GBN Report: 2010 SENIOR BOWL GAME REVIEW

[Brock]

The safety who may have helped himself the most at the Senior Bowl game was Maryland’s Terrelle Skinner who made a number of stinging tackles, although he was never really tested in coverage. Meanwhile, Ohio State’s Kurt Coleman was around the ball all day, whereas LSU’s Harry Coleman really wasn’t.

Offense:

Quarterbacks: Truth be told, the performances of the QBs at this year’s senior Bowl was kind of a wash. On the one hand, none of the passers in Mobile likely lost any ground, but at the same time, none of the six did much of anything to raise their grade. In fact, all six came into the senior Bowl with issues, none of which were really answered in Mobile. Jarrett Brown of West Virginia, for example, impressed with his size, arm strength and mobility; indeed, Brown was able to get the ball downfield with a quick wrist flick. Brown, though, was also rather erratic in the pocket as he didn’t appear to always read the field and was occasionally wildly inaccurate. Cincinnati’s Tony Pike also showed a major league arm as well as somewhat surprising mobility. However, just about every pass Pike threw was almost all arm as he tended to lob passes downfield rather than stepping into them and putting some real zip into his delivery. Meanwhile, Zac Robinson of Oklahoma State also has some moments, particularly when he rallied the south team late in the first half. Robinson also showed good arm strength when he had time to plant, as well as the mobility to slide around the pocket to find passing lanes as he‘s under 6-3 and has something of a low release point. Robinson, though, couldn’t get much on his passes when he didn’t have to room to step up and really didn’t do a good job protecting the football as he put it on the ground twice.

And Saturday’s actual game did almost nothing to answer any of the myriad of questions about the ultimate pro potential of Florida QB Tim Tebow. Tebow, the most celebrated prospect at the Senior Bowl in a long, long time, was efficient enough completing 8 of 12 passes, and certainly has the arm strength to all the throws required of an NFL QB given the time and space to load up, although his delivery was still painfully deliberate. Tebow, though, just didn’t appear to very quick at all; indeed, even when running he appeared to lack the quick-twitch elusiveness to make people miss in the open field. At the same time, he just didn’t have the time to get any mustard on the ball at all when pressured in the pocket and ended up lobbing out several very ugly ducks that almost certainly would have been returned for pick-6s at the next level.

If any QB did help their draft grade in Saturday’s game it may have been Dan LeFevour of Central Michigan who connected on the game’s only real big gainers, although one did require a nice adjustment on a slightly underthrown ball by the receiver. LeFevour, though, did show nice touch and accuracy, as well as the mobility to run out of trouble and make plays with his legs. Whether LeFevour has the legitimate arm strength to make all the throws, though, remains open to debate.

Running backs: As has been noted several time, all-star games are lousy tests for RBs as they really don’t enough touches to get into any kind of rhythm. Several backs in Mobile, though, had pretty good games including Auburn’s Ben Tate who showed nice patience, vision and balance, as well as a good burst and some power in the hole. Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount also looked all the part of a powerful downhill runner who just didn’t go down without a struggle. Blount also showed the ability to make some nifty first cuts, but wan’t all that effective when his pads weren’t square to the line of scrimmage. And while he didn’t bust any huge plays, Ole Miss RB/WR/KR Dexter McCluster was able to give NFL teams a glimpse of his big-play slash potential with good vision, an explosive first step and that extra gear.

Meanwhile, Lonyae Miller of Fresno State also made a couple of nice cuts as well as some explosion once he found a crease. Miller, though, appeared to have a somewhat skinny lower body and WR-thin legs; plus he put the ball on the ground. Wayne State’s Joique Bell also made some decent reads and cuts, but still looks more like a pure north-south runner who got caught trying to outrun the pursuit to the sideline a couple of times. And like Miller, Bell fumbled the ball away.

In one sense, nobody had a better Senior Bowl that Southern Cal RB Stafon Johnson who made a quite remarkable appearance in Mobile after suffering a scary, life-threatening injury while weight-lifting earlier in the season. Johnson, though, looked a tad rusty in the actual game and was just a half step slow in getting into and out of the hole.

Receivers: After struggling much of the week during practice, Cincinnati WR Mardy Gilyard had a break-out day of sorts on Saturday when he hauled in 5 passes for over 100 yards including a 43-yard TD reception and another 33-yarder that set up another score. In particular, Gilyard caught the ball well in traffic and made a nice adjustment on the fly to make one of those big catches, but never really got a whole lot of separation at any time during the game. Jeremy Williams of Tulane also had a productive afternoon snagging 6 receptions that included one big gainer on which he went high in the air to take it away from a closing defender. Williams also showed good hands and the ability to find some soft spots underneath.

For the most part, this year’s Senior Bowl wide receivers didn’t show all that much to get excited about on Saturday. The Citadel’s Andre Roberts, for example, showed good hands and concentration as he made one nice catch in traffic over the middle, but dropped another easy one; same for Riley Cooper of Florida, while Clemson speedster Jacoby Jones broke off a big punt return, but otherwise was limited to one short reception. That was pretty much it, though, in terms of impact plays from this year’s set of wideouts in Mobile.

In fact, a pretty good case can be made that this year’s Senior Bowl WRs were outplayed by their TE counterparts. Alabama’s Colin Peek and Graham Garrett of Wisconsin, for example, both hauled in TD passes after getting deep into the seam, although the latter was called back because of a penalty, while Oregon‘s Ed Dickson was able to slip behind coverage to snare a 31-yard reception. The Tide‘s Peek also put on a bit of a TE-blocking clinic as he showed nice, balance, footwork and arm extension. Meanwhile, USC’s Anthony McCoy wasn’t as refined as Peek but was also very effective blocking as he held his own almost all afternoon against North team DEs. Oregon’s Dickson, on the other hand, didn’t look very aggressive, physical or for that matter enthusiastic while blocking.

Offensive line: They call them the ’big uglies’ and that was pretty descriptive in Mobile on Saturday, as it was all week, as the Senior Bowl offensive linemen were consistently dominated by their defensive counterparts. Even big Idaho OG Mike Iupati, the one constant up front during practice this week, really struggled. Indeed, Iupati gave up a sack, as well as another tackle for loss; he was also called for one hold and could just as easily have been flagged for a half dozen others. The raw skill was apparent with Iupati when he kept his feet moving and his head, however, for whatever reason Iupati did a lot of lunging at the defensive linemen in front of him, even when it appeared he should be in a pass-block backpeddle; plus he really wasn’t taking advantage of his 35-inch reach and was also planting way too early with the result that he was often flatfooted or off-balance and had to grab some jersey to hold off his man.

On the other hand, nobody was getting around UMass OT Vlad Ducasse, who with his wide girth and long arms, was one of those proverbial $10 cab fares to get around. Ducasse also stopped more than one South DE in his tracks with a devastating punch. He was able to really lock on when drive blocking. At the same time, though, Ducasse didn’t show much at all in the way of lateral mobility and didn’t change direction at all smoothly.

Other than Ducasse, though, the OTs in Mobile - and that includes LSU’s Ciron Black, Selvish Capers of West Virginia, Tennessee’s Chris Scott, Ed Wang of Virginia Tech and Sam Young of Notre Dame - looked stiff, mechanical and not very fluid or athletic at all. At least, LSU’s Black battled most of the afternoon and showed some strength as well as some short-area quickness, but otherwise these guys really struggled both to flow laterally and to hold up physically when bull-rushed. Indeed, the one OT in the Senior Bowl game who didn’t look all that bad, other than Ducasse, was unheralded Thomas Welch of Vanderbilt, a late addition to the week, who wasn’t all that physical, but did appear technically sound with decent feet.

There was a similar story among the interior offensive linemen, none of whom really stood out on a consistent basis. OGs John Jerry of Ole Miss and Mitch Petrus of Arkansas, though, at least held up reasonably well. Jerry, for example, is another true wide-body who seemed to get some pretty good knee-bend, although he wasn’t very nimble laterally. Petrus, on the other hand, was rather fluid moving around the pocket and showed a solid base and decent functional strength at the point of attack, although he did lose focus on a couple of occasions and gave up too much penetration. OG Mike Johnson of Alabama also showed good mobility moving about the pocket and also made a couple of blocks on the move, but really struggled to held up when bull-rushed. Indeed, North Carolina DT Cam Thomas literally picked Johnson up on one play and dumped in the QB’s lap. In fact, that was the problem for just about all this year’s OGs and Cs is that they just weren’t able to match the strength of the guys on the other side of the ball.