I can’t emphasize enough how bad NFL Network’s coverage of Senior Bowl practice week was this year. They’ve made a once-good feature almost completely useless. It’s not even about the practices any more, which they’ve dropped from 90 minutes’ coverage per team to 60 since they’ve started covering events in Mobile, it’s about getting screen time for their personalities or for NFL coaches and executives 15 fans out of 16 could give a flying crap about. Day 3 of practice week is supposed to be the most important day. NFL-N even as much as advertised it as the time for NFL fortunes to be made. But instead of watching WRs battling DBs or defensive linemen clashing with offensive linemen, we got ANOTHER interview with Thomas Dimitroff’s ridiculous hairdo, and Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and since when do owners get to roam the field during Senior Bowl workouts anyway? Instead of blitz protection drills, we got commercial breaks. Instead of ANY 1-on-1 line drills for the South team, we got ANOTHER interview with Senior Bowl executive Phil Savage, who told us Fresno State QB Derek Carr was the big winner of the week as far as improving his draft stock. Really? I wouldn’t know, I barely got to see him! NFL-N might as well have not aired South practices at all, for the amount of useful action we saw. Savage didn’t need to reveal this week’s big loser(s) – it was us at home stuck with NFL-N’s terrible coverage. We’re going to be stuck with it, too, as long as NFL-N believes that Senior Bowl week should be a lame(r) version of “NFL AM”, minus the short-skirted babe, or that they can’t devote 90 minutes during the day to each practice because they can’t BEAR to deny us prompt airing of the 2006 Pro Bowl Skills Challenge at 3 p.m. the third practice day. Holy cats. RamView kindly requests NFL-N get its damn cameras on the key drills and either properly show them live or put together a nightly highlight show where we can see them. That could even be hosted by a short-skirted babe! They condense entire games down into useful highlight shows all the time; an all-star practice should be cake. Speaking of cake, let’s see what RamView can make out of NFL-N’s crumbs from day 3:
* North player of the day: Notre Dame tackle Zack Martin. He had the strongest 1-on-1 sequence of any lineman all week, pancaking Michael Sam with a forearm in the back and dominating Trent Murphy the very next snap. Martin was very quick out of his stance and showed fine footwork and quickness once upright, and makes up for any perceived shortness of reach with solid technique. He also looked dominant during team blocking drills, strong, anchoring very well and tough to move. Martin also got to show off some versatility, kicking inside to left guard and locking up strong on Aaron Donald to win an epic battle. Having finally gotten to see him in action on TV a little bit, I understand the fuss about him earlier in the week. Good showing though not dominant the way Eric Fisher was last year. I do expect to see him get beaten badly once guys start ripping back inside on him. He’s almost immediately leaping backward off the snap to counter speed.
* South player of the day: Florida State LB Christian Jones was pretty consistent in coverage in 1-on-1 and 7-on-7, where he read the QB well and cut off a primary route. That’s not much to go on, but it’s a better pick than NFL-N picking Gabe Jackson when the only footage they showed of him all day was Princeton DT Caraun Reid smoking the crap out of him 1-on-1.
* Stock up: Aaron Donald, DT, Pittsburgh. Just killed people with his quickness all week. If you do not have quickness at guard, you are not going to block him. In 1-on-1 he embarrassed Baylor brontosaur Cyril Richardson, swatting his hands down lightning-quick and shooting by him. He followed that with a similarly easy win over Kadeem Edwards (Tennessee State). Donald put a punch on Edwards before the guard could even get out of his stance, then just whipped past his outside shoulder. And before we doom Donald with the small-but-quick DT stereotype, he also flashed some serious power. On the rematch, he bull-rushed Edwards and trucked him back into the backfield. In team blocking drills, he could be seen trucking Brandon Linder (Miami) and knocking Brandon Thomas (Clemson) off the ball, which was crazy good, because they’re both good guards. Fielding a fan question, Mike Mayock called Donald an explosive, 1-gap penetrator, best at a 3-technique, who’ll be an immediate disruptor in a 4-man front. He compared Donald to Geno Atkins, then said perfect teams for him would be Tampa, Chicago, Tennessee and… St. Louis. Mayock should probably hold his horses on making Donald a Ram until his pro day, though. At 6’0 285, he’s going to have to add some weight while maintaining that outstanding quickness. Michael Brockers is 6’5 326, Kendall Langford 6’6 295, Jermelle Cudjo 6’2 311, Matt Conrath 6’7 290… as enjoyable as it was to watch him in practice, I couldn’t use the projected Mayock Zone (late 1st/early 2nd-round) pick on Donald at his current size.
* QB view: if the Rams draft a QB from this game, I’d just as soon have it be Jimmy Garoppolo of Eastern Illinois. Quick release, throws a nice ball and showed some flashes of good decision-making. Nobody really stepped forward. Tajh Boyd was up and down all week. He didn’t throw well on the move day 3, and I also think his arm’s too low when the ball comes out, especially compared to fellow North QBs Logan Thomas or Stephen Morris. Thomas didn’t throw well on the move either, though. Boyd had accuracy problems at times on short sideline throws and even ate the ball once during 1-on-1 passing drills rather than attempt a 3-yard out route. That was odd. Free of day 2’s windy weather, the South QBs looked a lot better. David Fales threw pretty well during the install period and might have been the best thrower based on what NFL-N showed. Derek Carr threw the nicest deep ball all day during warmups but it wasn’t caught.
* Stock down: Michael Sam, OLB, Missouri. Day 3 was the first day Sam stuck out on TV, but for plays that didn’t go his way. In blitz drills, he couldn’t even get off the line against Wisconsin TE Jacob Pedersen and looked like he lacked any power. He also just got owned in 1-on-1 line drills. He jumped offside twice against Martin and still got pancaked, then got stoned and nearly flattened by Michigan guard/RT Michael Schofield. Mike Mayock said Sam, though working out as a stand-up pass rusher, would be more successful with his hand in the dirt. He didn’t look good at either here. I’d expect to see better from the SEC sack leader.
* Stock up: Michael Schofield, RT/G, Michigan. No prison breaks going on against this guard on the third day. Put on one of the more dominant shows we saw from anybody. He held strong and anchored well in two reps against Ra’Shede Hageman, stoned Sam at the line and nearly pancaked him, and later pancaked James Gayle of Virginia Tech. Just buried the guy. Definitely earned some additional looks.
* Stock up: Josh Huff, WR, Oregon. Just 5’11 203 but I like him the more I see him. Was impressed all week with his ability to defeat physical coverage. In the red zone, he beat Isaiah Lewis, no easy chore this week, on a fade route, and overcame holding by Marqueston (no relation) Huff at the goal line to make a diving catch in the back corner. Huff’s been getting held all week but has just been fighting through it and making tough catches.
* Stock all over the place: Ra’Shede Hageman, DT, Minnesota. With the week almost over without anyone close to claiming the title of Senior Bowl break-out player, Hageman looked like he was going to grab the brass ring. He was impressive during team blocking drills. He beat a double-team and pancaked Tyler Larson (Utah State). The o-linemen tried to execute an X-block on a later rep, but Hageman got off so quickly that his blocker just whiffed at thin air. It was shaping up as a blow-up, freakish performance. But Hageman couldn’t get anywhere against the ascendant Schofield 1-on-1, then he started jumping offside, and then Larsen didn’t really have any trouble with him, shutting down the hype with good handwork and keeping Hageman on his outside hip. Reporting from the field, Daniel Jeremiah then tellingly noted that Hageman has been streaky and doesn’t show up on a lot of plays. And there he was, practicing just like he plays. He’s a tantalizing physical talent but the GM who takes him is going to have to have some gambler in him.
* Stock down: Lorenzo Taliaferro, sadly. The star of day 2’s blitz pickup drills looked pretty limited as a receiver, dropping a wide open pass and not proving hard to blanket running a wheel route. Jerick McKinnon (Georgia Southern) had similar shortcomings, with a bad drop and inability to separate from LBs, though he did get separation on one rep with a massive two-handed shove. Bad day for Georgia Southern, as corner Lavelle Westbrooks got just embarrassed a couple of times in 1-on-1s. He whiffed trying to jam Jordan Matthews (Vanderbilt) at the line and gave up a big catch, and bit hard on an out move by Mike Davis (Texas) and got whipped inside to give up another big play.
* Trench mouth: Mayock said Seantrel Henderson will be a starting RT “if he can clean his act up.” He said Cyril Richardson looks good one play and lost the next, and zone-blocking teams won’t want anything to do with him. So I think he’s off the Rams’ list. He struggled with speed and change of direction all week and looks MUCH too slow to me to be an effective pass protector, getting whipped by everybody in day 3 1-on-1s. And Mayock continued to talk up Dee Ford, “begging” somebody to step up and block him. He had as good a week as any pass rusher could have, which would have been nice to have witnessed on TV at any point at all. 3-4 defenses should be salivating over him for his exquisite speed off the edge.
* Stock down: Kevin Norwood, WR, Alabama. Derek Carr threw him a perfect deep ball during a simple route tree drill and he couldn’t track it to run under it. He looked over the wrong shoulder on a skinny post. He starts running his routes with a false step at the line that slows him down and should make him easy to jam. He’s got good hands and can win jump balls, and he’ll need to, because I never saw him separate from anybody.
* Stock down: Chris Davis, CB, Auburn. Has deep speed and quickness to break up quick slants, but he’s under 5’10” and getting beaten repeatedly for jump balls. Big guys showed little trouble going over him to get at the ball. Maybe he’ll be fine if you keep him in the slot.
* Wake Forest WR Michael Campanaro made a couple of well-challenged catches in the red zone drill on classic slot receiver routes. Looked pretty fearless, wasn’t afraid to get physical, made a lot of quick moves. If you saw him and thought Danny Amendola, it would be hard to blame you. They’re similar-sized. Campanaro also wears #16. And, the clincher, Campanaro is frequently injured! Maybe he and Danny are related!
* Coverage coverage: Deone Bucannon made as pretty a play as you’ll see to break up a pass to Pedersen, who had run a really good pivot route. Difficult route to defend that well. In the red zone, though, he was terrible giving up a TD, biting hard on a double move and never recovering enough to even look for the ball. Mayock voiced over one of Nevin Lawson’s reps that a big knock against him was that he holds too much. Right on cue, a blatant hold at the goal line. Utah CB Keith McGill was tabbed as a Seahawk-style “long corner” at 6’3 205 and is drawing keen interest. Mayock also called Liberty CB Walt Aikens a “long corner” at 6’0.5 200. Hey, I could have been a long corner with those dimensions.
* SlowView’s still got the actual game recap to do; if anything useful pops up in the day 4 practice coverage or the practice week recap show, which I very much doubt, I’ll work it into there. Lots of stuff on the way, too (I hope), including the Shrine Game, Combine recaps and maybe even a free agent preview or two.
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