.”
