While the Senior Bowl is easily the
game with the best overall talent among this year’s college
all-star soirees, it’s still notable which players are missing, a
list that includes Geno Smith, Montee Ball, Chance Warmack, Matt
Barkley, Tavon Austin, and last and certainly least, Manti The
Freaking Idiot Te’o. Also missing, naturally, are BOTH players Mel
Kiper recently mock-drafted to the Rams in the first round, Texas
safety Kenny Vaccaro and Alabama guard D.J. Fluker, who has a groin
injury, possibly from getting his 355 pounds up on a scale. He was
only present for the weigh-in, where he impressed, actually, because
he’s a massive 355, not a flabby 355.
But even if the Senior Bowl doesn’t
help Rams Nation figure out the team’s draft options as easily as
we’d like, there is still a ton of draftable talent on display in
Mobile, and on the NFL Network, which is doing a bang-up job of
covering the festivities so far. Far better than RamView, which
you’ll no doubt notice is already TWO days behind. What can I say,
Mike Mayock’s got a hell of a lot more time to devote to this than
I do. Barring technical problems, I’ll get everything recapped,
just slowly. After all, there’s a lot to try to keep up with.
Keeping with tradition, NFL-N only
covered the North team’s practice the first day. Players were not
in pads. Here’s who and what stood out:
* The star of the first day was Central
Michigan OT Eric Fisher, who seems to protect the pocket with the
skill of Bruce Lee warding off evil henchmen. In the time NFL-N’s
televised Senior Bowl practices, Fisher’s the best tackle I have
seen. He has the strength to move people wherever he wants. He made
Michael Buchanan (Illinois) look silly, shoving him outside the
pocket and not even giving him so much as a look back in. Fisher is
also impressively light on his feet, mirrors beautifully and can stay
with even the fastest of speed rushers like Alex Okafor (Texas). He’s
tenacious, he stays on people; as a pass protector, Fisher already
looks Pro Bowl-quality. Too bad there’s no way the Rams will be
able to draft him. Not after today.
* The hidden performer of the first day
was 6’6” 295 San Jose State tackle David Quessenberry. Strong
with good footwork, stays ahead of his man well. He went up against
Datone Jones (UCLA) late in 1-on-1, a mouthwatering matchup because
Jones had been speeding by everyone in sight and Quessenberry had
been driving people into the ground. Jones threw a wicked spin move
at Quessenberry, but he stayed in front of it and held his own. Might
have gotten outpushed at the end, but being able to handle the speed
rusher after pushing some of the bigger rushers around made the
Spartan tackle look very credible from my seat.
* Kyle Long (Oregon) has gotten a lot
of attention because he’s Chris’ brother. He does not have Chris’
ability on the edge, though, and should be kicked inside to guard,
where he was at least a little effective. He looked pretty bad at
tackle, getting pushed around in 1-on-1 drills and 11-on-11, where he
got driven back into the QB and had a screen pass thrown off his
head. He does show good hand quickness, which helps him out a lot
more inside than out. Similar story for Hugh Thornton (Illinois), who
struggled mightily with speed – Datone Jones was around him on one
rep before he was barely even out of his stance – but showed the
strength as an inside blocker to put Jordan Hill (Penn State) on the
ground at the end of one rep. Same deal for Brian Winters (Kent
State). Struggled with speed but showed good strength against Hill,
and threw Brandon Williams (Mo. Southern) to the ground.
* Defensive backs were hard to evaluate
because they would have been flagged for clear holding or pass
interference half the time had this been an officiated game. You can
tell these players are being coached by the Raiders. In fact, with
the Lions coaching the South, I’d bet the over for number of
penalties committed in this year’s game. Expect a record. (Yes, I
know the RAMS led the league in penalties.) Dwayne Gratz (UConn)
jammed the receiver well but struggled with change of direction.
Marquise Goodwin (Texas) turned him inside out on an arrow route, and
even on simpler routes against Markus Wheaton, he was slow, late and
off-balance on breaks. He even failed on a slant route even though he
lined up with inside leverage. Blidi Wreh-Wilson, also of UConn,
looked comfortable in zone coverage but got whipped off the line
trying to man up on Goodwin. Jordan Poyer (Oregon State) showed good
recovery speed to break up a slant after getting beat off the line
but clearly held to break up a quick out. Desmond Trufant
(Washington; Marcus’ brother) looked excellent cutting off a slant
but later defended a bomb to Wheaton by choosing to mug him. Jamar
Taylor (Boise State) looked strong cutting off a slant route but
appeared to take a later rep completely off. Laid 10 yards off his
receiver, never closed, let him run by him for a TD. Puzzling. It
looks like a solid group of physical DBs for the North. As a group
they’re jamming well and cutting off routes well. I’d like to see
more consistency, better movement and reaction to breaks, and
certainly fewer penalties, before getting enthusiastic about any one
of them.
* The defensive line group doesn’t
really have me sold yet, either. Buchanan bounced back from a
humbling during 1-on-1 to be one of the standouts on 11-on-11. He
beat Joe Madsen (West Virginia) and would have blown up a screen pass
or even gotten the sack. Buchanan also made an excellent play to
close the lane on a draw play and knock down the runner. When he’s
not up against Eric Fisher, he shows a good bull rush and good edge
speed. Brandon Williams spent too much time on the ground during
drills, getting pancaked twice, but bull-rushed Long on the screen
pass that doinked off Long’s head. Sylvester Williams (North
Carolina) made Cave Braxston (Notre Dame) whiff on him 1-on-1 and
beat him again to stuff a run in 11-on-11. Braxston’s taking a
while to adjust to the improved speed out there, or maybe he’s
still trying to recover from the Alabama game. Okafor and Datone
Jones showed speed rush skills that looked elite at times. I’m not
sure either has a second trick in their bag. Then again, Bruce Irvin
got drafted in the first round last year; they may not need one.
* Goodwin obviously stood out among the
receivers, and could be a player for the Rams to look at if they
don’t keep Danny Amendola. At 5’8”, he’s going to be a slot
guy, and he looked like Amendola running arrow routes, while also
showing big-play speed up the field. The receiver who really caught
my eye was Aaron Dobson (Marshall). He’s 6’2” 205, was beating
guys deep, ran tight routes and beat jams with impressive moves and
elusiveness at the line. He did get in trouble with coach Dennis
Allen for leaving the huddle early, tipping when plays weren’t
going to him. Aaron Mellett (Elon) I thought struggled. He didn’t
fool anybody. His breaks were soft, lacked explosion and he didn’t
sell them.
* Mike Glennon (NC State) looked the
best of the North’s mediocre batch of QBs, though he had a poor
overthrow picked off in 11-on-11. He did look sharp throwing timing
routes. I think very little of Ryan Nassib’s (Syracuse) chances so
far. He persistently underthrew deep passes in the receiving 1-on-1
drills, clanged a screen pass off Long’s helmet, and in 11-on-11, I
swear he was tipping off plays by wearing his mouthpiece on run plays
but not on passes.
* Kevin Reddick (North Carolina) had
the best practice of any of the linebackers. He had trouble in drills
trying to cover backs in space, but may have been the star of
11-on-11. He recognized an end-around on the first play and got
outside to blow it up for no gain. Reddick made excellent run fills
and also broke up a pass downfield. John Simon (Ohio State) showed
poor movement skills and balance and had a terrible time trying to
cover backs in drills, but also did a good job in 11-on-11 to
recognize end-arounds and string them out. Khaseem Greene (Rutgers)
was one of the few to stick tight in coverage, and he diagnosed a run
perfectly in 11-on-11 and blew it up.
* Running backs rarely stand out well
to me at these things. Kenjon Barner (Oregon) was impressive as a
receiver, though. Showed impressive edge speed and ability to get his
defender off-balance.
Tuesday’s action, which I might get reviewed by Thursday, gives us our first look at the South team,
and I imagine both teams will be in pads this time around. Will be
eager to see if Fisher continues his dominance, if Buchanan can
continue to rally, and if sleepers Quessenberry and Dobson can
continue to climb.
-$-
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