What if they held a college football all-star game and a track meet broke out. That’s kind of what it looked like on Saturday when the edge rushers in this year’s Senior Bowl literally pinned their ears back and raced to the QB. At least what it felt like when the White team had the ball. That’s when guys like Minnesota’s Boye Mafe, Jesse Luketa of Penn State (and Ottawa), Myjai Sanders of Cincinnati, Ty Smith of Ohio State and Kyron Johnson of Kansas took turns harassing the various White QBs. Of course, several, if not all those guys are either listed as OLBs or have played there, but they all had snaps with their hand in ground and they all got pressure including the little known Johnson of Kansas, who’s actually only about 6-0 and 230.
Of that group, the Big Ten’s Mafe and Luketa were arguably the most impressive. And not just because they each had a couple of thumping sacks. Not only were they just exploding off the snap, but they showed the ability to dip their shoulders to work their way thru some skinny openings as well as some pretty effective arm action that helped clear the way. And at over 255 pounds, both are big enough to be a factor defensing the run.
There was a similar story for somewhat unheralded DeAngelo Malone of Western Kentucky, who was the only White team DE to get any kind of consistent pressure. Malone, another tweener type at 6-3, 235, was particularly impressive planting and changing direction without losing much momentum. At the same time, if there was a DE we were expecting to see way more from today it was South Carolina’s JJ Enagbare, another SEC player flirting with a first-round grade. However, he has to hope NFL teams ignore the game tape as he really struggled to get off the line of scrimmage and made literally no impact on the game at all.
However, while the DEs were easily the best overall position in Saturday’s game, THE best player on the day may actually have been Orange DT Perrion Winfrey, who also had a couple of sacks on the day. And while he measured in at over 300 pounds, he looked more like a DE coming off the snap. In fact, we kind of swore he was offside on a number of plays. With that quickness, Winfrey was quick into the gaps and played with excellent leverage and hand usage. And on at least one play he literally run upfield past the OG and turned the arc and headed to the QB without losing a step in a move that would have made any DE proud.
Meanwhile, UConn DT Travis Jones, the consensus best player at this week’s practices, had a good but not necessarily great game. He was certainly able to blow up the interior of the OL on several plays and was able to walk his man back into the QB’s lap for a sack. BUT he also had a tendency to pop up right off the snap with cost him a lot of his power and momentum; as well he struggled to anchor when double teamed defending the run, again usually when he got too high and lost leverage.
We also felt DT Haskell Garrett of Ohio State at least deserved a mention. He’s a squatty guy who didn’t get a whole lot of upfield penetration, but he showed pretty good lateral range and a relentless energy. Same story for several others DTs who didn’t make many plays, but did appear to do a lot of the dirty work inside including LSU’s Neil Farrell, Phil Mathis of Alabama and Isaiah Thomas of Oklahoma. On the other hand, we were kind of looking for a better performance from Houston’s Logan Hall, a 5-tech DE who played inside full-time today, but struggled to get off blocks all afternoon.
