Kentrell Brothers (born February 8, 1993) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

. He was selected by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

in the fifth round of the

2016 NFL draft The 2016 NFL draft was the 81st annual draft of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

Early life

Kentrell attended Guthrie High School in

Guthrie, Oklahoma Guthrie is a city and county seat in Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. Its population was 10,191 at the 2010 census, a 2.7% increase from 9,925 in the 2000 census. First known as a railroad st ...

, where he was a two-way star for the Bluejays

team at

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

and

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

. During a playoff game in his junior year, Brothers roasted an

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

-committed

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line (OL), while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line ( ...

in a game against Duncan for four sacks. As a senior, he turned around and recorded five sacks on the same commit against Duncan in week 1, and also managed to score three

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

in that game. Following his junior season at Guthrie, Missouri became the first school to offer him a scholarship offer. Over the course of his senior year in which he posted over 100

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position) A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent ...

and 19 sacks as a defensive end and caught 63 balls for 1,304 yards and 18 touchdowns at wide receiver, the number of scholarships ballooned to 14 offers from all across the country. In addition to football, Brothers also participated in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

at Guthrie. Brothers was regarded as a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and committed to the

to play

on November 11, 2010.

College career

After redshirting his first year at Missouri in 2011 due to an injury, Brothers played in 11 games as a redshirt freshman in 2012 and recorded 14 tackles. As a sophomore in 2013, Brothers became a starter and started all 14 games. He finished the year with 70 tackles, three

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team bu ...

and one sack. As a junior in 2014, he had a team-leading 122 tackles.

College statistics

Professional career

Pre-draft

At the

NFL Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foot ...

, Brothers ran the 40-yard dash in 4.89 seconds, which ranked 27th among 31

s, but his 4.73-second sprint at Missouri

Pro Day The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

would have tied him for the fifth-fastest among inside linebacker prospects. In addition, he also improved his

vertical jump A vertical jump or vertical leap is the act of jumping upwards into the air. It can be an exercise for building both endurance and strength, and is also a standard test for measuring athletic performance. It may also be referred to as a ''Sargent ...

3 inches to inches and matched his

bench press The bench press or chest press is a weight training exercise where a person presses a weight upwards while lying horizontally on a weight training bench. The bench press is a Compound movements, compound movement, with the primary muscles involved ...

with a personal-record 19 repetitions.

Minnesota Vikings

Brothers was drafted by the

in the fifth round, 160th overall, in the

. Brothers didn't play any defensive snaps as a rookie, but he contributed to the team as a special teamer, finishing third on the Vikings with nine special teams tackles. He was the only player to make two units on the All- Pro Football Focus Special Teams teams. On April 20, 2018, Brothers was suspended the first four games for violating the NFL's

performance-enhancing drugs Performance-enhancing substances (PESs), also known as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. Many substances, such as anabolic steroids, can be used to improve at ...

policy. After becoming a free agent following the 2019 NFL season, Brothers was suspended for the first nine weeks of the 2020 NFL season on July 17, 2020. He was reinstated from suspension on November 10, 2020.

Montreal Alouettes

Brothers signed with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

on February 17, 2021.

NFL career statistics

References

External links

Missouri Tigers bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brothers, Kentrell 1993 births Living people People from Guthrie, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma American football linebackers Missouri Tigers football players Minnesota Vikings players Montreal Alouettes players Canadian football linebackers Players of Canadian football from Oklahoma