Two more draft slots sets; two more to go … As a result of today’s NFL conference championship games, two more positions in the opening round selection order for the 2015 draft have been set. Indianapolis, which was dismantled in the AFC title game by New England, will have the 29th overall selection, while Green Bay which lost in heart-breaking fashion in overtime in Seattle, will have the 30th pick. The final two spots in the opening round selection order will be determined by the Super Bowl with the loser getting the 31st pick and the winner the 32nd.
Senior Bowl week set to kick-off … With the NFL off for a week to allow Seattle and New England to prepare for the Super Bowl on February 1st, anyone who is anyone in the league is off the Mobile for this week’s Senior Bowl practices which get underway on Tuesday afternoon following the weigh-in that morning. And while the Senior Bowl is probably the most important event on the pre-draft calendar outside of the scouting combine, it does tend to be more of a second and later round scouting fest as juniors, who make up around half of first-round picks most years, aren’t eligible to participate, while many top senior prospects opt out of the Senior Bowl for fear of injury or that a sub-par week would hurt their grade. Indeed, in just the past few days both West Virginia WR Kevin White and Kentucky DE Bud Dupree have indicated they will not becoming to Mobile this week after all after committing to the event late last season. UCLA MLB Eric Kendricks and Oregon C Hroniss Grasu have also decided to stay home this week. At the same time, though, several sure-fire opening round prospects including LSU G/T La’el Collins, Washington NT Danny Shelton and Pittsburgh OT T.J. Clemmings, remain committed to the Senior Bowl. The event may also provide several emerging second-round candidates, including Utah DE Nate Orchard, Washington DE/OLB Hau’oli Kikaha, Auburn WR Sammie Coates and Colorado State Ty Sambrailo with the opportunity to impress NFL personnel execs and possibly move up closer to the opening round with solid performances this week. Here are the full Senior Bowl rosters. And as usual our own Pigskin Paul Guillemette will be in Mobile this week and will be filing daily reports on who’s up and who’s not. Stay tuned.
Shrine wraps … The GBN staff are still studying the game tape from the East-West Shrine game in St. Petersburg this past weekend; however, several analysts have posted preliminary reviews of who stood out in the Shrine game including here and here. Meanwhile, for those that never saw them, here are the heights and weights for last week’s Shrine game participants.
League to investigate Jets for tampering … The NFL is reportedly ‘looking into’ a charge of tampering filed by New England against the New York Jets. The charge is in connection with comments Jets’ owner Woody Johnson made a while back when asked whether he would like to have Patriots’ CB Darrelle Revis back with the Jets. It does not appear at this time, though, that the Jets are likely to be docked any draft picks if they were have found to have violated any rules.
