Senior Bowl Thread

[Feva]

I'm with you on that one Phreak... I see nothing but praise for the kid.  The more I read, the more I like.

[PhillyPhreak54]

--From NFLDraftCountdown:

Monday's North Squad notes:

The day started with Penn State's Michael Robinson getting some work and coaching as a return man and if I were him I'd get as much experience elsewhere as possible because it is clear he is not going to play quarterback at the pro level. Robinson was inaccurate and didn't throw a good ball and it was so bad that I though he just may have been nervous but there was little improvement throughout the day,

The guy who stood out to me at wide receiver was Notre Dame's Maurice Stovall, who took coaching really well, showed big hands to snatch the ball and gave great effort as a blocker. USC tight end Dominique Byrd did a nice job blocking as well while Joe Klopfenstein of Colorado made a nice catch downfield.

Perhaps the premier showcase of the day was D'Brickashaw Ferguson of Virginia taking on defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka of Boston College. D'Brick is a physical marvel and looks like a basketball player and while Kiwi held his own I'd have to give the edge to Ferguson in the majority of their battles. This is going to be a fun matchup to watch all week!

Did someone say defensive linemen? Gabe Watson of Michigan was very impressive, showing great quickness off the ball and tremendous power on the bull rush. Virginia Tech's Darryl Tapp had a lot of trouble going up against Daryn Colledge while Tamba Hali was singled out by coaches numerous times and given instructions and advice. The guy to watch though might be Victor Adeyanju of Indiana, who made some plays and got a lot of attention from coaches.

Monday's South Squad Notes:

U.C.L.A. tight end Marcedes Lewis presented a big target for the passer and was just physically impressive with his size and athletic frame. Two of the bigger stars on this roster in terms of the NFL Draft are Eric Winston of Miami and Marcus McNeill of Auburn. Winston was quick off the snap, has great feet and uses his hands well, while McNeill showed up and practiced after being absent from the weigh-in this morning. Jonathan Scott of Texas was almost dominant, consistently whipping his opponent while showing a lot of potential as a left tackle prospect. On the other end of the spectrum Cody Douglas of Tennessee struggled with speed while New Mexico center Ryan Cook was slow off the snap and did not impress

Along the defensive line Florida State's Brodrick Bunkley was very impressive, showing great power and quickness to the ball carrier.

Afterwards scouts wandered onto the field to chat up players, with Cleveland talking to Parys Haralson, the Giants to Thomas Howard, Kansas City with Greg Blue, Philly with Kelly Jennings and Eric Winston drawing interest from a number of teams

[PhillyPhreak54]

phreak i dont know if youre around a tv or not but the senior bowl practices are on espn right now

mel seems a little bit down on your boy kiwanuka

Thanks for the heads up, man. I'm going to go put it on now.

[PhillyPhreak54]

They just said that Manny Lawson was the only player to "grow" from his listed numbers. He is listed at 6'5 and not 6'4.

I think Lawson could end up as a SAM in the NFL.

Tamba Hali just went against Darryn Colledge and was muscled to the ground.

They're showing 1-1 DL-OL drills now

They're talking about how Gabe Watson needs a big week, which I agree. That guy is built but he needs to step it up.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Hali just went again and slipped down. Mark May said that Jeff Fisher loves how Hali uses his hands to free himself.

Edit...

IGY, I think Mel has been down on Kiwi for awhile now. If I recall correctly he had Kiwi dropping to 22 in his mock.

Nick Mangold (OSU-C) is doing well.

[ice grillin you]

They're talking about how Gabe Watson needs a big week

thats what mel said several times about kiwanuka...sai that all his sacks came in three games this year and that he needs to show consistentcy and technique improvements

[MURP]

There was alot of rumor talk about Gabe Watsons lack of consistent effort in days at Michigan.  Are they bringing that up at all or is it just BS?

[PhillyPhreak54]

It seems to have some merit. He is a physical specimen, but just hasn't had the results to go with the build.

His role looks to be one like Ted Washington....just be a big body clogging up the A gaps and occupying two blockers. The difference with Watson is he can flow to the ball well down the line.

[ice grillin you]

andy please remove mark mays penis from your mouth immediately if not sooner

[PhillyPhreak54]

Mark May doing a fluff interview with Big Red:

-Alot of talent at this bowl
-Watching a lot of the OL & DL
-McNabb is improving, staying in Philadelphia so far to rehab and workout


Meh.

[ice grillin you]

mark may: what is the best drill out here that enables you to judge a players talent

in the gayest voice you can possibly imagine...

andy: well if i could get a lineman here as good as you id go out there and steal him


yes he totally ignored the question and said that

[PhillyPhreak54]

Thats his way of giving a no-answer answer. He does it all the time. I'm surprised that he even di an interview at all.

[PhillyPhreak54]

From ESPN Insider:

Updated: January 24, 9:17 AM ET
Monday's buzz: Adeyanju, Norwood surprise scouts

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ESPN.com

MOBILE, Ala. -- Here's the buzz from Monday's Senior Bowl practices:

Weights and measures

Senior Bowl 2006 kicked off on Monday at 10:30 a.m. CT with the annual weigh-in session. At that point, it was announced that Louisville DE Elvis Dumervil, N.C. State DB Marcus Hudson, Auburn WR Ben Obomanu, Stanford LB Jon Alston, Oklahoma LB Clint Ingram, Northwestern State DB David Pittman and Oregon RB Terrence Whitehead were all late additions to the Senior Bowl rosters. Arizona State WR Derek Hagan was moved from the South to the North roster in order to even out the numbers, giving each team 50 players.

Of those 100 players, Boston College OT Jeremy Trueblood was the tallest (6-foot-7 7/8), and Miami WR Sinorice Moss was the shortest (5-7 7/8). Georgia OG Max Jean-Gilles was the heaviest (358 pounds), while Miami CB Kelly Jennings was the lightest (171 pounds). Oklahoma OG Davin Joseph had the biggest hand-span (11 1/4) and Virginia OT D'Brickashaw Ferguson had the longest arms (36 1/4).

Players' heights and weights always have a tendency to be either exaggerated in one direction or the other, which is what makes the weigh-in process a necessary evil.

Ferguson looks in great shape and his long arms are important for the offensive tackle position, but his lack of bulk at 297 pounds really stood out. Maryland ILB D'Qwell Jackson, who weighed in at 228 pounds, will also be hurt on draft day by his lack of size. Finally, there are several tall prospects in this year's group of Senior Bowl wide receivers, including Notre Dame's Maurice Stovall (6-4 1/8), Miami of Ohio's Martin Nance (6-3 7/8), New Mexico's Hank Baskett (6-2 1/2) and the Auburn duo of Anthony Mix (6-4) and Devin Aromashodu (6-2 1/8).

Around the North practice

Of the three quarterbacks on this roster (Clemson's Charlie Whitehurst, Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler and Penn State's Michael Robinson), Cutler has the strongest arm and Whitehurst has the quickest delivery. Cutler was a bit erratic, but he showed the ability to fit the ball into tight spots today and impressive mobility. Whitehurst is not nearly as mobile and had trouble with his consistency on the deep ball, but he does have very good touch and timing as a passer. It is only one week, but the experience of working with quarterback guru Norm Chow (Titans' offensive coordinator) certainly can't hurt either of these two future NFL quarterbacks.

Two separate NFL scouts said they would draft Cutler ahead of USC's Matt Leinart and Texas' Vince Young.

Robinson is clearly the most mobile of the three, but his overall passing skills are nowhere near on par with the other two North quarterbacks in this game. Robinson did do some pre-practice work catching balls as a return specialist, but he did not get any reps at running back or wide receiver. Game officials obviously want Robinson to spend most of his time at quarterback for repetition purposes in practice, but he would be much better served to spend the rest of the week trying to showcase his talents as an offensive skill player in front of NFL scouts.

• Oregon RB Charlie Whitehead seemed to be pushing too hard today as a late addition to the roster. His fumble during unit drills will not help the cause.

• Washington State RB Jerome Harrison checked in even smaller than expected (5-9 1/8, 196), which will hurt his chances of sneaking into the latter stages of the draft's first day. However, he did show impressive quickness and receiving skills. Harrison's showed on a couple of occasions that he is capable of catching the ball over his shoulder on vertical routes.

• Colorado's Lawrence Vickers is a tweener RB/FB type that will need to improve his size, strength and blocking technique in order to make it in the NFL. He did, however, run very good routes and caught everything in site during today's pass-filled unit drills.

• Ferguson stood out as clearly the most agile offensive lineman the North roster today. However, Ohio State OC Nick Mangold turned in the most impressive overall performance. Mangold has adequate size and feet to go along with his outstanding technique and explosive power. He is polished and should be ready to start as a rookie in the NFL.

• Michigan NT Gabe Watson was the most dominating of the North defensive linemen this afternoon. He shows outstanding initial quickness and power for such a massive player (6-3 1/4, 341). Watson is giving a great effort so far in front of all the NFL scouts, but his erratic motor on film will not be forgotten by NFL scouts.

• Perhaps the most impressive individual play of either practice was turned in by Indiana DE Victor Adeyanju during one-on-one sessions versus offensive linemen. Instead of tyring to beat mammoth OT Ryan O'Callaghan around the edge with speed, Adeyanju absolutely blew O'Callaghan up with a bull-rush move that displayed his explosive power.

• Virginia Tech DE Darryl Tapp twisted his ankle relatively early in practice and wound up sitting out most of the remaining drills. He was taped up but continued to walk with a limp.

• Boston College WR/DC/RS Will Blackmon played exclusively at the cornerback position this afternoon. He has added some bulk and looks to be in excellent shape. Blackmon also stood out as one of the most fluid athletes on the field. He did not play much cornerback for the Eagles this season, though, so his coverage skills were understandably rusty. More than anything, it seemed that he was playing conservatively and was getting late jumps so to protect himself from giving up the deep pass. Consequently, Blackmon did not have a jersey number on today and there has been no word as to if or when he will get some reps at the wide receiver position this week.

• It was only one day of practice, but Nebraska's Daniel Bullocks already stands out as an underrated prospect. He showed good versatility in drills, displaying the ability to hold up in deep-zone coverage as well as matching up as an in-the-box fourth-linebacker type. With his good size and impressive fluidity, Bullocks could become a versatile starter at the safety position in the NFL. If he continues to play as well as he did today, Bullocks stands to increase his draft stock significantly during Senior Bowl week.

Around the South practice

Alabama QB Brodie Croyle is an obvious fan favorite here in Mobile, but he did not have his best performance today. The quarterback position is the toughest to play in these all-star games because there is so much being thrown at these young men while they all are still tyring to get a grasp of the system, adjust to a different center exchange and develop timing with receivers. With that in mind, Croyle's timing seemed off as a passer. He missed a few open receivers and he was tentative with several of his throws. He does show good arm strength and a quick release as a passer, though.

• The player that arguably struggled the most was Georgia QB D.J. Shockley. The dual-threat quarterback shows outstanding mobility, but his mechanics as a passer are poor and he was entirely too erratic in today's drills.

• Memphis RB DeAngelo Williams is one of the top prospects playing in this year's Senior Bowl, but it was Mississippi State RB Jerious Norwood that had scouts buzzing during practice today. Norwood checked in at just under 6-0 and at 205 pounds. He looks to be in excellent shape and has the frame to pack on another 10 pounds in the future, which will likely need to be the case in order to hold up physically in the NFL. What stood out most, however, was Norwood's explosive burst and top-end speed during drills today. He hit the hole faster than any of the other South running backs today, including Williams, and he also showed impressive hands as a receiver in passing drills.

• Ben Obomanu is the smallest of the three Auburn receivers playing in this game, but he impressed scouts with a couple of acrobatic, leaping catches during practice. Obomanu's teammate, OT Marcus McNeill, was absent from the weigh-in session, but he shined as the most physically dominating offensive lineman on the field at the South practice this afternoon.

• Georgia DS Greg Blue has great size and is a powerful hitter in run support, but his lack of ideal coverage skills stood out during defensive back drills today. At 6-1 7/8, 220, Blue might be better off as a weakside linebacker in the NFL, especially for teams like the Colts and Buccaneers that emphasize speed over size on their defensive units.

Scouts Inc. provided today's Senior Bowl buzz.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Monday, January 23, 2006
Hali, Hill, Smith, Watson shine for North defense

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By Mel Kiper Jr.
Special to ESPN Insider

MOBILE, Ala. -- Clemson cornerback Tye Hill was one of the most impressive players at Monday's North practice at the Senior Bowl. He was fluid, showed great feet and terrific ball awareness. Hill had some drops of potential interceptions, though, and needs to work on his hands. His man-to-man coverage skills could elevate him into the late portions of the first round.

CB Will Blackmon struggled during Monday's practice.
Will Blackmon struggled at corner. He had some at corner during his time at Boston College, but the Eagles moved him to wide receiver in 2005 and used him in the return game. Ultimately, Blackmon will probably have to play WR to make it in the NFL.

Penn State CB Anwar Phillips had some ups and downs today. He looked like a second-round pick coming into Mobile, but he didn't help himself today. Phillips was stiff in the hips and wasn't real fluid. He just didn't look as athletically gifted today as he did at Penn State. Phillips needs to be more productive during the week.

Anthony Smith was one of the most impressive players on the North defense. The Syracuse safety showed good hands and was very alert. It looks likes Smith has grasped the defensive scheme already.

Nebraska safety Daniel Bullocks performed well in coverage.

LB Chad Greenway looks the part -- and plays well, too. He was fluid and athletic in practice.

D'Quell Jackson could be a nice fit at linebacker in the right system. The Maryland product showed a lot of speed and good tackling ability.

DL Gabe Watson underachieved at Michigan, but he had a lot of power in his pass rush during Monday's practice. He drove the center or guard back 75 percent of the time today. He has a chance to really help himself this week.

Tamba Hali showed a great motor and quickness off the ball. The Penn State DE showed the ability to get great leverage.

DE Mathias Kiwanuka from Boston College is a great athlete, but needs some technique work. D'Brickashaw Ferguson got the best of him in Monday's practice.

Oklahoma DL Dusty Dvoracek was neutralized some, but picked up the pace later during the one-on-one pass drills. He hustles and will give you everything he has.

WR Demetrius Williams from Oregon had a nice day. He showed great body control and caught the ball well with his hands. Williams showed some quickness. He looks like a pretty good player.

Oklahoma WR Travis Wilson caught the ball, showed some separation speed and exhibited toughness in traffic.

Maurice Stovall showed good hands in Monday's practice.
WR Maurice Stovall from Notre Dame lumbered a little bit, but he showed enough separation for a big guy. Stovall has very good hands and should go late in the first round or early in the second.

Speed is an issue for Michigan wideout Jason Avant. He didn't seperate well and will struggle to beat corners on deep routes. However, Avant did show good hands and is a natural receiver.

Arizona State WR Derek Hagan is a polished player and a good route runner, but has a tendency to drop some balls. He had at least three drops on Monday.

Dominque Byrd was impressive in practice. The USC tight end showed good body control, athleticism, good blocking and effortless pass-catching ability. He does need to get stronger.

TE Joe Klopfenstein from Colorado is interesting. He did not handle blocking responsibilities like he needed to, but he showed speed and great hands. Klopfenstein could be a good option as a move tight end in the NFL.

QB Jay Cutler threw some nice balls. The Vanderbilt product has a live arm and was fairly accurate, but he had a couple of throws that were off.

Look for Penn State QB Michael Robinson to change positions. I think he will have to move to wide receiver or safety. Robinson is not accurate throwing the football.

Washington State RB Jerome Harrison showed quickness. He has a low center of gravity and does a good job getting lost behind his blockers.

QB Michael Robinson was not accurate during Monday's practice.

Lawrence Vickers is the best fullback prospect in the draft. The Colorado product showed that he can do it all. Vickers can run, catch and block. He could move up into the third or fourth round.

Center Marvin Philip from Cal struggled. More of a finesse player, Philip was overpowered. He needs to show more strength and the ability to take on big defensive tackles.

However, Nick Mangold showed a lot of athletic ability at center. The Ohio State product did a good job anchoring the line. He showed more strength than many thought he had.

OL Ryan O'Callaghan from Cal was beaten once in practice, but ended up doing a nice job.

Virginia OL D'Brickashaw Ferguson did a great job against BC standout DE Mathias Kiwanuka. He went one-on-one with Kiwanuka several times and neutralized him. Ferguson is a top-five pick.

OL Mark Setterstrom has a lot of experience, but the four-year starter from Minnesota is more of an overachiever. He was beaten too often today.

Boston College OL Jeremy Trueblood did well in some instances, but he is so tall (6-foot-8) that shorter DLs like Tamba Hali got under him and got a leverage advantage.

Boise State OL Daryn Colledge is more of a finesse guy. He gave up too much ground in pass protection and was overpowered.

USC OL Deuce Lutui is huge and quick. He showed good feet and good athleticism. He did a great job in the one-on-one drills. Lutui is a solid second-round pick.

Oklahoma's Davin Joseph will struggle at tackle in the NFL, but has some skills to play guard.

Colorado punter John Torp was a little methodical getting the ball off. He did get a couple of punts to turn over, but he also had some bad kicks. Torp needs to pick up the pace.

Defensive players who shined Monday

Safety Anthony Smith, Syracuse
Cornerback Tye Hill, Clemson
Defensive lineman Gabe Watson, Michigan
Defensive end Tamba Hali, Penn State
Safety Daniel Bullucks, Nebraska

Defensive players who struggled Monday

Cornerback Will Blackmon, Boston College
Cornerback Anwar Phillips, Penn State
Linebacker Clint Ingram, Oklahoma
Defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, Boston College

Offensive players who shined Monday

Wide receiver Demetrius Williams, Oregon
Wide receiver Maurice Stovall, Notre Dame
Offensive lineman Nick Mangold, Ohio State
Offensive lineman D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Virginia
Offensive lineman Deuce Lutui, USC
Tight end Dominique Byrd, USC


Offensive players who struggled Monday

Wide receiver Jason Avant, Michigan
Offensive lineman Marvin Philip, Cal
Offensive lineman Mark Setterstrom, Minnesota
Offensive lineman Daryn Colledge, Boise State
Wide receiver Derek Hagan, Arizona State

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Look for Penn State QB Michael Robinson to change positions. I think he will have to move to wide receiver or safety. Robinson is not accurate throwing the football.

Washington State RB Jerome Harrison showed quickness. He has a low center of gravity and does a good job getting lost behind his blockers.

QB Michael Robinson was not accurate during Monday's practice.

I wonder if Mike Robinson is accurate enough to play QB in the NFL.