GREEN BAY, Wis. – Hardy Nickerson should know a big-time player when he sees one. The five-time Pro Bowl linebacker’s 16-year NFL career qualifies him as such an authority.

So when Nickerson says he pegged Kevin King for a big-time college recruit after his first varsity game in high school, there’s reason to believe him.

Five-time Pro Bowl linebacker Hardy Nickerson coached Kevin King, above, in high school and believes the new Packers cornerback "has a chance to be special." Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire

“I kinda had that feeling after his, well, shucks his first game as a varsity football player,” recalled Nickerson, who coached King at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California. “We’re playing a showcase game in Sacramento, and Kevin had two picks. He just made play after play. You could see it right off the bat.”

Nickerson’s next proclamation about King came after his star cornerback committed to the University of Washington.

“A few years from now we might be reading about him being one of the top guys in the country,” Nickerson told ESPN back in 2012.

Sure enough, King was the sixth cornerback picked in this year’s NFL draft. So what does his old high school coach think now that the Green Bay Packers made King the 33rd overall pick?

“There aren’t many guys like him with that size, that length and that speed,” Nickerson, who’s now the defensive coordinator at the University of Illinois, said in a phone interview shortly after the Packers picked King. “This guy has a chance to be special. Nowadays, corners are -- either they’re tall and can’t run, or they’re shorter and they can run but they lose the leverage in terms of height, especially down the field. Kevin has the height and ability to play long down the field, so he’s a tough matchup. With today’s receivers, who are bigger and bigger, he matches up pretty well.”

It was King’s size (6-foot-3), speed (he ran a 4.43 40-yard dash at the combine) and arm length (his 32-inch arms are the longest among the Packers’ recent cornerback draft picks) that helped convince general manager Ted Thompson he was worthy of his first selection in this year’s draft after Thompson traded out of the first round.

All of those attributes were on display last weekend during the Packers’ rookie camp, which happened to start the day King turned 22, yet he was so wrapped up in his first practice that he claimed he forgot it was his birthday.

"Great kid, loves to have fun, keeps everything light," Nickerson said. "And really a football kid."

In King, the Packers may have their new No. 1 cornerback, a job that was vacated last year when Sam Shields sustained a concussion in Week 1 that ended his season and his career in Green Bay. The Packers released him earlier this offseason.

Where King’s arrival leaves the likes of Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins – the Packers’ first- and second-round picks in 2015, respectively – is anyone’s guess at this point. When last season ended, they had been usurped by an undrafted free agent from their same draft year, LaDarius Gunter, as the Packers’ No. 1 cornerback. Gunter did an admirable job in that role under the circumstances, but there’s a reason the Packers fielded the 31st-ranked passing defense in the NFL last season, and King is part of the plan to fix that.

“I didn’t even think of it like that,” King said. “I’m out here trying to earn it just like the other guys are. I don’t put myself on a pedestal, I don’t think there’s no more pressure on me. Regardless of that I’m going out there and I’m doing the best that I can. I’m ready to learn the same as everybody else.”

It’s the same approach Nickerson said King took when he prepared for that first varsity game, the one with two interceptions. It was much like King's first game in Pop Warner, when he said he intercepted two passes in one quarter.

So now everyone should know what to expect in his first game with the Packers: Put King down for two interceptions when they open the season against the Seahawks on Sept. 10.

“Do not put that on me,” King said with a smile. “Don’t quote me on that. I didn’t say that. I’m just trying to do my job.”