Optimum Scouting Breaks Down Badgers at the Senior Bowl

With this being the week between the NFL Championship Games and the Super Bowl that means one thing for the world of college football’s class of 2012 and that’s the Senior Bowl.  A few weeks ago we put out a story about the fact that Wisconsin has put the most players into this prestigious bowl game in it’s history.  

Starting today it’s practice time, some of which is televised on the NFL Network and for quite a few Badgers this week is very important.  Having said that we brought in our friends from fellow Bloguin site Optimum Scouting to give us a scouts look at all the Badgers playing in the Senior Bowl this week. 

Make sure you check out the site all week as they’ve got live coverage of all the goings on in Mobile, AL this week. 

Here are the thoughts of Eric from Optimum Scouting: 

1. Kevin Zeitler–Wisconsin’s best prospect here, Zeitler showed some outstandingly developed inside hand placement and leverage this year, most notably nearly neutralizing Devon Still this year against Penn State. He doesn’t have great lateral movement to be a great pulling blocker, but he has the technique and flexibility to fit in almost any system as a right or left guard. If he can continue to handle the top tier defensive tackles here, he could rise to be a mid to high second round selection.

2. Nick Toon-A sure-handed, possession receiver, Toon doesn’t possess great down-field separation nor the deep speed to be, at least in my eyes, a highly coveted, compete receiver prospect in a draft that could be the deepest at the receiver position in years. He’ll need to show some big play skills and more decisive deep routes, but as a possession receiver, especially with a quicker, big play slot receiver, Toon could be a worthwhile value for some team in the top three rounds. 

3. Russell Wilson–Few players have as important of a Senior Bowl week as Russell Wilson does. Wilson has shown the athletic ability at NC State and the developed pocket presence and down-field vision at Wisconsin. His high throwing motion and touch on deep passes does remind a little of Dew Brees, but he needs to show he can drive the ball in traffic and make deeper NFL throws. If he can show that he’s a complete arm talent this week, he could be a highly coveted 3rd-4th round prospect. 

4. Bradie Ewing–Bit of a do-everything guy for the Wisconsin Badgers this past year as a special teamer along with playing offense, his most important and intriguing role this year was as Montee Ball’s lead blocker. Ewing showed some great power and development as a lead blocker, attacking the hole and blasting the linebacker well in traffic. He has some receiving skills, getting out of the backfield smoothly with good short area route polish. 

5. Brad Nortman-A bit of a surprising that he got an invite considering he wasn’t among the stat leaders at the position and hasn’t had more than 2100 punt yards since his Freshman year, but he’s been consistently around 42 yards per punt every season.

6. Kyle Wotja-Here as a long-snapper, and the Senior Bowl has a pretty good track-record of bringing in some solid NFL long snappers.

Thanks to Eric and the rest of the crew over at Optimum Scouting and make sure to check them out on the way to the NFL Draft.  We’ll have them as guests on Badgers Power Hour closer to the draft, so look forward to that as well.