Senior Bowl offensive line review … We always start these things with the proviso that there has seldom been much of a direct correlation between which players at the Senior Bowl actually play well, which ones get drafted where, and which ones turn out to be good pros. That said, we thought it was pretty clear cut at Saturday’s game that Purdue OT Marcus Mbow was the best offensive lineman on the field. In a setting like an all-star game we look for guys whose man is consistently farther away from the ball at the end of the play than at the snap and that was Mbow on Saturday; he was just so smooth and technically sound with his foot and hand placement. At the same time, Miami’s Jalen Rivers, who played exclusively at RG in the Senior Bowl game, added to a very good resume that he built during the week of practice with a more than solid outing. Nothing necessarily flashy about his game, but Rivers moves well, has good balance and body control and is physical at the point of attack. Same story for North Dakota State OG Grey Zabel, who was voted player of the week during the practice sessions; Zabel did give up a couple of pressures to LSU DL Sai’vion Jones (more on that later), but settled down after that; Zabel, who played OT for the Bison, also did not look at all out of place taking a few snaps at C which may actually end up being where he ends up in the NFL. And it was a similar story for USC C Jonah Monheim, another interior offensive lineman who had a very good game following a very good week of practice. We also wanted to mention a couple of G/T types in Andrew Belton of NC State and West Virginia’s Wyatt Milum. They are both very physical drive blockers who can anchor against bull rushers, but aren’t as comfortable in space as neither moves their feet all that well. Milum, for example, looks more like a wrestler out there suggesting that both will likely end up inside at the next level.
On the other hand, there were a couple of prime prospects along the OL that we felt kind of disappointed both at practice and in the game in Arizona’s Jonah Savaiinea and Oregon’s Josh Conerly. Savaiinea just didn’t have much pop or explosion in his game, while Conerly was okay working in a closet but struggled in space as he just didn’t move his feet that well and ended up doing a lot of reaching and lunging. Saturday’s game was also a tough gig for some of the smaller school offensive linemen who had held up pretty well during the practice sessions, but tended to get overwhelmed in the game. Alabama A&M OT Carson Vinson, in particular, got run around on just about every play, while Clay Webb of Jacksonville State, Jackson Slater of Sacremento State and Jacob Bayer of Arkansas State all had their struggles.
