The first day of practice for the Senior Bowl was productive, if limited in application; with a bevy of players to watch, it’s easy to get bogged down in attempting to track every player and diluting any evaluation.
It won’t be useful to provide an evaluation on every player, but it is meaningful (hopefully) to drill down on a couple of positions and see who shines.
There were some definite winners and losers tonight, even if knowing that one day of practice shouldn’t rock draft boards dulls the edge of those evaluations.
Offensive Linemen
The offensive linemen had much to gain from the weekend, especially considering how many of them were due for position switches or were from smaller schools. Seeing them against top-tier competition might mean a bigger chunk of their evaluation would come from this week than it would for a player like Alabama’s Dalvin Tomlinson or Texas A&M’s Daeshon Hall.
The tackle earning all the pre-week buzz was Anthony Garcia from Troy, earning top overall prospect honors from draft analysts like Josh Norris previewing the Senior Bowl. Unfortunately, Garcia struggled quite a bit. He lost to a number of pass-rushers, including Hall. His struggles weren’t limited to individual drills, as he couldn’t seem to win his matchups in full team drills.
Another player I drew attention to before the practices started, Justin Senior from Mississippi State, had significant issues. It wasn’t as poor as Garcia’s day, though he started off winning a few reps.
Aside from those two, the only other tackle in the South practices was UCLA’s Conor McDermott, who—as you may have been able to guess—had a tough day. When pass-rushers saw McDermott losing to inside moves, Luckily, the North practices had some excellent performances at offensive tackle.
A player I was the least optimistic about based on evaluations of his in-season play was Julien Davenport of Bucknell. He had enormous technical issues and his play, even at the FCS level, was inconsistent at best. But here, at the Senior Bowl, he was putting on a clinic. Swallowing players like Tarell Basham and Isaac Rochell makes a strong case for the small-school prospect.
If the idea of a physically talented, but raw, offensive lineman doesn’t appeal to Vikings fans because of their recent history with those kinds of players, then they might be more amenable to a Western Michigan tackle.
No? Well, Taylor Moton is a completely different player from Willie Beavers despite their shared alma mater. He’s another player we highlighted before the week began, and unlike Justin Senior, he blossomed. Moton is in an environment that diminishes one of his best assets: awareness and blitz pickup. Defenses are only allowed to play simple coverages and line play, with no stunts or blitzes.
Despite that, Moton stood out for his strength and surprising footspeed. His ability to match against speed and power rushers projects well into the NFL.
Adam Bisnowaty, offensive tackle from Pitt, didn’t seem to struggle too much but didn’t quite stand out in the same way as the other tackles on his team with explosive play. Fellow bookend (this time from USC) Zach Banner had his own issues, similar to McDermott.
At guard, I wasn’t able to catch Isaac Asiata, Danny Isidora, Dion Dawkins or Dan Feeney. But, a few players stood out regardless. At the North practices, Jordan Morgan from Kutztown looked fantastic, moving big bodies into the second level as a run blocker, with some impressive pass protection work. A late addition, Kyle Kalis from Michigan, demonstrated quick feet and good recovery.
The South practices featured standout guard Nico Siragusa, who blocked for Donnel Pumphrey at San Diego State. His run-blocking in practice was equally as effective here in Mobile as it was in San Diego. Unfortunately, an injury sent him to the hospital and robbed him of his ability to take snaps in pass protection drills.
Besides him, standout guard convert Forrest Lamp from Kentucky had a dominant day, only losing one rep to an interior player and generally smothering those who lined up against him—winning against Carlos Watkins, Dalvin Tomlinson, Eddie Vanderdoes and Tanzel Smart.
Jessamen Dunker, a player who transferred from Florida to Tennessee State, had struggles against most players, though did well against UCLA’s Vanderdoes.
At center, the two players I was able to watch the most, Jon Toth and Ethan Pocic (Kentucky and LSU, respectively), generally did well, though Pocic much more than Toth. Toth was slightly more impressive in the 11-on-11 drills because his movement skills allowed him into the second level, but lost ground in the one-on-ones because of players like Tomlinson and Vanderdoes. Pocic did well in both drills, and showcased excellent anchor, power and recovery.
The biggest question for Pocic would be whether or not he’d be able to establish leverage and play with quick hands—both questions ultimately legacies of his unusual height and length at center. While Pocic did at times show pad level issues, those problems never seemed to manifest into a bad rep against this competition. Even then, those issues were occasional at best and he for the most part stonewalled his competition.
Defensive Linemen
You may have been able to get a feel for the defensive linemen from the summaries above, but it should be reiterated that three players stood out from both practices in general as being in a different class of player at practice: Dalvin Tomlinson from Alabama, Daeshon Hall from Texas A&M and Jaleel Johnson from Iowa.
Tomlinson had a fairly high success rate in one-on-ones, beating out Isidora, Toth and Dunker. His ability to establish himself in full team drills shouldn’t go unnoticed either. Tomlinson found ways to win usually using power or technical refinement and may end up being the forgotten Alabama prospect in a crop of fantastic front seven players.
While Inman and I didn’t think too much of Hall from what we saw on tape, he was fairly dominant in practice. Not only did Hall abuse Garcia badly enough that Garcia started a fight, when he was moved from Garcia to Senior, nothing changed. Hall showcased bend and technical skill, and had a variety of moves, including a rip, club and spin move.
In the North practices, Jaleel Johnson seemingly would not be stopped. There’s a good chance that Johnson is one of the best—if not then best—interior players in the class, and a week like this would affirm that prediction.
Also worth watching is Tanoh Kpassagnon from Villanova. A player who won the weigh-in, Kpassagnon didn’t put together the best tape at Villanova and the question of whether or not he was more traits than talent was an open one here in Mobile. After winning a snap against Forrest Lamp (stationed, in this case, as a tackle), Kpassagnon proceeded to advance into the backfield more than a few times—though his ability to diagnose has so far not been tested, and will be an interesting piece of his puzzle.
Players like Carlos Watkins and Tanzel Smart played well enough, while Keionta Davis and Eddie Vanderdoes largely struggled. Vanderdoes in particular seemed to be a case where getting one thing right meant getting another thing wrong. If he won on a swim move, he’d lose his balance on the way to the quarterback. If he won snap timing, he’d lose his hand placement. If he showcased power, he lost leverage. Montravious Adams also had his struggles and couldn’t seem to generate power, likely because he couldn’t establish leverage.
Otherwise, I was able to catch Derek Rivers and Larry Ogunjobi playing well against their competition.
Skill Players
As you can probably tell, I spent most of my time watching the players in the trenches, so I didn’t get a good feel for players at other positions. I missed almost entirely on running backs and linebackers, though I saw enough to know that Ryan Anderson, an edge rusher from Alabama, is not an off-ball linebacker and will continue to struggle in coverage until he’s allowed to play on the edge again.
What little I saw of Michigan’s Ben Gedeon wasn’t too bad, either.
Tight End O.J. Howard from Alabama may have won the day, with excellent run-blocking (with one notable loss to Kansas State’s Jordan Willis) and pass-catching on the day, including highlight one-handers.
At defensive back, Tre’Davious White from LSU stood out in drills as the most fluid player at the Senior Bowl by what seems to be a wide margin. Justin Evans, a safety from Texas A&M moved easily as well, while Ezra Robinson from Tennessee State struggled to move throughout the day.
In receiver-defensive back one-on-ones, both Whites (Tre’Davious and Marquez White) stood out as players who could keep in the hip pocket of their opponents, while others struggled. Jourdan Lewis from Michigan also seemed to track his opponents well, though much of the North defensive roster benefited from poor receiver play.
Safeties Obi Melifonwu (Connecticut) and John Johnson (Boston College) were impressive to me, as was Texas A&M’s Justin Evans. I caught brief positive glimpses of Saint Francis’ Jerome Lorenzo and Oklahoma State’s Jordan Sterns and not much else among the safety class.
Among the receivers, Michigan’s Amara Darboh, Syracuse’s Amba Etta-Tawo and LSU’s Travin Dural all had a tough time getting out of their breaks, whether it was the extra several steps Etta-Tawo had to take at each route stem or the general stiffness of a player like Darboh.
The standouts among receivers were probably Grambling State’s Chad Williams—a late add—Ryan Switzer from North Carolina and Josh Reynolds from Texas A&M. Williams excelled at ball tracking and the ability to get open deep, while Switzer dominated defensive backs underneath with route-running precision and quick-cut explosion. Reynolds made the most of the poor quarterback class by bailing them out with his enormous catch radius. His catches looked natural and easy, a difficult task for how erratic the delivery of the ball was.
Cooper Kupp from Eastern Washington, Zay Jones from East Carolina, and Fred Ross from Mississippi State played well enough, with some significant errors from each of them, though Ross seemed to be the best of the three. Kupp had drop issues throughout the day, though also featured excellent catching through contact, while Jones had issues maintaining balance.
Jones may have been the best when it came to framing the ball and setting up his catch, but he couldn’t seem to manage a good variety of routes with consistency. Ross had balance issues and sometimes struggled with understanding space, but still demonstrated solid receiver technique.
I didn’t catch much of Taywan Taylor from Western Kentucky, though what I saw was fairly impressive, and missed out on Artavis Scott from Clemson and Trent Taylor from Louisiana Tech entirely.
Don’t trust Senior Bowl quarterbacks.
