While the Senior Bowl is easily thegame with the best overall talent among this year’s collegeall-star soirees, it’s still notable which players are missing, alist that includes Geno Smith, Montee Ball, Chance Warmack, MattBarkley, Tavon Austin, and last and certainly least, Manti TheFreaking Idiot Te’o. Also missing, naturally, are BOTH players MelKiper recently mock-drafted to the Rams in the first round, Texassafety Kenny Vaccaro and Alabama guard D.J. Fluker, who has a groininjury, possibly from getting his 355 pounds up on a scale. He wasonly present for the weigh-in, where he impressed, actually, becausehe’s a massive 355, not a flabby 355.But even if the Senior Bowl doesn’thelp Rams Nation figure out the team’s draft options as easily aswe’d like, there is still a ton of draftable talent on display inMobile, and on the NFL Network, which is doing a bang-up job ofcovering the festivities so far. Far better than RamView, whichyou’ll no doubt notice is already TWO days behind. What can I say,Mike Mayock’s got a hell of a lot more time to devote to this thanI do. Barring technical problems, I’ll get everything recapped,just slowly. After all, there’s a lot to try to keep up with.
Keeping with tradition, NFL-N onlycovered the North team’s practice the first day. Players were notin pads. Here’s who and what stood out:
* The star of the first day was CentralMichigan OT Eric Fisher, who seems to protect the pocket with theskill of Bruce Lee warding off evil henchmen. In the time NFL-N’stelevised Senior Bowl practices, Fisher’s the best tackle I haveseen. He has the strength to move people wherever he wants. He madeMichael Buchanan (Illinois) look silly, shoving him outside thepocket and not even giving him so much as a look back in. Fisher isalso impressively light on his feet, mirrors beautifully and can staywith even the fastest of speed rushers like Alex Okafor (Texas). He’stenacious, he stays on people; as a pass protector, Fisher alreadylooks Pro Bowl-quality. Too bad there’s no way the Rams will beable to draft him. Not after today.
* The hidden performer of the first daywas 6’6” 295 San Jose State tackle David Quessenberry. Strongwith good footwork, stays ahead of his man well. He went up againstDatone Jones (UCLA) late in 1-on-1, a mouthwatering matchup becauseJones had been speeding by everyone in sight and Quessenberry hadbeen driving people into the ground. Jones threw a wicked spin moveat Quessenberry, but he stayed in front of it and held his own. Mighthave gotten outpushed at the end, but being able to handle the speedrusher after pushing some of the bigger rushers around made theSpartan tackle look very credible from my seat.
* Kyle Long (Oregon) has gotten a lotof attention because he’s Chris’ brother. He does not have Chris’ability on the edge, though, and should be kicked inside to guard,where he was at least a little effective. He looked pretty bad attackle, getting pushed around in 1-on-1 drills and 11-on-11, where hegot driven back into the QB and had a screen pass thrown off hishead. He does show good hand quickness, which helps him out a lotmore inside than out. Similar story for Hugh Thornton (Illinois), whostruggled mightily with speed – Datone Jones was around him on onerep before he was barely even out of his stance – but showed thestrength as an inside blocker to put Jordan Hill (Penn State) on theground at the end of one rep. Same deal for Brian Winters (KentState). Struggled with speed but showed good strength against Hill,and threw Brandon Williams (Mo. Southern) to the ground.
* Defensive backs were hard to evaluatebecause they would have been flagged for clear holding or passinterference half the time had this been an officiated game. You cantell these players are being coached by the Raiders. In fact, withthe Lions coaching the South, I’d bet the over for number ofpenalties committed in this year’s game. Expect a record. (Yes, Iknow the RAMS led the league in penalties.) Dwayne Gratz (UConn)jammed the receiver well but struggled with change of direction.Marquise Goodwin (Texas) turned him inside out on an arrow route, andeven on simpler routes against Markus Wheaton, he was slow, late andoff-balance on breaks. He even failed on a slant route even though helined up with inside leverage. Blidi Wreh-Wilson, also of UConn,looked comfortable in zone coverage but got whipped off the linetrying to man up on Goodwin. Jordan Poyer (Oregon State) showed goodrecovery speed to break up a slant after getting beat off the linebut clearly held to break up a quick out. Desmond Trufant(Washington; Marcus’ brother) looked excellent cutting off a slantbut later defended a bomb to Wheaton by choosing to mug him. JamarTaylor (Boise State) looked strong cutting off a slant route butappeared to take a later rep completely off. Laid 10 yards off hisreceiver, never closed, let him run by him for a TD. Puzzling. Itlooks like a solid group of physical DBs for the North. As a groupthey’re jamming well and cutting off routes well. I’d like to seemore consistency, better movement and reaction to breaks, andcertainly fewer penalties, before getting enthusiastic about any oneof them.
* The defensive line group doesn’treally have me sold yet, either. Buchanan bounced back from ahumbling during 1-on-1 to be one of the standouts on 11-on-11. Hebeat Joe Madsen (West Virginia) and would have blown up a screen passor even gotten the sack. Buchanan also made an excellent play toclose the lane on a draw play and knock down the runner. When he’snot up against Eric Fisher, he shows a good bull rush and good edgespeed. Brandon Williams spent too much time on the ground duringdrills, getting pancaked twice, but bull-rushed Long on the screenpass that doinked off Long’s head. Sylvester Williams (NorthCarolina) made Cave Braxston (Notre Dame) whiff on him 1-on-1 andbeat him again to stuff a run in 11-on-11. Braxston’s taking awhile to adjust to the improved speed out there, or maybe he’sstill trying to recover from the Alabama game. Okafor and DatoneJones showed speed rush skills that looked elite at times. I’m notsure either has a second trick in their bag. Then again, Bruce Irvingot drafted in the first round last year; they may not need one.
* Goodwin obviously stood out among thereceivers, and could be a player for the Rams to look at if theydon’t keep Danny Amendola. At 5’8”, he’s going to be a slotguy, and he looked like Amendola running arrow routes, while alsoshowing big-play speed up the field. The receiver who really caughtmy eye was Aaron Dobson (Marshall). He’s 6’2” 205, was beatingguys deep, ran tight routes and beat jams with impressive moves andelusiveness at the line. He did get in trouble with coach DennisAllen for leaving the huddle early, tipping when plays weren’tgoing to him. Aaron Mellett (Elon) I thought struggled. He didn’tfool anybody. His breaks were soft, lacked explosion and he didn’tsell them.
* Mike Glennon (NC State) looked thebest of the North’s mediocre batch of QBs, though he had a pooroverthrow picked off in 11-on-11. He did look sharp throwing timingroutes. I think very little of Ryan Nassib’s (Syracuse) chances sofar. He persistently underthrew deep passes in the receiving 1-on-1drills, clanged a screen pass off Long’s helmet, and in 11-on-11, Iswear he was tipping off plays by wearing his mouthpiece on run playsbut not on passes.
* Kevin Reddick (North Carolina) hadthe best practice of any of the linebackers. He had trouble in drillstrying to cover backs in space, but may have been the star of11-on-11. He recognized an end-around on the first play and gotoutside to blow it up for no gain. Reddick made excellent run fillsand also broke up a pass downfield. John Simon (Ohio State) showedpoor movement skills and balance and had a terrible time trying tocover backs in drills, but also did a good job in 11-on-11 torecognize end-arounds and string them out. Khaseem Greene (Rutgers)was one of the few to stick tight in coverage, and he diagnosed a runperfectly in 11-on-11 and blew it up.
* Running backs rarely stand out wellto me at these things. Kenjon Barner (Oregon) was impressive as areceiver, though. Showed impressive edge speed and ability to get hisdefender off-balance.
Tuesday’s action, which I might get reviewed by Thursday, gives us our first look at the South team,and I imagine both teams will be in pads this time around. Will beeager to see if Fisher continues his dominance, if Buchanan cancontinue to rally, and if sleepers Quessenberry and Dobson cancontinue to climb.
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