Sunday, January 27, 2013

Senior Bowl 2013: North practice, day 3

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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