Senior Bowl notes, day 2

Notes on the second day of Senior Bowl practices, and yes, I know the actual game is going on right now...

* Spags and Devaney in the house. They were pictured in the stands during the North practice, and Lindsay Soto interviewed Devaney during the South practice. (Billy, did you ask Lindsay if she got any of my letters?) Unfortunately the interview was Devaney saying a lot of nothing. They're knee-deep in the evaluation process with a long way to go. They have a lot of information still to gather, especially on the juniors coming out. At 1-15, the Rams have a lot of positions they need help at and have a lot of directions they can go. He's confident they've identified their major needs (not that he'll share those with anybody). And he wishes they didn't have the #1 pick. Yawn.

* Crowded QB pack. Meaning, no one's breaking away. None of the QBs really impresses me so far, other than Jarrett Brown's velocity. The Tebow excuse machine, ER, NFL Network, was quick to make a big point of the wind at the South practice, and that he checked into the hospital the night before with strep throat and a 103 fever. (OK, I'll cut him some slack for that.) They gushed about Tebow's long pass to Dexter McCluster despite it being clearly underthrown. No mention that some of Tebow's early passes today wobbled like tires about to come off of wheels, but he seemed to smooth that out later.

* Dynasty DE. Alex Carrington of Arkansas State was one of today's standouts. He's 6'5, 284 and considered athletic enough to play all over the defensive front. He destroyed Zane Beadles during pass protection drills, pancaking him once. Definitely keep an eye out for Carrington.

* Bumper DB crop. The excellent depth of this year's defensive back class continues to demonstrate itself. Kyle Wilson ate Danario Alexander alive in passing drills. Chris Cook, a big CB from Virginia and Devin McCourty continue to look good. Brandon Ghee broke up a deep pass. Myron Rolle held his own well against Joe Webb. You'd never notice he's been away from football for a year.

* Dumper WR crop. (which is a shame because the Rams need serious help) Nobody stepping forward in a big way at WR. The top exceptions: Shea Hodge of Mississippi burned Trevor Lindley for a deep ball. Mardy Gilyard bounced back from cramps yesterday to whip SydQuan Thompson off the line for a deep ball that was overthrown. Thompson may be the most physical DB in the draft, but his lack of explosive speed hurt him there. Joe Webb looked poor, dropping a couple of passes. Riley Cooper's play looked very sloppy. Where Rams fans are concerned, Drew Bennett is the wrong WR for a young player to remind people of.

* Future Ram DB. Lindley looks terrible to me. I haven't seen him make a play yet. Furthermore, as I was posting this, I had the actual game on, and there's Gilyard burning Lindley on an underthrown deep ball that Lindley never looked back for and never knew was coming. That's when I reached the sad realization that he'll fit right in with the Rams' secondary. Sigh.

* McCluster has luster. Dexter McCluster is a Darren Sproles clone, 5'8", 165. Teams will be able to use him a number of ways, WR, RB, returner. Drilling at WR, he had a drop but also smoked Javier Arenas with a double move and made a diving catch of a Tebow bomb. Nice and physical route-runner who gets off the line well.

* Spooning out punishment. Missouri LB Sean Weatherspoon, 6'1, 241, may not be the talk of camp but he is the talker of camp. He's best when he can flow to the ball, but there's concern that he struggles too much to get off of blocks. Very athletic, and a big plus, he's a three-down LB. Mike Mayock gives him a late first-early second round grade.

* Winning and losing line. Winners and losers based on today's pass pro drills and other news:
Winner: Mike Iupati at guard. Was strong against Purdue DT Mike Neal and flattened DeAnthony Smith twice.
Loser: Mike Iupati at tackle. Carrington flattened him out there and Tyson Alualu threw him down.
Winner: Carrington; see also above.
Winner: Vladimir Ducasse. Brandon Graham smoked him with an inside move but didn't get outside of him the 2nd time. Ducasse got some work inside but looked bad and uncomfortable at it. Best news, though, all his family in his home country of Haiti is OK.
Winner: Graham. Whipped Beadles twice, smoking him with a spin move the 2nd time, and drew with Ducasse at the worst.
Losers: Beadles and Eric Olsen, who gave up way too much push up the middle.
Winner: John Jerry, who pancaked the highly-regarded Dan Williams. Also, Geno Atkins looked good at DE; Ciron Black looked good at OT. Antonio Coleman smoked Chris Scott once but Scott locked him down the second time. Unfortunately, NFL Network really skimped us on the South practice line drills.
Winner: Terrence Cody, 370 pounds of bull rush. Ordinarily you won't expect him to get to the QB, but teams can't run on him without using two blockers.
Unfortunate loser: Wisconsin DE O'Brien Schofield tore his left ACL and you'd have to highly doubt now that he'll contribute in what should be his first NFL season. Damn the luck.

OK, two days of practices and the game itself to go.