Tide QB Milroe hands small; Ducks Gabriel, Johnson just small … We’ve been pouring over the height and weight measurements at the Senior Bowl earlier today in Mobile. In the end, there isn’t a whole lot of breaking news regarding today’s measurements, although the fact that Alabama QB Jalen Milroe has relatively small hands for a quarterback which is yet another red flag waving for the former Tide signal-caller. For the record, Milroe’s hands measured around 8.5 inches, about a half inch shorter than the 9 inches that is usually considered to be the comfortable minimum for the position. At the same time, Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, who scouts were hoping would measure in at something close to 6-feet even, was barely 5-10 and just 202 pounds. And Gabriel’s Oregon teammate WR Tez Johnson was even smaller. Indeed, Johnson tipped the scales at just over 5-9 and 156 pounds, plus his arms were under 30 inches. Ouch! Miami’s Xavier Restrepro, who at least is thick enough at a solid 200 pounds, but like Johnson has shorter than 30 inch arms. Meanwhile speaking of short arms, several of the top edge rushers also showed up with shorter than ideal arms which is generally considered to be a negative when rushing the passer. Liberty’s Mike Green, for example, one of the rising stars of the draft, came in with just 32 inch arms when 35 is considered to be the ideal. Same for Collin Oliver of Oklahoma State who checked in with 31 inch arms. It also doesn’t help that both guys weren’t all that bulky either with Green weighing in at 251 pounds and Oliver at barely 242. Boston College’s Donovan Ezeirauku, who along with Green led all of college football in sacks this past season, was also somewhat undersized at just 6-2, 248, but at least he has nice long 34.5 inch arms. South Carolina’s Kyle Kennard at 248 pounds was also considerably lighter than expected although his 33.5 inch arms are probably okay. Same story for Arkansas DE Landon Jackson and Mississippi DT Walter Nolen, who had 33.5 and 33 inch arms respectively, although at 6-3, 293 Nolen might be a little smaller than scouts expected. On the other side of the ball, the one top OT who may have disappointed scouts a bit was West Virginia OT Wyatt Milum who has just 32.5 arms which is short for a pro OT. On the other hand, Alabama A&M OT Carl Vinson turned some heads as he measured in at over 6-6 and 315 pounds and was the only OL in Mobile with plus 35-inch arms. Interestingly, the one DL who truly passed the eye ball test was Kentucky DT Deone Walker who measured in at 6-7, 340 with 34.5 inch arms; so far so good, but the issue this past season with Walker, who went from a possible top 10 candidate to someone not necessarily guaranteed to be a second day selection, is that he really struggled keeping his pads down and maintaining leverage which can be tough to do when that tall. In fact, he’s built much more like a prototype OT. There were also a couple of CBs that had to catch the attention of pro teams as both Darien Porter of Iowa State and Nebraska’s Tommi Hill had over 33 inch arms.
