Day two of practices at the 2019 Reese’s Senior Bowl continue. The second day got off to a bit of a rough start. Weather moved the practices indoor because of thunderstorms in the area. Media members were banned from the indoor facility. What a tragedy. Luckily the least probable hero of all-time came through. ESPN broadcast the practices today so that’s where the clips will come from. If I would have been there, Jim Nagy would have been hearing from me because I would have demanded that 1/4th of my plane ticket and hotel costs would have been refunded. But that’s a different story.
I can’t even believe NFL Network canceled coverage. They re-aired the NFC/AFC title games instead. I’m very heated. ESPN’s coverage was horrible but at least they came through to air it. Okay, here is the North team notes. Jon Gruden’s group started the day out. Here are my takeaways from the North team on day two at the 2019 Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Quarterbacks:
Drew Lock has serious arm talent. He keeps throwing bullets. Lock maintained that he is the top QB at the Senior Bowl. The only downside to him was his hand measurement of 9 inches. That’s it. On the other end, Trace McSorley was horrendous. He threw an egregious interception in the team portion. His accuracy is probably the worst of any quarterback in Mobile.
Running Backs:
I thought Dexter Williams had a nice day. One cut and hit the hole hard. Williams really runs with power. I think he has a little more agility and acceleration than I originally thought. He’s moved up the board.
Kiran Higdon really stinks. There is zero burst. Zero anything for that matter. He rans into the line and nothing happens. That’s every single play. Don’t even try to convince me that he has any talent because I don’t see a lick of it.
Wide Receivers:
I didn’t get to see a ton of the one on ones on this side because of the ESPN coverage but Terry McLaurin continues to shine. The speed really surprises me. I remember watching him I just thought he was a possession guy but McLaurin is really in an interesting category. When you start adding speed, into great hands, into the route running, now we’re cooking with peanut oil.
Danny Isabella has drop issues. Penny Hart from Georgia State is super fast. He sort of looks like a slightly bigger Tarik Cohen at wide receiver and fun to watch.
Tight Ends:
Donald Parham of Stetson really had an awesome day. 6-foot-8 is a huge guy. I thought he looked a bit slow yesterday but he popped today. Mismatch nightmare and won a bunch of routes. Parham can move. Now we have to figure out if he can block. Parham only came in at 220. That’s a huge issue.
Offensive Line:
A bulk of this column is going to be in the trenches and we learned a lot. Overall, I was really disappointed by this group but let’s start with the good. I still really admire Nate Davis. That ass, that base, that anchor. He’s really impressed me. Davis also created big holes in the run game and really was the only one to do so on either North or South team. I think he lost one rep all day. Super impressed. I thought Garrett Bradbury really improved from day one to day two. He’s just a good football player.
The best guard of the bunch I think has been Chris Lindstrom of Boston College. His hands stick out. Super powerful and really held his own. Lindstrom packs and punch and rarely gets pushed around. Max Scharping may just be the best tackle. I know that yesterday looked rough but he really has a great skill set. Scharping has this unique ability to finesse guys around the corner right past the ball. Hey, whatever works. If you can’t win with power, winning with footwork works too.
The Wisconsin guys stunk up the joint again. Just weak and overpowered again. Dalton Risner was better today. Still super weak but he has some nasty to him. When he gets to finish a play, he will and Risner will put a little extra bang to it.
Defensive Line:
This is a really good group. I have to start with L.J. Collier because he won the day. The thing you love to see with Collier is that he wins in a number of different ways. Collier won with speed. He won with power. What was even more exciting to see was how pumped Collier was. After every rep, Collier just wanted more and was fired up all day. Collier created havoc all day notching sack after sack in the team portion too. Just an overall monster day.
On the flip side, Zach Allen sucks. I’m sorry but he’s just not good. Allen had some serious hype heading into the process but he looks worse than he did yesterday. If Allen doesn’t overpower someone, it’s over. You could see that pretty clearly in the rep against his college teammate, Chris Lindstrom. Allen tried to overpower him. Once that didn’t work, he lost. Being relentless and high energy works in college works in college but that doesn’t fly with the big boys in the NFL. You can’t be taking nose dives, that’s embarrassing.
Some other quick notes to talk about. Greg Gaines of Washington plays with some impressive leverage. It’s hard to really block him because it looks like Gaines comes at the
Linebackers:
Sutton Smith stinks. I’m tired of watching him and it will be the last time I mention him. Every single pass rushing route, he eats dirt. Terrible. Dre Greenlaw from Arkansas was the one to pick off McSorley. The
Also keep Te’Von Coney and Ben Banogu on your radar. I’m a fan of both of them.
Cornerbacks:
Iman Marshall is really a mixed bag. Marshall is a fast, long, press corner. When he gets the
Safeties:
I didn’t get the hype with Nasir Adderly today. Not a great showing. Part of the issue is I don’t know what he is. Adderly got beat up by bigger tight ends. The Deleware product got beat on a good handful of routes. What is he? I thought Will Harris from Boston College was interesting. His quick feet were noticeable. It reminded me of when John Johnson was here. Could be a similar situation.
I want to mention Darnell Savage of Maryland too. They listed him at safety but he covers so well. Never panics and has super quick feet in the one on one drills. The Maryland product is super quick in and out of breaks. I was really impressed.
