2014 Senior Bowl: day 1 practice notes

NFL Network opened 2014 Senior Bowl week with coverage of the first North team practice that was pretty light on on-field activity and pretty heavy with interviews, particularly with ridiculously-coiffed Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff. We only got to see a little bit of receivers going 1-on-1 with defensive backs and didn’t see any line drills at all. Notes on what we did get to see, from practice and the recap show: 


* Skipping out: significant prospects not playing in the Senior Bowl: Jake Matthews, Anthony Barr, A.J. McCarron. Barr was injured. I was not thrilled to find out we wouldn’t get to see Matthews. Jason Smith has made me permanently suspicious of Big 12 spread offense tackles; I’d have liked to seen Matthews in action. Mike Mayock complained the most about McCarron’s decision not to appear. With Kevin Demoff commenting at a recent Rams function that the team would be looking for a QB as high as the 2^nd or 3^rd round, maybe I should also complain. But, like I imagine most of the male gender, I’m a much bigger fan of McCarron’s girlfriend than of McCarron himself anyway.

 * North team QBs: Logan Thomas, Virginia Tech, Tajh Boyd, Clemson, and Stephen Morris, Miami. I really didn’t have these guys figured out after day 1. There were such consistent streams of bad throws at times I found myself wondering if the throws were intentionally way off, or if the receivers ran consistently awful routes. They all threw behind receivers on simple seam routes and had terrible-looking overthrows on deep comeback routes. Even with Mother Theresa-charitable doubt, Boyd stood out as awful. He added a terrible throw on an attempted corner route and threw a quick screen that missed his receiver by yards. Narrow winner was Morris, who’s said to have the best arm in the draft and hit on a nice deep ball in 1-on-1s. Thomas was heavily discussed in the recap show. On one hand, he’s the picture-perfect NFL QB: 6’6 250 with a great arm, quick release and great form. He was maddeningly inconsistent at VaTech, though, showing poor accuracy, anticipation and pocket awareness and staring down his receivers. Davis claimed Boyd to be more consistent than Thomas, which was laughable in the light of the first day’s action. 

 * The star of 1-on-1 drills at wide receiver was Wyoming’s Robert Herron, who beat everybody he went up against. He made a nice physical catch against Nevin Lawson (Utah State) on a curl route despite being interfered with twice. He also beat a couple of people deep. He faked Ahmad Dixon (Baylor) beautifully into thinking quick out and burned him downfield with a tough catch of a poorly-thrown deep corner route. Herron isn’t big at 5’9” but showed the package of everything you’d want from a slot receiver. 

* The other notable player from that limited look-in of 1-on-1’s was Wisconsin DB Dez Southward, mostly because he was off-balance a lot. It got him burned a couple of times. He couldn’t recover well from a double-move by Josh Huff (Oregon) and he struggled to win jam attempts at the line. 

* Future Ram alert! The name Seantrel Henderson could pop up a lot in my Senior Bowl recaps. He’s a 6’7 331 tackle for the Miami Hurricanes who has long arms and all the physical ability to be a big success in the pros. He dominated 2012 1^st-round pick Bjoern Werner when the Canes played Florida State two years ago. What makes Henderson a lock to be a future Ram? He only played about half his senior season and has been suspended multiple times! That kind of thing leaps you to the top of a Fisher/Snead draft board! 

* All three NFL Network analysts pushed Notre Dame tackle Zack Martin hard despite his shorter-than-ideal arms. Charles Davis even said to ignore Martin’s arm length, even though that measurement has been a pretty reliable indicator of whether or not a tackle will struggle in the pros. Mayock called him one of the best players there and said he was lockdown in the 1-on-1 drills we never got to see. Daniel Jeremiah one-upped Mayock and called Martin his #1-ranked offensive player. (I assume he meant that for players at the game.) Early on he showed he could handle speed or power, and had good hands and good form. Rock-solid and anchors effortlessly. 

* Northern Illinois safety Jimmie Ward got a steady stream of good reviews. Very athletic, explosive and fluid-hipped. Covers well in the slot, plays the run well and gets his hands on the ball a lot. There were also good comments for Washington’s Deone Bucannon, who sounds like a very solid in-the-box safety. The Rams need people who can cover ground, though, and I’d keep an eye on Ward. 

* Oh no, not another DT! Even with Michael Brockers’ success so far, there’s nothing like drafting a defensive tackle high to instill draft bust fear and dread in Rams Nation. But with unimpressive depth, and Kendall Langford a possible cap victim, there’s a case to be made for drafting a DT high in MAY, and there’s talent at the Senior Bowl to back that up. Aaron Donald of Pitt reportedly put on a show, quick and explosive, winning with his first move and eating Baylor guard Cyril Richardson’s lunch. Minnesota DT Ra’Shede Hageman, though, drew physical comparisons to Julius Peppers at 6’6 311. He’s quick upfield and, naturally at that height, good at batting down passes. 

* The NFL-N crew talked quite a bit about Richardson on day 1, which I’ll mostly gloss over. Mayock called him the top guard in the draft and a first-round talent. Davis immediately, and awesomely, brought up that recent offensive linemen drafted out of Baylor have sucked. Mayock raved over Danny Watkins a couple of years ago, and none of the draft “experts” had anything bad to say about Jason Smith in 2009. Until proven otherwise, when I see an offensive lineman’s from Baylor, I’m happy to let some other team draft him. 

* What’s next? RamView’s player of the day was Herron. Day 2 expanded coverage to the South team, though spoiler alert: it wasn’t much of a look. NFL-N had to know we at home need a much better look at these players in drills, didn’t they? What’s the point of even covering these practices otherwise? Not much to tell if the network refused to recognize what it was in Mobile to do. 

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