Chuck Cook-US PRESSWIRE

Steve Shoup is maintaining in Mobile all week as well as our own, Cody Bauer. Steve is covering the event for fanspeak.com as well as NFL’s Future. Be sure to check out fanspeak’s Senior Bowl headquarters.

It was just shells and helmets again today and they were typically working on certain drills (two minute, inside the 10 yard line etc.) so it isn’t the best evaluation day. The linemen weren’t really hitting so little can be gleaned from them. One note, Offensive lineman Kyle Long was on the field and working at both guard and tackle after missing the past two days due to illness.

Quarterbacks:

Mike Glennon, NC State:

Glennon wasn’t as on target today and missed on more passes than he had earlier in the week. He sailed a couple of throws in 1-on-1’s working inside the 10 yard line. He looked sloppy with his footwork despite there being no pass rush. He was better in the rest of practice hitting a couple key throws in the two minute drill, but he still wasn’t great. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Thursday North Practice Notes»

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Quarterbacks

-Tyler Wilson of Arkansas had a rough day today. In all four of his throws during the 7 on 7’s he was off target. He first threw way behind his TE Rivera which went right into Nico Johnson’s stomach for an easy interception. Later he was way late on a throw to his right on an outside route which led to a pass break up from Marc Anthony. Later he looked to throw a slant route which was covered extremely well by Anthony again who was able to bat it away. Wilson tried throwing another slant route that was covered really well by B.W. Webb who was also able to slap it away. Those were bad reads on Wilson’s part. Wilson did have one nice throw during 11 on 11’s where he threw a nice high fade pass to Hamilton who made a good leaping catch over Webb for a touchdown.

-Landry Jones from Oklahoma had an inconsistent day to go with his inconsistent week. In 7 on 7’s Jones had a nice seam pass to Vance McDonald, but then followed it up with by throwing late into the middle of the field; it was completed to Mike Gilislee but he probably would have been sacked if it was an actual game. Jones then tried hitting Terrance Williams but his pass was broken up by B.W. Webb. In the 11 on 11’s Jones had a really nice back shoulder fade route throw to Terrance Williams who made a nice catch above his head. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Thursday South Practice Notes»

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Mike James replaced Andre Ellington, Russell Shepard replaced Ryan Swope, and Terron Armstead replaced Dallas Thomas. Sanders Cummings didn’t participate in today’s practice. (No reason was given)

WR/DB’s

-Terrance Williams of Baylor looked to me like he was rounding off his slant route early in practice. In cones he knocked one over and was reminded by the coaching staff to keep his feet up. In one on ones he beat Marc Anthony on a double move deep. Williams later went against Anthony who had tight coverage on him but Williams was still able to go up and make a play on the ball. I thought he looked good in blocking drills.

-Conner Vernon from Duke got corrected on his slant route by the coaches. He later had a drop on the 7 on 7’s. I also thought Vernon struggled in the blocking drills, he quit moving his feet once he made contact. He also couldn’t get any separation from B.W. Webb. Vernon was quiet the rest of the day.

-Russell Shepard from LSU got complimented catching the ball with his hands off his frame during drill work, but then in the next drill had a bad drop. Later Shepard failed to separate vs. JJ Wilcox. Shepard was a late addition; he was quiet for most of the day.

-Cobi Hamilton from Arkansas looked as if he was rounding off some of his routes, but was complimented on his blocking. He also couldn’t get any separation from Robert Alford in one on ones. Hamilton didn’t do much to stick out in practice the rest of the day. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Wednesday South Practice Notes»

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Travis Johnson replaced John Simon, Sio Moore replaced Trevardo Williams, and Ty Powell replaced Arthur Brown. Kyle Long didn’t participate in practice today because of the flu.

WR/DB’s

-In drill work I thought Jordan Poyer showed a nice, smooth backpedal. He had an up and down day today. When lined up against Denard Robinson he got turned around and beat. He got high on TE Nick Kasa on a tackle. He had good coverage for most of the day but he didn’t stand out as well today as Monday and Tuesday. A case could be made for him as the best CB here.

-Dwayne Gratz also looked to have a nice low back pedal. Gratz was active in practice today doing some nice things. He got complimented by coaches for a nice pass break up, showed that he has a nice press.

-Desmond Trufant seemed to be high when coming out of his back pedal. He had a nice pass break up, but was also beat a few times by wide receivers.

-It was an up and down day for receiver from Texas, Marquise Goodwin. In early drill work he had two drops. They were both high throws that he got his hands on but couldn’t haul in. While doing blocking drills he lunged at the DB and fell over, he was given a 2^nd opportunity right after and looked much better. He was giving good effort. I noticed that Goodwin caught the ball with his body too much. Later Goodwin displayed his speed and was able to run right by Duke Williams. On 7 on 7’s Goodwin again dropped a pass that he let get into his body. Goodwin later shined on the 11 on 11’s. He made two nice catches on out routes; Wreh-Wilson was on coverage for both of them. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Wednesday North Practice Notes»

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

South practice displayed a lot of positional drills as well as some good live work. Jamie Collins LB from Southern Missouri and Ryan Swope WR from Texas A&M both pulled out with injuries.

QB’s

-Landry Jones didn’t impress much today. He was high early and often on a lot of his passes. He looked late on a lot of his passes and didn’t anticipate well. Some of these issues could be from not having a rapport with his receivers.

-EJ Manuel displayed good arm strength but he didn’t look smooth dropping back from center. Manuel didn’t do much to stick out today, he did have one nice pass on an out route to Hamilton but he dropped it. That was during the live work.

-Tyler Wilson was high to start the day and stumbled on an occasion dropping back from center during live work. He displayed good arm strength throughout the day. His best play is when he scrambled to his left and was able to hit Mychal Rivera the TE from Tennessee.

Safety Drills

-In some safety tackling drills Baccari Rambo from Georgia showed good pop

-JJ Wilcox, safety from Georgian Southern ducked his head; he was corrected by coaches and later fixed it. In the live work he had a nice hit on Stepfan Taylor. He did some nice things out there today. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Tuesday South Practice Notes»

There was a lot of drill work today at practice with good one on one matchups between TE/RB’s vs. the LB’s and Safeties as well as the

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Oline vs D-line. Towards the end of practice there was also some good live work where it was full team offense vs. defense.

TE’s/RB’s vs. LB’s/Safetys

-Jack Doyle started off real well with a nice block on Khaseem Greene. Khaseem Greene had some struggles blitzing. After getting stuffed by Doyle he was pancaked by Kyle Juszcyk which was by far the best block of the day. He then later got dominated by Nick Kasa, Kasa was complimented by the coaches. Greene did have one win vs. Rouse where he beat him with a good bull rush.

– Kyle Juszcyk had his ups and down in pass protection. After he pancaked Greene he then lunged at Ty Powell and whiffed. He later lunged and got off balance, he was able to recover but he didn’t show a good base. Later on he was able to ride Duke Williams outside the pocket.

– Duke Williams looked good blitzing. He was able to battle Kasa strongly and then also had good battles vs. the other running backs. He showed speed as well as toughness.

– Robbie Rouse started off the pass protection drill horribly. Kevin Reddick first abused him to get by easily and then he had his share of struggles vs. the others. He later got a little better battling TJ McDonald on one play and then was also able to ride Ty Powell outside the pocket. His size is definitely a limitation in pass protection; he seemed willing but was overmatched at times.

-Kenjon Barner also looked like he needs to work on his pass protection. TJ McDonald was able to get by him and Barner was forced to hold him, later he completely whiffed on Jonathan Cyprien. He later then had to hold Phillip Thomas. A few plays later he had a good battle with Kevin Reddick showed some toughness.

-Jonathan Franklin looked the best out of the running backs but he also had his share of losses. He first had a good block on Cyprien, and then played Reddick really tough. Later Franklin showed a good anchor to stop Phillip Thomas’s bull rush. He could use some refinement but looked the best of the backs. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Tuesday North Practice Notes»

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Steve Shoup of fanspeak.com is covering the Senior Bowl in Mobile and will be offering up his take on the event to NFL’s Future as the second half of our coverage. Be sure to check out Fanspeak.com’s Senior Bowl headquarters for all of Steve’s musings of the week.

Here is a look at the South team’s first practice today, including what players helped their stock and who struggled in the early going. The South team is coached by the Detroit Lions staff headed by Coach Jim Schwartz. Players were in helmets and shells so full contract wasn’t allowed.

Quarterbacks:

Landry Jones, Oklahoma:

Jones didn’t help himself earlier in the day at the weigh-in, coming under 6’4″ and not having any outstanding measurable, and then had a poor overall performance in practice. He struggled with his footwork coming from under center and didn’t look too comfortable throwing intermediate or longer routes. He has a nice deep ball, but it was rarely on target. He was much more precise on shorter quick passes, but got uncomfortable quick when his first or second read weren’t there.

E.J. Manuel, FSU:

Manuel had a really strong day overall, he showed good mobility in the pocket to buy time and still deliver a strike on the move. His footwork wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad and allowed him to throw a number of strong accurate throws down the field. A couple times in 7-on-7′s and team drills he made some poor decisions or was inaccurate with his throw, but he had a very good practice overall. He’s still a work in progress, but the potential is very much there for him to have an impact at the next level.

Tyler Wilson, Arkansas:

Wilson probably had the best day of any of the signal callers. He did throw a bad interception late during team drills, but that was really his only blemish of the day. He showed good poise and awareness in the pocket and displayed a strong accurate arm on a number of throws down field. Overall he did a really good job of placing the ball in the strike zone of his receiver and away from defenders. Wilson definitely opened some eyes with this practice and if he keeps it up this week could move up some draft boards. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Monday South Practice Notes»

Quarterbacks

Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Not a lot of live throws for the quarterbacks in today’s practice but they had good work with the QB coach from Oakland. They were also able to throw a few to receivers in 1 on 1’s.

-Ryan Nassib showed good arm strength throughout the day, tight spirals for the most part. He was corrected once by the coach on his weight balance while they were working on play action. Displayed decent footwork on roll outs. Did have one ugly miss on an easy out route throw. Overall decent first day.

-Mike Glennon showed his impressive arm strength while working with the coaches, good spirals, ball had some zip. There was one duck thrown by Glennon that wasn’t pretty. For being a tall QB his delivery was still compact, I don’t foresee a problem with it. When working in the minimal live drills he did show that he was hesitant. Got picked off by TJ McDonald on an over throw. He also got coached up on his play action.

-Zac Dysert also showed good arm strength throughout the day. His ball came out nice with a good delivery and nice spiral. In live drills he went to throw a quick out to Wheaton but pump faked and then still threw the ball which was an easy interception by Wreh-Wilson. Bad decision on his part to throw it. He later had a nice deep throw to Wheaton who went up and made a great catch. Dysert also had some footwork issues, while rolling out to his left tripped over his own feet and fell down. Didn’t show great anticipation. Read the rest of this entry » «Senior Bowl Notebook: Monday North Practice Notes»

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The grandddaddy of all the pre-draft all-star games is upon us. Mobile will be taken over by NFL personnel and some of the top players in the country. The game kicks off on Saturday but the week of practices is where the rubber meets the road for these prospects.

Without Geno Smith or Matt Barkley in attendance this week, it will serve as an opportunity for others to open the eyes of QB needy teams. Those teams will be keeping a careful eye on a fairly loaded QB roster. For some of these QB’s it will be their first opportunity to throw with top level weapons and behind a solid line.

Clearly, this is a huge week for all players in attendance. But for some this a week to stand toe-to-toe with top competition. We take a look at five offensive players that could set themselves apart this week.

Margus Hunt, DE, SMU

Hunt is a flat out freak athlete. At 6-foot-8, 277 pounds Hunt turns the corner with the ability to turn speed to power in a flash. His rare athleticism is matched by his inconsistent play. Too many times, Hunt is invisible in games. The good news for Hunt is that he consistently showed up when the lights were the brightest.

I fully expect Hunt to emerge from Mobile as a winner of the week candidate. His blend of size, power, and raw talent will have scouts pining to find out more about the native Estonian. If Hunt can perform consistently this week against the likes of Lane Johnson, D.J. Fluker (if he plays), and Oday Aboushi he could compete for a spot late in day one. Read the rest of this entry » «Five defensive players to watch in the 2013 Senior Bowl»

Scott Sewell-US PRESSWIRE

Cody Bauer has landed in Mobile as he will be covering the week’s events for NFL’s Future. Cody will keep us updated on all the week’s goings-on including player interviews, pictures, weigh-ins, and on the field play.

With some late additions and subtractions from the rosters, the rosters have been updated for the latest information. Weigh-ins begin Monday at 8:30 A.M. As the weigh-ins come in, Cody will be updating us with accurate height and weight on each player. Always an intriguing piece of the week is the reactions to players measuring in smaller or bigger than their listed size in college.

Practice for the South team begins at 1:30 p.m and the north team will start at 2:30 p.m.

Here’s a look at the updated rosters for both teams. Be sure to bookmark this page as it will be updated as we receive the accurate heights and weights. Read the rest of this entry » «2013 Senior Bowl Coverage»