2022 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Kwasi Addo-Baffour Jr., LB, Utica College

• Name: Kwasi Addo-Baffour Jr.  
• Position: OLB/ILB
• College: Utica College
• Height: 5’9
• Weight: 230
• Twitter: @kwvsii
• Instagram: k._viii

What makes you a top prospect at your position in the 2022 NFL Draft?  

• I’m a high motor, sideline to sideline player that has a knack for finding the ball on all downs. I believe my athleticism will allow me to play multiple positions in different defensive schemes.

At what age were you first interested in the sport of football?

• About 11, but I started playing my freshman year of high school.

What is one thing that NFL teams should know about you?

• I’m a coachable student of the game and my football lens is ever-growing. Understanding every aspect of a playbook, defensive scheme, or call is my priority. A defense with everyone on the same page makes an unstoppable one.

If you could donate to one cause in the world, what would it be?  

• It would relate to allowing kids in situations without a support system to get a chance at life, whether it was an education or a career they’d like to pursue, but don’t have the resources to. I’d like to help people get those opportunities.  

What is the best advice you have ever received?

• A true leader can lead from behind in order to impact a larger amount of the people around them.  

Who was your childhood hero?

• My mother. She’s the hardest working woman I know since I was a kid to this day. She’s made a big impact on my work ethic.

Who is the most underrated teammate in your locker room at your school?  

• Jimmie Warren, he’s a guy who’s went through a couple position changes but he’s developed into a leader in the locker room and a high intensity player on the field.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

• People who have large expectations but don’t put in the effort to get there.

Overcoming adversity is what defines character, what was the hardest moment in your life to overcome?  

• Going through the repair of my meniscus. The weeks I wasn’t able to walk and not being able to play definitely did it’s toll on me for the four months that I dealt with it. What I got from this adversity was more of a love of beating adversity. Getting back from that and continuing to be a high level player showed me even more that I’m not easily defeated.

Tell me something about your school and why it is so special to you?

• Utica College becomes a special place to anyone that has spent time there. The environment, the people, and the schools ability to follow its motto of “never standing still” is something that make it what it is. Everyone who is a part of the Utica community does their part to make the place evolve year after year, whether it’s more resources for students, new facilities, or just general development this place really never stands still.

What is your favorite snack food?

• Welches Fruit Snacks

What is the best part of football?

• Speaking something into fruition, working towards it, and then IT actually happening.

If you could sell yourself in one sentence what would you say?

• If you invest in me, almost all your further successes will have a path that leads back to me.

If you could compare your play to one player in the NFL who would it be?

• Devin White – young, passionate about the game, all over the field.

If you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would it be and why?

• Michael Jordan, Drake, and Elon Musk. I believe that these three men have reached a pinnacle in their careers and I would like to know how they navigated through the success and the failure. I’d want to know how they were able to reach heights that they did where they thought they had it all, but then were able to find even newer heights.