* 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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