Senior Bowl preview … Players are gathering in Mobile as we speak for this week’s Senior Bowl all-star game, the first big date on the draft calendar. Unfortunately, neither of the top 2 QBs for this year’s draft – Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders – will be in Mobile this week, but a ton of talent for the upcoming draft will be there. The QBs who will be there, for example, include Jaxson Dart, Jalen Milroe, Will Howard and Dillon Gabriel, each of whom is a strong second-tier candidate for 2025. The deepest position at the Senior Bowl this week – no surprise as it is also arguably the strongest position overall for the upcoming draft – are the DE/ERs, a group which includes in no particular order Nic Scourton, Shemar Stewart, Mike Green, Kyle Kennard, Landon Jackson, Jordan Burch, Donovan Ereiruaku and Princely Umanmielen, while the DTs include Walter Nolen, Deone Walker, TJ Sanders and Ty Robinson. Its also a very good Senior Bowl year at CB which includes Sebastian Castro, Nohl Williams, Azareye’h Thomas, Darien Porter , Tre Amos, Quincy Riley, and Maxwell Hairston. They’ll be dueling with the likes of receivers Jalen Royals, Savion Williams, and Elic Ayemanor. Maybe the top offensive group in Mobile this wek could be the RBs which include Cam Skattebo, Ollie Gordon, RJ Harvey, Devin Neal and LeQuint Allen, while the names to watch on the OL include Aireontae Ersery, Josh Conerly, Jonah Savaiinea, Armand Membou and Wyatt Milum.
Note, though, that it is possible, even likely that not all of these players will actually show up in Mobile this week. Every year some withdraw because of injuries or on the advice of their agents. At the same time, there will also always be roster changes over the course of the week as player get dinged at practice. The three days of practice get underway Tuesday morning with a session in shells, while the full-pads practices go Wednesday and Thursday with the NFL Network providing coverage each day. The actual Senior Bowl game is scheduled for 2:30 PM ET on Saturday with coverage again on the NFL Network. One interesting sidelight of the whole deal is that NFL teams themselves place far more stock in what they see at the practice sessions than at the actual game. Teams are also cautious not to read too much into what they see even at the practices remembering that there only 3 days of practice and that the players are working in a relatively unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar teammates.
