Good thing that NFL teams put a whole lot more stock in all-star game practices that they do in the actual game, because Saturday’s East-West Shrine game in St. Petersburg was kind of a dismal event that ended in a 10-3 win for the West. It was also ‘dismal’ in the sense that there were very few individual performances that screamed out to NFL personnel people ‘draft me’.
The one guy, at least along the lines, who did really have a good game on Saturday was Louisville DT DeAngelo Brown who was arguably the most disruptive defensive lineman during the Shrine game as he was in the West backfield much of the afternoon. Built like a fire hydrant at under 6-0.5 and 312 pounds, Brown also showed a quick first step off the snap and with his low center of gravity was able to get into gaps and maintain leverage heading up field. Brown also did an excellent job holding the point even when double-teamed. At the same time, though, Brown was not able to get a lot of penetration when he went into a straight bull-rush mode when attacking the pocket. Fellow DTs Ralph Green of Indiana and Colorado’s Josh Tupou also did a very good job holding the point of attack stuffing the run, but seldom got much off the line of scrimmage rushing the passer. Meanwhile, Florida DT Joey Ivie did have a sack, but otherwise kind of got pushed around; same for Matt Godin of Michigan.
A couple of DEs in Deatrich Wise of Arkansas and Florida Atlantic’s Trey Hendrickson also had pretty good games on Saturday. They are both guys with good length and relatively long, quick initial steps; they also both showed top-end motors, decent agility and some power rush moves. However, after breaking down the game tape, one came away with the impression that most of the plays that each made came when they were either unblocked, blocked by a TE or OG, or working against one of the slower OTs and that they really didn’t get much penetration working against the better tackles. Indeed, neither guy looked to have that next-gear acceleration and/or the ability to plant and change direction on the move. Wise also struggled at times to hold the point of attack defending the run and didn’t always find the ball, while Hendrickson had a tendency to overrun plays as he was almost always busting upfield. Bottom line is that both Wise and Hendrickson looked like they have the potential to be useful rotational ends at the next level, but neither gave the impression that they have the elite athleticism necessary to be an impactful starting DE in the pros.
There was a similar story for Bryan Cox of Florida, who isn’t all that quick, but works harder than just about everybody else on the field; he also showed good instincts and the strength and agility to get up the field, as well as hold the point of attack defensing the run, although the lack of next-gear foot speed is likely to cost him on draft day. Meanwhile, Karter Schult of FCS Northern Iowa and Wise’s Arkansas bookend teammate Jeremiah Ledbetter also flashed some upfield quickness at times, but neither was as consistently in the backfield as one might like to see in a setting like the Shrine game.
The one DE at the Shrine game who looked like he had elite next-level explosion was Darius English of South Carolina, one of the guys we were really looking forward to watching on Saturday. However, while he did show some speed in St. Pete, English didn’t appear to be have the ability to dip his shoulder and shorten the route to QB; he also never showed the ability to plant and change direction. As a result, English didn’t do much more than take the great circle route on too many plays. English also just didn’t explode very often; indeed, there were way too many plays on which English didn’t do much more than simply stand-up, put his hands on the blocker in front of him and look for the ball.
