One of the cool things about
Wednesday's North practice was the number of players who raised their
level of play. DT Brandon Williams (Missouri Southern) hadn't really
been on RamView radar all week, but may have been the dominant player
of Wednesday's practice. It looks like he picked up, or remembered, a
move or two. In 1-on-1 drills, he beat Brian Winters once with a fake
to the left, and another time faking to the right, showing nice
quickness off the ball and nice handwork. Williams also blew up a
draw play and a screen pass in 11-on-11. He blew up the screen after
smoking Winters with a pull-through and beat Justin Pugh on the draw
despite getting a late start.
The North quarterbacks looked better
than they have all week, especially Ryan Nassib. In 11-on-11, he
threw a nice quick out to Marquise Goodwin and, with Datone Jones
bearing down on him, a perfect pass up the seam to Markus Wheaton,
between two defenders. Haven't seen a lot of QBs getting nice passes
off under pressure so far. Everything was good about that throw. Mike
Glennon threw one of the best long balls of the week in 11-on-11, a
deep strike to Aaron Mellette.
North RBs did a fairly good job at
blitz protection, especially Johnathan Franklin (UCLA), who
absolutely blew up Travis Johnson (San Jose State) once at the point
of attack, and more than held his own against Jonathan Cyprien (Fla.
International) and Kevin Reddick, who have been tough nuts all week.
A positive surprise was Robbie Rouse, who fought off Khaseem Greene
well. Kept leverage and stayed in front of all his moves. Nice
rebound for Rouse, who had struggled at blitz pickup till now. He
also burned Greene later in receiving drills. A negative surprise was
Kyle Juszczyk, who got beaten twice by late arrival Sio Moore
(UConn), one of the Shrine Game's standouts. Moore knocked Juszczyk
back on his pins on one rush. The Harvard FB has looked off ever
landing that big hit Tuesday. Nick Kasa (Colorado) consistently
struggled with hard inside moves.
Wheaton had probably his best day of
practice, beating everyone he faced. He won on hitches, won on
comebacks, burned Jamar Taylor deep and turned Desmond Trufant inside
out on a beautifully-run corner route. Goodwin likewise won on slants
and comebacks, and burned Duke Williams (Nevada) deep,
double-catching a TD bomb. Denard Robinson looked better having been
cleared for full practice participation. He turned Blidi Wreh-Wilson
inside-out on a double-move route and won a couple of slant routes,
getting off a solid jam by Jordan Poyer on one. Mellette struggled to
separate on shorter routes, and probably should have been matched up
on Wreh-Wilson more often, who never closed decently on one. Mellette
did beat Dwayne Gratz deep. He really leaves his feet at times on his
breaks; it looks like he's jumping on a bicycle. That seems likely to
get him knocked into next week, but I guess we'll see. Chris Harper
similarly couldn't separate on short routes, but unlike Mellette, won
a lot of physical battles to make catches anyway. Made a couple of
catches despite being blatantly interfered with, and also beat a
great jam by Phillip Thomas (Fresno State) to beat him late on a deep
route. For better or worse, if the Rams draft Harper, his RamView
draft profile will contain the line “Compares to: Brandon Gibson”.
Trufant and Aaron Dobson had some good duels. Trufant jammed well and
can stay with just about anybody downfield. Dobson continues to show
excellent moves to free himself at the line.
Another good duel was Alex Okafor vs.
Eric Fisher. Okafor actually won the first contest, getting Fisher
high and off-balance with a strong punch and bull-rush, and bothered
him with it the second time. Ricky Wagner (Wisconsin) took care of
Okafor's bull-rush on the undercard, but Okafor smoked him right off
the snap another time. Fisher warmed up for the main event by
swatting Datone Jones aside with little problem. Finally, it was the
Big Deal in Mobile. Okafor-Fisher III. Okafor tried to bull-rush
Fisher again, and Fisher destroyed him. Okafor barely even got off
the LOS, and Fisher put him into the ground right behind the line
with an exclamation point. Silly big-fight imagery aside, you have to
love matchups like those – they make both players better. (Even
though Margus Hunt pulled a Buster Douglas during 11-on-11 and beat
Fisher to blow up a screen.) Fisher's still the North's best player,
and Okafor has lifted his stock.
Brian Winters continues to look great
when he gets his hands on his guy, but continues to have BIG trouble
with any initial quickness. Like Winters, Wagner has the strength but
the question is his quickness. Justin Pugh shows better ability to
adjust to speed rushers. Joe Madsen won his matchups against Jordan
Hill. Braxston Cave does a LOT of holding. Michael Buchanan just
looked lost during 1-on-1 drills, looked like he was thinking way too
much. He did bounce back to make one of the best plays of 11-on-11,
beating a double-team, spinning off a chip from Franklin and stepping
up right into Glennon's face for a sack. On another play, Datone
Jones came in unblocked and chased Glennon BEHIND the rest of the
players, who line up 10 yards or so behind the LOS. He continues to
show good edge speed and a good swim move. Dan Quessenberry had an
inconsistent day. Buchanan did not challenge him in 1-on-1 but burned
him with a spin move in 11-on-11. Sylvester Williams also beat him
with that, so there's something to work on. He had good run- and
pass-blocking plays 11-on-11, but also got beaten by a club move from
Datone Jones. Just wasn't all quite there Wednesday, though
Quessenberry has continued to look more comfortable at guard than at
tackle.
Takeaway: with apologies for repeating
myself, Fisher is the best player on the North team and has made
himself a top-ten pick. The Rams could take almost any of the guards
off this team and have themselves a good player, though. Okafor and
Datone Jones were the most consistent d-linemen. The North LBs showed
well, but the best ones don't have the size to be high draft picks.
I'll begrudge Trufant the title of best CB, at least for the North,
but T.J. McDonald has looked a pretty complete package at safety. Not
sure I saw any first-round skill players. The QBs aren't. Barner
should be able to slip in there with a good Combine. He has a good
all-around game. Franklin could surprise a little. Goodwin looks the
best WR, but I don't know about a first-round grade at 5'9”.
Wheaton is bigger and looked almost as good, and I still like the
Marshall receiver Dobson, who gets off the line well, runs good
routes and competes well. Buchanan and Kyle Long, among others, will
need to rally a little between now and the Combine.
-$-
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