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 in any of them. Then just his luck he ran past Fresno State CB Carlton Johnson for what should have been an easy score (of course if he’d caught the ball), but the pass from Sam Hartman was badly under thrown. In fact, it was hard to get much of a read on the rest of the receivers as the QBs just couldn’t get them the ball for the most part.
Normally all-star games are lousy formats for RBs to really show their stuff as they just don’t get enough touches to establish any kind of rhythm as the running game tends to ne something of an afterthought. However, this year’s Senior Bowl was something of an exception as several backs had very nice outings. In fact, if there hadn’t been a running game on Saturday, there wouldn’t have been much offence at all. Most prominent among those was Emani Bailey of TCU, a totally under the radar guy who at least had pro scouts heading back to the tapes to get another look. Bailey’s not all that big at 5-7, 210, but with he was quick to the hole, showed nice vision, plenty of wiggle and an explosive burst when he got a seam. Perhaps even more impressively, Bailey caught the ball really well and was equally quick turning upfield. There was a similar story for Missouri’s Cody Schrader, the one-time FCS star who walked on at Missou this fall and ended up leading the SEC in rushing and was already one of the better stories of the 2024 draft. He is a little bigger than and maybe not quite as shifty as Bailey, but he appeared to be just as fast with the ability to break tackles in the open; and like Bailey he also caught the ball really. Meanwhile, Isaiah Davis of South Dakota, one of the top 2-3 non-FBS prospects this year, didn’t get as many opportunities as the other two, but also showed a nice burst and the ability to find a seam at a full-sized 220 pounds.
At the same time, I’m not sure we have ever commented on the Senior Bowl LBs in the past except maybe in passing. This year’s group though was particularly impressive in the game. And we don’t really want to rank their play in the game but Nathaniel Watson of Mississippi State, who was voted the top LB during the practises this week, Cedric Gray of North Carolina, Ulofoshio Edefuan of Washington Jackson Sirmon of Cal, JD Bertrand of Notre Dame, and Travin Wallace of Kentucky all made several plays as they showed nice closing speed. We were particularly with Gray’s ability to make plays in both the backfield and in coverage; we were also really impressed with the range and closing speed of Edefuan. One other LB prospect of note was Miami’s James Williams. He was an all-conference level safety with the Hurricanes, but at 6-2, 230 worked with the LBs last week in Mobile and may not be physical enough to be an every down LB at the next level, but appears to have the potential to bring uncommon speed and range as a situational backer.
While the secondary people are the hardest to rate in an all-star game, Washington CB Chau Smith-Wade was named DPOY after he picked off a couple of passes, although it didn’t appear if there was an actual receiver anywhere near the play at the time. However, Smith-Wade also mage a couple of other plays that again likely has scouts going back to the tapes. It also appeared that Nehemiah Pritchett of Auburn was very sticky in coverage, while Georgia S Javon Bullard showed terrific range and closing speed as did Cole Bishop of Utah as well as Tykee Smith Bullard’s Georgia teammate.
