Not as much to report on Tuesday's North and South practices. This is one of those days where, while you're glad NFL Network covers the Senior Bowl practices, unfortunately, NFL Network was covering the Senior Bowl practices. It was more important to cover 2/3 of the screen with graphics for Mike Mayock's top QBs, which he doesn't even have ranked in any order, than it was to show the North's 11-on-11. It was more important to put the camera on Casey Matthews standing around doing nothing, while they interviewed his brother Clay via telephone, than it was to show the o-line vs. d-line drills going on at the time. A big chunk of the South session looked like positional warmups; at a minimum, I don't have enough football IQ to get much use out of those. So, starting with a "did not impress" for NFL-N, today's report will be more of a thumbs up/down report.
Both teams practiced in pads.
* Impressed: Cameron Jordan. The 6'4" 287 d-lineman from Cal is blowing everybody up in drills and is having one of the most impressive weeks of anybody. He whipped James Brewer in 1-on-1 drills and would have had a sack against him in 11-on-11. He just toyed with Stephen Schilling in 1-on-1, flat embarrassing him with a swim move one rep. Jordan topped off an emphatic session by beating top tackle prospect Nate Solder. He is having a terrific week. But if Mike Mayock's right, there's little chance Jordan will be a Ram. He thinks the 3-4 teams at the end of the first round are going to be all over him.
* Impressed: Phil Taylor. Defensive tackles are dominating this all-star season. The 6'3.5" 337 Baylor DT was a man among boys in 1-on-1 drills. He overpowered Jake Kilpatrick (TCU). He beat DeMarcus Love badly with a punch on one rep and bull-rushed him into next week the next. He smoked Lee Ziemba the first time they crossed paths, and nearly ran him over with his bull rush the second time. Give Kirkpatrick credit that he could hold Taylor off once, because the man was dominant. At that size, though, my assumption is he's a 3-4 nose tackle. I know you can't just snap your fingers and switch to a 3-4, but players like these have me wishing the Rams were a 3-4 every spring.
* Did not impress: Courtney Smith. South Alabama WR had a couple of drops and is the clubhouse leader for worst hands so far. However, no one's near as bad as some of the butterfingers that were out there last year.
* Impressed: Christian Ballard. About the same size as Jordan, Ballard stood out by beating Anthony Castonzo a couple of times, which is no mean feat, and overmatched Schilling, in 1-on-1.
* Did not impress: Stephen Schilling. I'm sorry, but I just don't know what Schilling is even doing here. Everyone whips him in drills; he's completely overmatched.
* Impressed: Rodney Hudson. Rams Nation finally does have a guard or two to look at. The 6'2" 291 Seminole is a very likeable prospect and looked like a brick wall against Cedric Thornton. The All-America guard also dominated Miami d-lineman Allen Bailey. Looks impenetrable so far, like Mike Iupati did last year.
* Didn't impress: the rest of the South guards. Clint Boling (Georgia) looked fine in 1-on-1 against Bailey but looked like he was getting no push and had trouble holding his ground in 11-on-11. DeMarcus Love (Arkansas) similarly looked ineffective in 11-on-11, stronger in 1-on-1. Danny Watkins (Baylor) stuffed Chris Neild (West Virginia) handily, and Mayock called him one of the best interior linemen in the draft, but he's already 26. Lee Ziemba (Auburn) got beat just about every time, the South's Schilling, I guess.
* Didn't impress: Allen Bailey. Re-reading the last two entries, I'm not sure he ever beat anybody. Neither did Sam Acho (Texas) that I saw. James Carpenter (Alabama) stoned him once and flattened him another time.
* Impressed: Jeremy Beal. The Oklahoma DE bounced back with a good day. In 1-on-1, he burned Castonzo with an inside move and whipped Kevin Kowalski.
* Off day: Anthony Castonzo. Not sure this was such a great day for Castonzo. He had some bad moments in 1-on-1, and though he did look strong at RG in 11-on-11, when you want to play LT in the pros, doing well at RG doesn't help you out much. I wonder if all this flipping around from guard to tackle that the Bengals are having the North tackles do isn't messing them up.
* Impressed: Sione Fua. The Stanford DT had a couple of great sequences in 11-on-11 and probably would have had a couple of sacks. He knocked Roy Helu Jr. head over heels on one play, though I have to wonder how you leave a DT unblocked all the way to the tailback.
* Impressed: North CBs. The North secondary really bounced back Tuesday and look a lot more comfortable in press coverage than they did in the soft zone garbage we saw them in most of Monday. Kendric Burney blanketed people, Jalil Brown gave Vincent Brown as good as he got, and Richard Sherman and Rashad Carmichael looked much better in press coverage, though the two need to improve to better than woeful in zone.
* Didn't impress: Eric Hagg. Titus Young burned the stuffing out of the Nebraska safety on out routes, twice. Young continues to run great routes and is still the best receiver in camp.
* Cameo appearances: Steve Spagnuolo, Scott Linehan. Plus, I don't know if the Linehan Touch is what got to Jake Locker, but the Rams' QB coach under Linehan, Doug Nussmeier, has been Locker's QB coach at Washington. Also, JERRY GLANVILLE was there; I have no freaking idea why. To let us know he's still alive?
* Impressed: Gabe Carimi, who handled Pierre Allen with little trouble a couple of times. And Nate Solder, who locked up Ryan Kerrigan tighter than Fort Knox a couple of times, no mean feat.
* North "poppers": Colin Kaepernick continues to look like the best North QB and looked especially good Tuesday stepping up in the pocket. Ohio State LB Ross Homan had a nice stuff on an attempted draw play. Casey Matthews did a nice job blowing up an attempt Kaepernick QB draw.
* South "poppers": DT Jarvis Jenkins (Clemson) had a couple of clean wins in 1-on-1. At wide receiver, no South DB could cover Jeremy Kerley (TCU). Keep an eye on him, another Titus Young-type. Bigger WR Leonard Hankerson (Miami) made nice sideline plays and a nice catch over his head against pretty good coverage.
* Mayock intel: Florida State QB Christian Ponder: has had injury issues and has just a WCO-strength arm. Though he played well at tackle in the East-West Shrine Game, Mayock says William Rackley has to move inside to make it in the pros. All the 3-4 teams will love Von Miller, but now his weight is a major issue; Monday, it was his height. Illini LB Martez Wilson, much to my surprise, is the top ILB coming out. Mayock called Arkansas TE D.J. Williams, very undersized for that position at 6'2" 236, a matchup nightmare due to his speed. Yeah, so was Doren Dickerson last year, and he was barely drafted.
That is probably it for Senior Bowl reports until the weekend; I'll try to at least have reports on the rest of the practices (yesterday's and today's) up by Monday. Hey, I'm an amateur, what can I say.
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