Thursday, January 24, 2013

Senior Bowl 2013: North practice, day 2

* The Fisher and Quessenberry trains kept rolling Tuesday for the North team, though they both hit a little bump in the tracks. Eric Fisher looked amazing picking Alex Okafor apart early in 1-on-1s. Perfect handwork and footwork, mirrored him perfectly to squash Okafor’s preferred speed rush. The second rep, Okafor tried to run past him, couldn’t. Tried to put a power move on him, couldn’t. Then Fisher blew him backwards ten yards. The most impressive work I have ever seen at these Senior Bowl workouts. A hiccup at the end, though, as Datone Jones pulled off the major upset and became the first man to beat Fisher this week. Fisher got a little bit overextended anticipating a speed move, and Jones took advantage of that to whip by him inside with a swim move. I’m already looking forward to seeing Fisher look for revenge Wednesday against the speed rushers.

* David Quessenberry, to my surprise, because he has looked very good here at right tackle, is actually a guard. At either position, he mostly toyed with people, especially the well-overmatched Margus Hunt (SMU) and Jordan Hill. Quessenberry pancaked Hunt the first time they squared off and stonewalled him the rest of the way. He put Hill on the ground one time, and another time, Hill put himself on the ground just trying to generate any push on the Great Wall of Quessenberry. He’s just too strong and quick off the ball for these guys. (NFL Network sure talks Hill and Hunt up, too, even though neither one of them has beaten anybody in two days.) In 11-on-11, though, finally, a crack in the Wall, as Okafor beat Quessenberry at RT to knock down a screen pass. At 295 pounds, I figure teams are going to want another 20-25 pounds on Quessenberry and move him inside. But I’d like to be his agent if he comes to the Combine bigger and maintains his quickness.

* Syracuse o-lineman Justin Pugh has been running with the front of the o-line pack all week, too; my apologies for letting him slip by me Monday. Pugh pretty much owned Michael Buchanan, who struggled all day and didn’t really show any moves. Pugh consistently locked him up and kept him safely outside. Similarly strong outing for Joe Madsen (West Virginia). This whole North o-line is going to be a bear for the South. Even the early strugglers are getting better. After getting whipped off the line by Jones on one rep before he could even break his stance, Hugh Thornton (Illinois) got off the ball much better the rest of the way, which allowed him to wait on his opponent to make a move and then lock him down.

* Other than Kawann Short (Purdue), it was a bad day in the middle of the d-line. Besides Hunt’s and Hill’s flailings, Sylvester Williams failed to get any headway against Thornton or Braxston Cave, who have not been standouts themselves so far, and got pancaked, with syrup, by Brian Winters (Kent State). Short, though, showed quickness to whip Cave right off the snap, and solid handwork to defeat Winters another rep. Avoid Winters’ exceptionally heavy punch and you’re good. And Short was one of the defensive stars 11-on-11, beating Thornton with a swim move to get a pass pressure and whipping past him later to blow up a screen pass. No screen passes off Kyle Long’s head today because he was down with the flu, which easily could be throwing off his performance this week.

* Robbie Rouse (Fresno State) was terrible in blitz pickup, and there’s little secret why: dude is 5-foot-6. He got whipped badly twice, and then when he finally got in the right position the 3rd time, Khaseem Greene just ran over him. I don’t see how any team in the league can afford to have Rouse on the field. And how did a 5’6” dude get this high up the chain anyway? Shouldn’t he have been in the NFLPA game? We don’t see special teams drills on NFL-N, so I hope Rouse is a heck of a good kick returner. That is his only chance to play in the NFL.

* If you’re going to have a rookie protecting your QB’s back this season, you’ll be better off with Johnathan Franklin (UCLA), TE Jack Doyle (Western Kentucky), or especially, Harvard fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Kenjon Barner was also effective enough in blitz pickup to make you feel really good about him as a third-down back. Franklin showed the strength to absorb an initial blow and lock on to his man, and good footwork to mirror his movements. Juszczyk showed he can hit like a truck, stoning Greene with one of the hits of the day. (Teams practiced in full pads Tuesday.) He got jumpy and whiffed on a blitz later trying to duplicate that hit, though. Don’t lose your technique going for the kill shot. 

* Kevin Reddick flashed as a good blitzer, which is little surprise since he’s been good at everything in Mobile. My pick for least impressive blitzer was Steve Beauharnais (Rutgers), who kept trying to put spin moves on people. By the time you get done with a spin move on a blitz, they’re going to be lining up for the next snap. Reddick “popped” for the second straight day in 11-on-11. He has excellent speed and shows up in the right place all the time, blowing up a pitch to Rouse and getting Barner for a loss.

* One-on-one receiver drills were frustrating today. We got to see very little of yesterday’s star, Aaron Dobson, but a lot of the meh Michigan QB Dennard Robinson, who’s trying to convert to WR. Marquise Goodwin had to fight through some jams today, and did once against Jordan Poyer for an excellent back-shoulder catch, but couldn’t solve Jamar Taylor, who showed a strong jam and also good positioning to cut off slants. Chris Harper (Kansas State) made some good catches in tight coverage, which he’s going to have to be able to do in the NFL, because I didn’t see any separation ability. Robinson’s going to be a major project at WR. Needs work on everything. Aaron Mellette ran better routes Tuesday and sold them better than he did Monday, so don’t count him out just yet.

* The Oakland staff continues to make no effort to coach DBs to cover without committing blatant penalties, and the guy NFL-N’s making out to be the star there, Desmond Trufant, is so full of himself he’s about to explode, and yaps way too much for a guy who has to commit a penalty almost every rep. Shut up and cover. Trufant shows nice break to the ball in zone coverage and good feet and speed to stay with receivers, but by the end of things his priorities were hacking, grabbing and talking smack. Jordan Poyer’s another DB who gets gushing praise from NFL-N despite committing a penalty practically every rep. Poyer ended the day on a strong note, reading a comeback route to Goodwin perfectly, jumping the route and undercutting it. Did everything right except make the pick. He had another near-pick in 11-on-11, so he’s definitely a ball hawk. T.J. McDonald (USC) starred in 11-on-11. He won a train-wreck collision with Winters on a run play, which is saying something, because Winters is not only a tough SOB, he was pulling on the play and had a head of steam. McDonald also blanketed TE Ryan Otten (San Jose State) on an attempted bootleg pass.

* The UConn backs continued to struggle, along with Will Davis (Utah State), who got beat by every move anybody tried. Dwayne Gratz jams and gets physical effectively but is lost in space. He looked better in 11-on-11, where he made a good play to shut down an end run and would have had an opportunity to light up Alec Lemon (Syracuse) on an ill-advised throw from Ryan Nassib. Robinson and Mellette are at the bottom of the North’s receiver pack, but had little trouble beating Blidi Wreh-Wilson. 

* Nassib looked nice throwing on the run in 11-on-11, but I’m still far from convinced in his ability to throw the deep ball. The other QBs were inconsistent at best. Mike Glennon rifled a beauty to Harper down the seam, but had a weak, wobbly bomb for Dobson broken up with ease later. Zac Dysert (Miami, Ohio) threw some bullets and threw some floaters.

The North team’s going to be able to protect their QB like Fort Knox, but who knows if they’re going to take advantage of that to throw very well? Wouldn’t surprise me at all if Barner shines Saturday as an all-purpose weapon.

Lastly, to the good folks at seniorbowl.com: could you PLEASE update your online rosters? They do not include late-arriving players, and I much prefer to refer to players by name and not number. If I have to, I will tomorrow, because a couple of them have looked good.

-$-

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