CFL combine list announced … While most of the football world is focused on the NFL combine which gets underway in Indianapolis tomorrow, the Canadian league has announced its initial invite list to the annual CFL scouting for combine. A total of 71 players have been invited to the CFL combine, including 11 international prospects, which is scheduled… Read More »
New CFP playoff format approved … The CFP management board has approved the new 5+7 playoff format that will begin next fall. Under the new model, the playoff field will include the 5 highest ranked conference champions along with the next 7 highest ranked teams. Under the new format, the four highest ranked teams will get first-round byes,… Read More »
Path to the draft runs thru Indy … Every year we make that statement referring to the fact that the scouting combine in Indianapolis is an indisputably a key element of the pre-draft process. Last year, for example, 86% of the 259 players selected at the 2023 draft participated in some way at last February’s event in Indianapolis.… Read More »
Tua II heads list of top combine snubs … Every year one of the big questions surrounding the scouting combine is who didn’t get invited. Interesting this year, though, that it doesn’t appear if there are any real huge surprises in the players not invited to the combine. Among those who won’t be in Indianapolis at the end… Read More »
Lions sign Lions’ CFL DPOY … Detroit has signed B.C. Lions DE Mathieu Betts, the CFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, to a futures contract. Betts, who played collegiately for Canadian power Laval, had a breakout year last fall when he led the CFL with 18 sacks. He was originally signed as an undrafted rookie by… Read More »
Super Bowl to decide final two picks … The 2023 season wraps up later this evening with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs facing the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. And that means the final two picks in the 2024 draft – now less than 75 days away – selection order will be… Read More »
Defensive positional rankings updated … The GBN defensive positional rankings have been updated (see the drop down menu above.) The biggest changes, and they are pretty significant, are at CB where there appears to have been almost a sea change with an almost entirely new top 3 at the position. In particular, Alabama’s Terrion Arnold appears to have… Read More »
Last word on Senior Bowl prospects … Or at least our last word! Assessing how the various skill position players on offence and the back seven people on the other side of the ball is complicated by the fact that we don’t have access to the all-22 tape and what one sees on TV is limited. In particular,… Read More »
If there was a story out of the Senior Bowl regarding the skill position players last week it was that North Carolina WR Tez Walker, who had started to generate some late-first, early second round buzz, just couldn’t catch the ball. In the game, Walker got his hands on at least three possible deep receptions but couldn’t bring… Read More »
Senior Bowl wraps; its onto Indy for draft process … The post-season all-star game phase of the draft process came to an end this afternoon with the Orange team defeating the Gray team 16-7 in a rather lacklustre affair. In fact, we had been very much hoping to spend the afternoon analyzing the QB play, but Michael Penix,… Read More »
National team Senior Bowl practice review … In no particular order, here are the players we thought really stood out at the Senior Bowl morning practices this week. CB Quinyon Mitchell, Toledo OT Taliese Fuaga, Oregon State WR Roman Wilson, Michigan DT Tyler Davis, Clemson C Jackson Powers- Johnson, Oregon C/G Dominick Puni, Kansas C/G Tanor Bortolini, Wisconsin… Read More »
Final day of Senior Bowl practices; Shrine game tonight … It is a very big day on the college all-star game schedule. On the one hand, it is the third and final day of practises at the Senior Bowl in Mobile with sessions again at 10:30 AM and 1 PM ET later today. And remember that NFL teams… Read More »
Notes from PM Senior Bowl practice … Arguably the best players on the field in Mobile Wednesday afternoon were defensive linemen Darius Robinson of Missouri and Texas’ T’Vondre Sweat. Robinson, a rising prospect with some late first-round aspirations had a quiet practice session on Tuesday, but rebounded nicely earlier today with a dominating performance. He’s not necessarily going… Read More »
Preliminary Senior Bowl Day 2 morning practice observations … The morning practice session at this week’s Senior Bowl in Mobile is in the books. Again, one doesn’t want to draw too many conclusions as there is a limited sample of plays for each player in the all-star game format. As well, while the players were in full pads,… Read More »
With the first day of practice at this year’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, here is a rundown of some of our observations from this afternoon’s workout, although we note that the players were only in shells and there was no tackling per se. To put it simply, none of the QBs in today’s afternoon session which included Joe… Read More »
Preliminary observations from AM Senior Bowl practice … With the players warming up for this afternoon’s Senior Bowl practice, here are a couple or three or more preliminary observations from this morning’s workout, although we note that the players were only in shells and there was no tackling per se. It didn’t appear as if Michael Penix threw… Read More »
Senior bowl HT/WT data released … For what we believe is the first time, the Senior Bowl itself has released the numbers from today’s weigh-in and measurement session. Again, there we4en’t necessarily and huge surprises, but we have highlighted some of the hilites and lowlites here.
As noted earlier today, there’s a pretty good group of QBs at this week’s Senior Bowl in Mobile. However, its not a particularly big group. Michael Penix, the consensus top-rated passer in Mobile this week, for example, weighed in at only 212 pounds on a 6-2.5-inch frame; Penix, though, does have very big hands at almost 10-5-inches. At… Read More »
Senior Bowl players gathering in Mobile … Participants in this year’s Senior Bowl are gathering in Mobile as we speak for the start of the three-days of practices on Tuesday. And while very few of the very top prospects for the 2024 draft will be in Mobile this week, almost all the leading second-tier candidates will be on… Read More »
Shrine updates … The players at this week’s East-West Shrine game in Frisco are halfway thru their 4-days of practice. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a whole of news coming out of those sessions. It does appear, though, that are several pretty prominent prospects at the Shrine game that we did not report on earlier that we… Read More »
Shrine practices set to get underway … While most of the football world is focused on Sunday’s NFL conference championship games, all-star week also gets underway this weekend with the 4 days of practices for Thursday’s East-West Shrine game set to start on Saturday. And assuming the Shrine organization follows the normal pattern, Saturday’s practices will be in… Read More »
Falcons tab Morris as new head coach; Rams to get comp picks … Atlanta confirmed this evening that they have agreed to terms with LA Rams’ defensive co-ordinator to be the team’s new head coach. Interesting choice in that the Falcons interviewed Bill Belichik, arguably the most successful coach in NFL history, twice, but ultimately settled for a… Read More »
Eagles, 49ers, Rams projected to lead comp pick haul … The NFL won’t be announcing the actual compensatory picks for the 2024 draft until early in March, but several sources have gotten pretty accurate at predicting which teams will get extra picks each year. One of those is Over The Cap which is projecting that Philadelphia, San Francisco… Read More »
Pats’ Mayo narrows draft options … Normally at this time of the year, NFL teams don’t say much about their upcoming draft options other than perhaps to claim ‘we’re looking at everything and will be taking the best player!’ However, new New England head coach Jared Mayo, whose Patriots have the 3rd overall pick in this year’s draft,… Read More »
Panthers name former star LB Morgan GM … Carolina began restructuring its football operations staff earlier today by naming Dan Morgan, who had been the team’s assistant GM under Scott Fitterer, as the Panthers’ new general manager. Prior to returning to the Panthers, who he played for between 2001 and 2007 before retiring because of injuries, Morgan worked… Read More »
