The 2020 Senior Bowl wrapped up yesterday with the North winning rather easily 34-17. The difference in the game was that the North edge rushers led by DEs Brad Anae of Utah, Syracuse’s Alton Robinson and Josh Uche of Utah simply dominated their OT counterparts and just didn’t give the South QBs much time to throw. Which was kind of unfortunate because with so much sorting out to be done at at the position before the picks start coming off the board on April 23rd. And while they were very much the focus on Saturday, in fact, one should never really read very much at all into how the QBs perform at the Senior Bowl as they barely play much more than a quarter all the while working in an unfamiliar offense with unfamiliar receivers. However, that didn’t stop a bunch of analysts who probably should know better from gushing about the performance of Oregon QB Justin Herbert here and here and here. Indeed, at least on paper, Herbert had a solid outing completing 9 of 12 passes for 83 yards and a TD. Herbert also had a nifty 19-yard run that kept the South scoring drive alive. When one breaks the tape down, though, the numbers don’t look quite as impressive. None of the completions was over ten yards, for example, while at least a couple looked more like ducks (no pun intended) and the TD came on a screen pass on which the back had to make a one-handed catch. On the 2-3 downfield passes Herbert did attempt weren’t all that accurate. Even his big run came with a caveat as a North edge rusher (Uche) had him all lined up for a potentially devastating hit, but pulled up at the last moment and just tagged him. This is not to say that Herbert didn’t show some tantalizing skill in the Senior Bowl game. He clearly has a strong arm and throws darts with a really quick release, especially when he has the time to set his feet. Herbert also has elite athletic talent with the quickness to escape trouble in the pocket; he is also reasonably comfortable throwing the ball on the move, but his accuracy does drop off a bit when on the run. The impression one gets after watching the tape of Herbert in the Senior Bowl game was that there is clearly a ton of talent there, but didn’t really address the lingering questions about his game including his decision-making in the pocket and lack of overall consistency.
At the same time, it was almost impossible to get much of a read at all on Utah State’s Jordan Love in the Senior Bowl game. Love only attempted 6 passes including a couple deep downfield neither of which were particularly accurate, although to be fair one should have been called a PI, while the second (which was thrown under duress) should have been completed if the receiver had done a better job tracking the ball. In fact, what one caught a glimpse of with Love was the special arm strength as a he was able to get 2-3 passes off in a heartbeat with accuracy and velocity when pressured. Otherwise, though, it was tough to get much of a grade on Love other than to give him an incomplete.
Meanwhile, if there was a QB who at least should send pro scouts back to the tape as a result of a solid Senior Bowl game outing it was Washington State’s Anthony Gordon. Gordon was, in fact, one of the most prolific passers in all of college football last fall as he threw for almost 5,600 yards (second in the country to LSU’s Joe Burrow) and 48 TDs while completing 72% of his pass attempts. However, like previous WSU QBs like Gardner Minshew who fell to the 6th round of the 2019 draft, but was one of the top rookie passers in the NFL this past season, Gordon hasn’t gotten much love from pro scouts to date. Gordon, though, was more than solid yesterday as he showed a quick release and nice route anticipation, although his arm strength also appeared to be a notch or two below that of Herbert and Love. And while he’s a tall, gangly kid, Gordon did show pretty good footwork sliding around the pocket, although he also didn’t look like he’d ever be much of a threat as a runner.
On the other hand, the one QB whose grade may have taken a hit in the Senior Bowl game was Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts. That may be an unfair to Hurts from the perspective that he was under pressure all afternoon, but it also appeared that his release was very deliberate and his passes took a long time to get to the target. At the same time, both Shea Patterson of Michigan and Colorado’s Steve Montez looked to be who they are in the Senior Bowl game. Both moved reasonably well and had some zip on their passes when they could step into their throws, but were much less effective when pressured.
Next up: The big uglies from the offensive line
