One of the big questions that pro scouts wanted to be able to answer out of this year’s Senior Bowl was who was the real Army DE Andre Carter? Was he the guy who dominated in 2021 when he posted 17 sacks and made multiple All-America teams or the guy who barely caused a ripple this past season when he managed just 4 sacks. Unfortunately, based on what we saw in Mobile, the ultimate may be closer to the latter. Certainly, Carter looks the part at 6-6, 252 with 34-inch arms; plus he’s a longer strider who isn’t going to be outworked by anyone. However, while is a long strider, Carter didn’t look at all quick or explosive in Mobile and had limited agility and change of direction ability. He also didn’t seem to have much in the way of refined pass rush moves. In fact, more than he took a little hop just as he reached the OT and veered right or left, but just ended in a stationary hand fight posture. One also didn’t see much strength or power when he did make contact with opposing blockers.
At the same time, we were somewhat more impressed with Auburn’s Derick Hall who did have a couple of pressures. However, you really just didn’t see anything special in his speed/power combination, although the effort was certainly there. In fact, there wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about when watching the DEs in the Senior Bowl game. Of course, other than Army’s Carter most of this year edge rushers were more third-day prospects. Of those, LSU’s Ali Gaye should a real burst off the edge and had a couple of sacks, but if he didn’t win with his first step generally got washed out of plays; he also was barely a factor defending the run. There was something of a similar story for Clemson’s KJ Henry, who also won the edge on more than one occasion, but like Gaye didn’t make much headway if his initial charge was thwarted, although he was a little more physical defending the run. And it was more of the same for Thomas Incoom of Central Michigan who proved very difficult to block as he was in constant movement , although some of that movement appeared to be somewhat out of control at times.
Meanwhile, Isaiah Maguire of Missouri and Ole Miss’ Tavius Robinson had decent games. They are both somewhat bigger DEs who worked their butts off and did a solid job defending the run. They also battled rushing the passer and did collapse the pocket at times, but just lacked the burst to get any real pressure. In fact, on the day, the most intriguing edge rusher in the Senior Bowl may have been underrated Lonnie Phelps of Kansas. He’s undersized at just 6-2, 252, and didn’t even look that big, but showed a quick first step, consistently got under the pads of the OT in front of him, and made like the energizer bunny! Interesting game too from Isaiah Land of Florida A&M, another undersized guy (6-3, 225), who lined up almost exclusively at LB in Mobile, but had a sack on his only rep at DE when he dipped under BYU OT Blake Freeland and made a beeline to the QB who had no chance.
There also wasn’t a lot to get excited about at DT. Several big guys including DJ Dale of Alabama, Zacch Pickens of South Carolina, Oklahoma’s Jalen Redmod, as well as a couple of smaller school wide-body guys – Karl Brooks of Bowling Green and Jerrod Clark of Coastal Carolina – did a decent job gumming up the middle of the defensive front, but none got a whole lot of penetration themselves. In fact, the only really disruptive DT in the Senior Bowl game was Keeanu Benton of Wisconsin who was able to keep his pads low and his feet moving on a consistent basis and was able to fight his way into the backfield more often than not.
