Practice sessions at the Senior Bowl in Mobile wrapped up late yesterday afternoon and for the most part NFL personnel people have headed home. And while all teams teams will be getting the tapes from tomorrow’s actual game, in fact, most care primarily abut what transpires during the practice sessions during the week as well as the player interviews. Even then, most don’t put too much emphasis on what transpires at the Senior Bowl. Players are only involved in a limited number of reps and many of those are are more drills than actual football scenarios. As well, the players are working with strange coaches and teammates and, of course, none of the very top prospects for this April’s draft were in attendance in Mobile this week.
That said, it is a chance for scouts and coaches to get an up-close-and-personal look at many of the better prospects in testing circumstances. And no player in Mobile was more impressive this week than Michigan DE Derrick Moore who still hasn’t been blocked. Moore dominated all week as he won with speed and won with power and really impressed with his ability to dip and change direction without losing either speed or power. In fact, it was something of a dominating week all around for the DEs as a number of others including rising star Nadame Tucker of Western Michigan, Missouri’s Zion Young, Dani Dennis-Sutton of Penn State, Illinois’ Gabe Jacas, Romello Height of Texas Tech and Quin Hutchins of Boston College were all consistently disruptive. On the other hand, TJ Parker of Clemson did get his share of props from the national media, but truth be told we were hoping to see more from. Parker does have a quick first step, but appeared to be something of a one-trick pony in that he just seemed to lean into people and didn’t show much in the way of lateral agility or refined pass-rush technique.
It was also a very good week of practice for the DTs. Indeed, a pretty good case can be made that if Michigan’s Moore was the top prospect in Mobile this week then Texas Tech Lee Hunter was 1A. Hunter is a wide-body NT type who just ragged dolled more than OL this week as he showed really surprising lateral agility and quickness for a 325-pound run stuffer. On the other hand, Penn State’s Zane Durant, at just 6-1, 290, plays a different style, but was just as disruptive as he consistently beat the OL to the point of attack with quickness and all-out effort. Meanwhile, other DTs that had solid weeks in Mobile included Bryson Eason of Tennessee, Ray Benny of Michigan, Gracen Halton of Oklahoma and Minnesota’s Deven Eastern. Again, the one DT we were hoping to see more from was Florida’s Caleb Banks, a legit early second day who was limited to just a couple of games this fall by a foot injury. This was his chance to show scouts that he deserved to go that high; however, while he did get some consistent push rushing the passer, Banks was still pretty much all bull-rush without much in the way of lateral movement.
While the defensive line was flashing this week, it was a struggle at times for the offensive linemen. one who really did standout though was unheralded Georgia Tech C/G Keylon Rutledge who was a rock in the middle of the National OL as he played with good quickness and balance. Same story for Florida C Jake Slaughter who also had a solid week, as did C/G Fernando Carmana of Arkansas and Illinois G/T JC Davis, while one at least saw some potential in OTs Max Ihenacher of Arizona State, along with 6-9 behemoths Markell Bell of Miami and Dametrious Crownover of Texas A&M. On the other hand, OTs Kage Casey of Boise State, Florida’s Austin Barber and Trey Zuhn of Texas A&M really struggled at times.
As has been noted on more than one occasion, all-star games aren’t necessarily very good venues for LBs to shine, but somebody forgot to tell this year’s group of backers. Indeed, Kyle Louis, one of the quickest players in Mobile this week, would probably make most top 5 lists of prospects who excelled this week as he was around the ball on just about every snap, while Oregon’s Bryce Boettcher, Oklahoma’s Owen Heinecke, and Jake Rodriquez of Texas Tech all also had terrific weeks.
We also tend not to make a whole lot of what we see from the receivers and corners in Mobile because of the odd number of reps they get especially in the 11-on-11 drills, but guys at those positions who did generate some buzz included WR Malachi Fields, who appears to have emerged as a possible early-second day candidate, along with Baylor’s Josh Cameron and Reggie Virgil of Texas Tech, while unheralded Devin Voisin, who likely was only there because he played at South Alabama, was about as close to a go-to receiver in the team drills. Meanwhile, CBs who had good weeks included Colton Hood of Tennessee who likely won’t play Saturday because of a toe injury, while Thad Dixon of North Carolina at least earned some second looks from pro scouts, while TCU ball-hawking S Bud Clark emerged as one of the best players in Mobile this week.
One interesting element from this year’s Senior Bowl was the fact that while most years the QBs, whomever they are, tend to be featured participants. However, it felt this year that the QBs were almost an afterthought. And maybe with good reason as none of them looked more like fringe prospects. Cole Payton of FCS North Dakota State seemed to generate the most buzz and while he did show good velocity appeared to have a somewhat slow, elongated release. In the end, we thought the the top-rated QBs in Mobile this week – Garrett Nussmeier of LSU and Illinois’ Luke Altmyer – in fact, had the most pro ready arms, although neither was overly accurate and we’ll leave it at that!
