I went back to the tape on a few guys after watching as much as I could from the practices and hearing the hype from the people who were actually there, and these are the guys I think we should be taking a longer look at.
(Note: Tyjae Spears was the biggest winner of the weekend, but I was already really high on him so I’m leaving him out. Also I’m afraid he’s no longer a bargain, which naturally cools my interest. I was also high on Keeanu Benton coming in, so he only lived up to expectations).
Adetomiwa Adebawore, iDL, Northwestern - This guy’s really exciting. Miscast as an edge player at Northwestern, he spent the entire week inside at the Senior Bowl and crushed it. Really held up against the run and was dominant in attack. He’s got a wild build, 6’1, 280 but with 34 inch arms. That’s one of the keys to Aaron Donald’s success, longer than average arm length for his size (and even they aren’t as long as Adebawore’s). Maybe it’s this guy who’s the next Donald instead of Kancey.
Drake Thomas, LB, NC State - Another really exciting guy, to me he’s this year’s Rodrigo. Leader and long-time starter on the team, good athlete, but small (6’0, 230). But he’s fantastic in coverage, especially zone but really good in man as well, and while Rodrigo’s better at actually taking on blocks, Thomas is decent at it, but where he really shines is with his run fits. As a former RB he seems to see the holes opening before the opponent RB, he’s got this preternatural instinct for meeting a RB in a hole. Size issues will keep him down the draft board and he might be a little superfluous for us with Rodrigo, but I really like him.
Nehemiah Shelton, CB, San Jose State - Yet another really exciting guy, just go watch his game against Drake London last year. London had a big game but Shelton only gave up one of those catches and it was very short. On 3 or 4 other targets he batted the ball away. He’s got average size and length but really good juice I think, will be interesting to see how he tests. And he’s great at the catch point, which for me is a key evaluation point to a CB. Have to get that head around, and he does.
Nic Jones, CB, Ball State - Hailed for locking guys down during the week of Shrine Bowl practice (plus he had an INT in the game, though the QB threw it right to him), on tape he showed excellent short area explosiveness and he’s not afraid to hit. He’s a little slight like a lot of the guys in the class this year, but he really showed up against some of the best during Shrine Bowl practices.
Will McDonald, EDGE, Iowa State - Not much of a sleeper but he really, really impressed me. He was miscast as a DL in a 3-3-5 and didn’t get to show off his pass-rushing chops as much as he could have elsewhere. Well he showed them off in Mobile, sheesh. He made a few potential 1st-rounders look silly and his spin move is probably the best in the class.
Anyone impress you guys? I tried to watch as many as I could but some slip through the cracks.
Yeah he might only be a sophomore technically. Not sure, but I know he’s young. Too young for the all-star games. We’ll see plenty of him at the combine.
The combine is a pajama party though. Nice to get to see all the seniors in practice with pads on going against each other. Gotta be a bit harder for scouts/GM’s to evaluate some of these young dudes that declare early for the draft when all you get is the combine and pro days where they don’t wear any equipment.
That’s where the tape comes in. I think that’s 75% of every evaluation anyway, with all of this pomp and circumstance of the pre-draft process being little more than filler for the last little bit of an evaluation. Like athleticism testing is important cause it can be misleading on tape. And the all-star games are good for guys who don’t have any tape against other high-level players (the small school guys, basically). But Van Ness has already knocked the top two OL prospects in this class on their ass, he has plenty of good tape out there.
Yea really like what I’ve seen, and Lions fans might be saying we don’t need another D-end, but Van Ness did play DT in 2021 and is one large dude. I think he could play all over the D-line.
He would have been in the honorable mention section. The OL apparently improved against him once they’d seen his tricks a few times, saw him listed as one of the losers on day 3. Still overall a good event for him, and I still like him for that DPR from the inside role, especially since he can probably be had for a bargain. That’s good value.
I’d add Keanu Benton. I wasn’t sure how his pass rush would translate to the NFL. Well I thought, for me anyway, that he showed there’s more to be unlocked in that area which kind of shoots him up my list. Looks to be one of the more balanced DT’s in this class.
Dorian Thompson Robinson - I think he has a lot of really good tools that he showed at the Shrine. Would be okay taking in the 5th if he even falls that far.
Jakorian Bennett - Really liked what I saw from him. Physical and stuck to recievers for the most part. He fits the swiss army knife in the backend if we can’t get either Branch or Brown.
It’s funny you mentioned Drake Thomas because those were my exact thoughts. “He looks like he might be the next Rodrigo”.
Yeah, I mentioned Benton but I was already high on him so he wasn’t as much of a riser.
I thought DTR was maybe the best of the bunch of QBs at either game (Haener and Bagent were close), but it’s just so hard to judge QBs at all-star games. It’s really a bad showcase for them. I don’t like DTR any more or any less than I did, but I was pretty high on him beforehand as well. One of my favorite day 3 backup options.
Bennett is one of the better mirroring CBs I saw on tape, my concerns with him coming in were more about tackling and instincts and the Senior Bowl isn’t really the showcase for those. But it was good to see those coverage skills holding up.
I think people who think he’s going to come right out and be a Karlaftis are going to have to wait. Will he be? Probably, but he’s not likely to be able to walk right in at the NFL level. He wasn’t a starter at IOWA, he was a backup DT that also played DE. He needs a year to acclimate but that doesn’t mean he’ll be a bust, it just means he’s going to be asked to play a very different game in the NFL and it’s not going to happen over night.
Actually I wanted to ask you about that… To explain why Van Ness didn’t start, Dane Brugler said on his podcast that Iowa plays the guys who’ve put in the work and been there the longest over the young guys. Like, they have to earn their keep first. Is that true?
Yes and no. That IOWA D was very, very good. Holding teams to the points they did when their O was 3 and out all day long required fresh legs. I would never, ever, second guess how Parker runs that D. Van Ness got I think 478 snaps last season and about the same the season before. That’s about 2/3 of what Karlaftis got his final season with Purdue. If he’s allowed to be that rotational player in his first season and gets adequate coaching I think by next season he can be a full time player. Do you want to spend a first round pick on a project? Well, if you understand that there’s ceiling to be had and that by virtue of being a first round pick you get that 5th year option, sure. He’s a hair on fire guy, so he might come around faster than what I expect but I would rather go into it with a guy exceeding expectations rather than not living up to them.
There was plenty of talk over in the Senior Bowl thread, I just didn’t think he was much of a riser to everyone on this board cause he’s more of a known quantity. Plus for us specifically he might be slot only, and we already have one of the best slot receivers in the league.
Good to know. I think for us he’s almost certain to be a rotational player, so that would help. And I don’t mind spending a 1st rounder on a project, especially one I suspect will contribute greatly in a part-time rotational role.
To be honest, I like him but I don’t like him for us. I want to use a first round pick on a DT that is both a run stopper AND can be disruptive in the pass game.
Yeah I do too, but if that guy’s not there he’s not there.
I actually think maybe Benton, after what he showed at the Senior Bowl, and Adebawore could do that for us, but they can be had later. You’d like to spend a more premium pick on such a glaring need, but again, if there’s not a guy worth it then we move on.
