After the dust settled from the final day of padded practices, I joined NBC draft analyst Josh Norris for a 2015 Senior Bowl scouting film session of the one-on-one drills from the past week. We looked at every one of the offensive line and defensive line battles, and also broke down a handful of the wide receiver and defensive back one-on-one’s.
Here’s a breakdown of prospects that stood out, for better or worse, during our film study.
By: Alex Brown
Pit Drills: Offensive Line vs Defensive Line
Offensive Line
One high profile prospect that disappointed was Pittsburgh’s T.J. Clemmings. Clemmings would stop his feet after initial contact and lose balance, or show his hands too early and expose himself to counter moves. There were even times where Clemmings was walked back into the pocket with a direct speed-to-power rush. When his punch lands on the defender, he doesn’t consistently gain a proper fit and is forced to lunge out of ideal positioning. He has to be more patient with his technique on pass sets to maximize his length advantage versus edge speed.
At offensive guard, Shaq Mason was downright impressive. His footwork was inconsistent at best to start the week, but he blocked from a more centered, secure base as the week wore on. He plays so low to the ground and has bullish strength to punch and sustain blocks. Seeing this type of development in pass protection is huge for a guard prospect that comes from a triple option offense.
Early in the week, Duke guard Laken Tomlinson had difficulty digging his feet in the ground to anchor the interior pocket. As he had more reps, Tomlinson showed improvements with his anchor and a natural ability to sink his lower half. He can bend in the ankles, hips and knees, enabling him to access his full lower body strength. Laterally, he also has the foot quicks to cut off inside counters.
Alabama guard Arie Kouandjio had issues early in the week with the quicks and bend of Clemson’s Grady Jarrett. He was slow to deliver a punch and simply not quick enough laterally to recover. When he does fire his hands out on time, Kouandjio can stalemate opposing rushers without issue. It’s quickness that gives Kouandjio fits and he’ll have to improve at firing his hands out faster.
I was pleased with the way Florida State’s Tre’ Jackson mirrored in one-on-one’s, sitting back patiently in his pass set and mirroring his opponent’s movements. He lacks elite power but is more than functionally strong enough to win at the next level. His balance, anchor set and footwork were all better than advertised.
The last prospect worth noting was Wisconsin’s Rob Havenstein. Despite being long-armed and massive on the right side, Havenstein too often allows rushers into his framework. As a result, he is constantly in a recovery position and walked backwards by much smaller defensive ends. He’s often too late to jab and extend on the edge, which negates the length advantage he possesses. He could be a much more effective pass protector, if he only understood his punch “strike zone.”
Defensive Line
The most effective pass rusher bar none was Stanford’s Henry Anderson. He calculated, sudden and multiple with his pass rush repertoire. Able to locate inside hand placement and press with power, or setup rip and swim moves, the Stanford defensive lineman won in a variety of ways. The only times he did not produce pressure, occurred when he lined up as a 7-technique DE and also when he tripped over the feet of a nearby offensive lineman. He’s a plus fit at the 5-technique or 3-technique, thanks to his refined hand usage.
As we watched players develop from day one to day three, Preston Smith learned that his best (and only effective) move was to the inside with power. He’s too slow off the line and not bendy enough to get around the corner, but is extremely effective at finding inside hand positioning and jolting opposing blockers back into the passer’s lap. Smith has great tape as a sub-package 1-technique (shade nose tackle) and looks the part of a base end for 3-4 defenses. Having the ability to impact the game on passing downs with the bull rush and defend the run, Smith is a player that definitely deserves day two consideration.
Switching gears to a highly touted prospect, most people, including myself gave glowing reviews on Danny Shelton’s anchor and overall strength at the point of attack. Now while that power showed in the team setting, neither Josh nor myself saw Shelton display much development in terms of a pass rush. Only using a club move, Shelton could not locate break points to disengage and could not maintain rush lane integrity. We noted Shelton’s inability to work through double teams and the underlying issue with both concerns is hand usage.
UCLA’s Owamagbe Odighizuwa easily had the first step and suddenness among edge rushers here. His speed to power move was ferocious, and only La’el Collins could anchor down against “Diggy”. The problem we both saw during film study was Odighizuwa’s lack of self-awarenss. He needs to realize that his speed-to-power is his number one move and rely on that explosive power more often. He doesn’t need to waste his time with a speed rush and instead needs to play directly through his opponent.
One edge rusher that showed improvement and an ability to read the opposing offensive tackle’s pass set was Nate Orchard out of Utah. Capitalizing against the lack of technical refinement in T.J. Clemmings’ game, Orchard took the edge with speed and even walked the big Pitt tackle back into the pocket by converting speed-to-power moves. He has good, not great first step quickness but improved as the week went along. As far as edge rushers go, Orchard had one of the better weeks among Senior Bowl prospects.
On the interior, Clemson’s Grady Jarrett was really quick off the ball and able to play low to the ground with great lower half flexibility. He whipped Arie Kouandjio with his rip and step through move, and repeatedly did a nice job of crossing the blocker’s face to initiate a speed rush move from his 3-technique position. Jarrett did lean out over his toes and lose footing on a few reps, and was smothered by Kouandjio on the final day of practices, causing some concern over his lack of plus size. Still, he’s got a low center of gravity, twitched up movements, active hands and the ability to bend underneath blockers for leverage. He’s a disruptive cat that fits the bill as a one-gapping defensive tackle.
Passing Drills: One-on-One’s with Receivers and Defensive Backs
Wide Receivers
First off, it’s clear that Auburn’s Sammie Coates has elite length, speed and natural athletic ability. It was scary how fast Coates was able to eat up the cushion of off-man cover corners. He was running vertical routes at a different speed than the rest of the Senior Bowl receivers, and also dominated at the catch point during red zone drills. His evaluation is a difficult one, in that he isn’t a natural hands catcher and lacks clean route running technique. He’ll have to be taught how to run a route tree and is a bit of a one trick pony, but that one trick was tough to stop here in Mobile for the Senior Bowl.
A player I was too low on entering the event was Kansas State’s Tyler Lockett. He’s a fast, quick-footed and well-nuanced receiver that understands how to create consistent separation with his routes, but the concern going into the event was Lockett’s inability to catch the ball away from his frame. Cutting down on the drops this week and tracking downfield throws without issue, I was glad to see Lockett perform at such a high level. He’s a technician with obvious quickness and obvious limitations from a size perspective, but someone that an NFL team will want in their passing game.
Much the opposite of Lockett’s progression, Stanford’s Ty Montgomery showed more concerns than promise as we reviewed the tape. Ty could not track the deep ball and struggled to move fluidly through the route tree. He’s a package player that needs manufactured touches on returns, reverses and underneath crossers, and his saving grace is the ability to make plays when the ball is in his hands.
Last but not least, Central Arkansas’ Dezmin Lewis is a small school prospect you need to familiarize yourself with. Very fluid in and out of breaks, and gorgeously athletic at the catch point, Lewis moves so well for a 6’3 ½” 215 lbs. wide receiver. He showed he could win contested catches and that’s exactly what you want to see from a receiver with size and length.
Defensive Backs
Looking at the cover corners, none moved better than Quinton Rollins and Kevin White. Rollins lacks a refined skill set but showed he could pedal, halt his momentum and get back up to speed. He was burned vertically by Jamison Crowder early in the week, but continually improved the timing of his hip turn and overall feel for routes developing.
Kevin White moved extremely well and showcased the foot speed, downfield ball tracking skill and fluidity to win at the next level. On one play in particular, he read the receiver’s shallow crossing pattern, shifted his vision to the inside and was able to sift his way through a crowd of offensive receivers and defensive backs to stay in phase with the route. He is prone to flipping his hips open at the line of scrimmage and “running ahead of the receiver”, but I am going to have to look back at the TCU corner’s film.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to watch all of the wide receiver and defensive back drills. For that reason, there’s more discussion here on offensive and defensive line play than the receivers and defensive backs. Thanks again for reading and following our practice notes from the 2015 Senior Bowl.
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