2020 East-West Game: East Team Notes
It’s officially draft season! The 2020 East-West game is the first stop along the 2020 NFL Draft process. The 2020 East-West Shrine Game is the first collegiate all-star game on the calendar. Collegiate seniors from across the country play in this game. Sure, it’s not as famous as the Senior Bowl, but a lot of great players have played in this game. Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Josh Norman are some examples. In this edition, we’re going to break down the players from the East Team.
For the record, it’s really hard to keep track of guys on each play because people are constantly being rotated out. Feel free to share your notes from the game.
Quarterbacks:
James Morgan was the first quarterback to get the ball. The Florida International quarterback struggled making some easy throws. Even when he made completions, his ball placement was far from ideal. His feet are a little sloppy and he looks like he wants to hit that fadeaway so bad. Should have thrown multiple picks actually. That being said, he does have a quick compact release. Not a huge arm but was effective. He did go 9-14 with a touchdown leading his team to two scores. Could have been worse.
Kevin Davidson of Princeton threw a horrible interception. Luckily for him it got erased from a penalty far away from the play. Davidson was trying to throw it to the sideline and threw an ugly pick. He looked mostly lost the entire game. 6-11 for 52 yards of meh.
You’re better off just trying to make Tommy Stevens a fullback. The Mississippi State quarterback doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. I can’t believe he went 7-9 for 101 yards because he looked awful. He had this UGLY interception.
Running Backs:
If you’re looking for a pass catching running back, maybe give Adrian Killins a look. The downside with Killins is that he’s super small. It showed up in this game and got blown up a bunch of times. But he can make plays in the pass game. Check it down and he can make plays. 7 catches for 91 yards is something. I think speed is there. I’m not if he can do anything else and the size is a red flag, of course.
Rico Dowdle had a nice game too. Didn’t see a ton of him at South Carolina but I saw some talent. Dowdle brought a nice stiff arm move and was a problem to tackle. 5 carries for 50 yards in this one.
Benny LeMay had a game. Short, compact back that busted a bunch of tackles. Short, patient, and powerful dude. 16 carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns. His line did a great job opening up holes but we will get to that in a second.
Wide Receivers:
I don’t have a ton here because there was really shaky quarterback play. Josh Hammond made one big play down the field. That was it though. What can you say? The leading receiver had two catches for 27 yards and Hammond had one catch for 32 yards. Bad quarterback play. I didn’t see many interesting prospects anyway. Freddie Swain might have something to him.
Tight Ends:
Eli Wolf had 3 receptions for 49 yards. He had 13 all year for Georgia. Kind of seems like an H back guy. He was the only guy that really did anything. I’m not sure he’s even on radars. He did NOTHING at Georgia or Tennessee before that.
Offensive Line:
I thought Jon Runyan Jr really stood out to me. Runyan was a solid player at Michigan but has now switched to guard in this game. Maybe showing off some versatility? I’m not sure how explosive he is but he did his job and made some nice blocks inside. He’s not as big as his dad but this is a good player. He even played some center and opened up one of the touchdowns for LeMay. I thought the other Michigan guy looked good too, Michael Onwenu
Guard, Center, Guard for the starting unit was excellent. Darryl Williams, the center from Mississippi State was fantastic. He got out in space and really opened up lanes for the backs behind him.
Matt Womack struggled with speed. He’s so big that it seemed like guys with speed went right under him and got to the quarterback. He’s just not a super great athlete.
Defensive Line:
How about Garrett Marino. This guy was looking to do damange. Good first step off the line. Small school guy from UAB but really high energy and come down hill like a tank. He made a name for himself.
Kendall Coleman did some things as a pass rusher on third downs.
Except for Arkansas’ McTelvin Agim. He can ball out. Agim weighs in at 300 pounds but they really lined him up at nose tackle. He more than did his job and was sort of a one man wrecking crew. Without him, this East team really would have gotten chewed up. I doubt he’s a nose tackle in the pros but he did a hell of a job.
Linebackers:
The Miami linebackers made some plays. Michael Pinckney was awesome. He’s a lot faster and more explosive than Shaq Quarterman. That’s no knock on Quarterman because those guys took over the game when they were on the field. Quarterman is mean. He really hits dudes. More of a power game.
Michael Divinity was great too. Tyler Huntley took off on a run and caught him no problem. He’s a linebacker with good range and speed. An important piece for the LSU national champs. Not a guy that’s going to be super physical in the run game but LSU linebackers that can run? Oh, yeah, I’ll gamble on that all day.
One last guy. Cameron Gill sort of stood out. Smaller linebacker but there are some interesting athletic traits. He didn’t blow me away but there may be something there. Hard to tell he comes from Wagner. Haven’t seen enough.
Defensive Backs:
Shyheim Carter is a player I really, really like. Now, I have some pregame bias because I loved him at Alabama. He lost two balls in the air. Not great. Once he lost to what looked like a slow tight end. Another should have been a pick and didn’t play the ball well on a deep ball. Neither an excuse. He was just all around bad. He’s the Bama safety in this clip.
Parnell Motley was good in this one. When I watch him I automatically assume that Oklahoma can’t have good corners. He actually played the ball really well. Came up with some pass breakups. I’m also a fan of Levert Hill but it didn’t look like they even really threw at him.
