Gatherings from the Senior Bowl 2nd Day of Practice

As one might be aware, at this current time there is an event that is being hosted at Ladd Peebles Stadium in the city of Mobile, Alabama known as the Senior Bowl. This event is a composed of a series of practices which ultimately lead to a game between two teams, the North and South, where a multitude of college football prospects are allowed to showcase and exhibit their abilities to NFL scouts so that they'd be considered for potential NFL jobs.

At the moment the event is still at its early stage and thus is on it's second day of progressing practices. Through a cycle of searching and finding, I have compiled several amounts of insightful information, from different sources, on a number of prospects that have practiced today.

Here it is:

Linebackers:

Nigel Bradham (OLB) looks incredibly athletic on the field. He covers a lot of area on the field and easily stays with backs or tight ends in coverage.

Emmanuel Acho (OLB) is just a smart, instinctive football player. He's not the greatest athlete but does a great job diagnosing the action and putting himself in a position to make plays on the ball. Acho has looked good against the run and pass.

James-Michael Johnson (ILB) of Nevada has shown a lot of athleticism on the field today. He easily moves about the field, showing the ability to quickly get outside the box or get depth on pass drops. He's not made many plays on the ball, but is omnipresent moving around the field.

Defensive Line:

A point of concern in Courtney Upshaw's (OLB) game is the limited speed he shows on the field. While he's effective rushing the passer out of a three-point stance, Upshaw looks very limited in his ability to pursue and catch the ball-handler from the backside when stood up at linebacker. LB Courtney Upshaw of Alabama has been standing up over tackle as a rush linebacker in a three four. He's an impressive looking athlete but has yet to show he can get off blocks. Upshaw has been handled on several occasions by Jeff Allen of Illinois, who's lined up at left tackle. Alabama's Courtney Upshaw is now being used at defensive end and looks good. He put offensive tackle Matt McCants of UAB on his bottom with a powerful bull-rush, then did the same to James Brown of Troy S tate.

Melvin Ingram (OLB) of South Carolina has looked terrific in pass rushing drills. He plays low and has been tough to block.

Jaye Howard (DT) of Florida has made several nice plays. He fires off the snap and is able to penetrate the line of scrimmage.

Derek Wolfe (DT) of Cincinnati has been mostly quiet but just made a terrific play beating a double team block to get behind the line of scrimmage.

Kendall Reyes (DT) of UConn has been a force this morning. He shows great explosion off the snap, as well as a variety of moves with his hands. Reyes has gotten a lot of penetration and just destroyed Zeitler of Wisconsin in one-on-one drills. Reyes has generated a lot of interest from scouts and showed why in pass rushing drills, dipping his shoulder and clubbing the offensive lineman's hands off of him to get to the "quarterback" cone in the drill.

***On the defensive side of the football, Virginia's Cam Johnson(DE) and Michigan's Mike Martin(DT) displayed some nice ability to beat offensive lineman in one-on-one pass rushing drills.***

On one particular play against Ohio State tackle Mike Adams,[Cam] Johnson (DE) initially took the outside, but quickly swam over and cut inside as Adams didn't even really get a hand on him.

[Mike] Martin (DT), on the other hand, had some battles with Ohio State center Mike Brewster. Most everyone else Brewster stood up and didn't budge, but the two former college rivals battled multiple times, with Martin winning most and driving Brewster backwards, leaving the two to get into a bit after the play. He's shown the ability to finish plays today and has been a disruptive force all day. He just threw Penn State lineman Johnnie Troutman to the ground and blew up a running play.

Another player on the defensive line who had a very good day was defensive tackle Alameda Ta'amu (DT). Ta'amu is huge at 6-foot-2 and 341 pounds. Often Ta'amu would just over power the interior lineman and blow up running plays in the backfield.

Billy Winn (DE) Winn showed good power against the run but was just okay as a pass rusher. Winn has the type of size that should allow him to be considered by 4-3 and 3-4 teams. His best spot might be as a 3-4 defensive end.

Coples (DE) has had his moments today, as he just ran around Zebrie Sanders in scrimmage. He is an impressive looking athlete with great movement skills. But you get the sense that Coples does not play with a sense of urgency and gives up on plays too easily.

Shea McCLellin (OLB) of Boise State continues to impress since making the move to linebacker. He destroyed several running backs and fullbacks this morning in pass-rushing drills in which he simulated standing up over a tackle.

Defensive Backs:

Antonio Allen (SS) of South Carolina has flashed skill all day. He's a very sudden player that jumps out of nowhere to make plays. Allen is also a vicous hitter. He just needs to show more consistency against the pass, but you can tell he has the underlying skills.

Asa Jackson (CB) of Cal-Poly has been quiet during the defensive drills but looked very good returning punts. He's been able to handle the 60-yard moonshots that have been coming off the foot of Wisconsin's Brad Nortman on a very breezy day. Jackson shows some cornerback skills that you really like at times, but looked very unpolished at other times. Jackson looks like he’s at his best once the ball is thrown, but technique needs work..

George Iloka (FS) read a bootleg rollout by Russell Wilson perfectly and dove in on the throw for an interception during the scrimmage phase.

Leonard Johnson (CB)Johnson got turned around once, but overall I thought he did a very good job of staying low in his backpedal and running with wide receivers down the field.

Offensive Line:

Mike Adams (T) I’m kind of torn on Adams because I really liked how quick his feet looked on pass protection on tape, but he had his issues against speed today in pass protection drills. The good news for Adams is that when he got his hands on the defender, they were done. What's so impressive about T Mike Adams of Ohio State is the way he easily moves his 330-pound frame around the field. Even this morning, when asked to block in motion, Adams quickly gets out to the second level and is able to adjust and block linebackers thanks to his agililty

Philip Blake (C) of Baylor has shown some promise. He's a feisty blocker who does a great job controlling defenders when he squares into the opponent.

Jeff Allen (T) of Illinois continues to do a fine job on Quinton Coples of North Carolina. Coples struggles getting off of Allen's blocks.

Zebrie Sanders (T) of Florida State has looked good in one-on-one drills. He's handled Quinton Coples twice.

Cordy Glenn (OG) of Georgia, who played left tackle as a senior for the Bulldogs, was moved back inside to guard at practice and has been very effective. He's strong and has stayed with blocks.

Tony Bergstrom (T) of Utah has had a solid day. One one play he steered the athletic Jack Craford of Penn State from his pass-rush angle, then in another instance buried Billy Winn of Boise State. Winn has not looked good at all. He looked sloppy in weigh-ins and has not been a factor at all in practice.

Kelechi Osemele (OG) I have to say I was impressed with the big man from Iowa State. He tooks reps at both tackle spots and at guard and showed flashes of terrific potential. He needs to get those long arms on pass rushers a little more quickly, but his ability to mirror and redirect when defensive ends tried to use spin moves inside on him was quite impressive.

Mike Brewster (C) and Martin had some very spirited one-on-one battles with Brewster not only holding his ground, but also getting in Martin’s face and shoving him after the rep was finished. Brewster showed a good anchor and a nasty streak. Martin looked a little slow on one rep, but fired out using a good rip on his second rep which helped him to push the pocket. Martin looks limited physically, but works hard.

Johnnie Troutman (OG) Powerful guard who pushes people around. Good anchor and bull-rushing him didn’t work out too well for anyone who tried.

Wide Receivers/TEs:

Marvin McNutt (WR) really put on a show for the NFL scouts. McNutt isn't going to run past many defensive backs and didn't on Tuesday morning, but he did display the ability to box out with his body and pluck the football from the air with his hands. McNutt has good size with average speed, but he drives you crazy. McNutt looked really sharp with his routes and getting off the line against press coverage, but he dropped a couple that he could have had and that is the knock on him. He’ll make some great catches, but has had to eliminate the drops.

Brian Quick (WR) was very impressive "on hoof". Tall with long arms and showed an ability to catch the ball with a defender hanging all over him. Snatched the ball away from his body and did a nice job of using his size to his advantage. I will be paying closer attention to him tomorrow. Quick has caught the eye of a lot of scouts and looked much better on Tuesday than he did on Monday, but you can tell he's still a bit overwhelmed with the step up in competition. He still struggled catching the football and isn't very quick (no pun intended), but he builds speed and has great size. Quick admitted after practice yesterday to reporters that he's never really had a wide receivers coach before, but he has that upside teams like..

Mavin Jones (WR) had a solid practice and is considered a "solid" receiver, but he did show more suddenness on his shorter routes that I expected.

Devier Posey (WR) Quick athlete who looks like he could do some damage on short routes to intermediate routes.

Juron Criner (WR) of Arizona has had his moments today. He's incredibly athletic and made several acrobatic receptions over defenders. Criner lacks downfield speed, but quickly gets off the line and shows the ability to get separation in underneath coverage.

Patrick Edwards (WR) of Houston has been a bit of an enigma today. He's incredibly quick and shows a burst of speed, but does not make the receptions that are seemingly very catchable.

Chris Rainey (WR) of Florida continues to be very impressive in drills. Defenders just cannot stay downfield with the speedster and he's made a number of sensational catches. Rainey has shown impressive downfield speed and hands in receiver drills. He just beat former Gator teammate Janoris Jenkins for a long gainer on two separate instances.

Gerrell Robinson (WR) of Arizona State made several terrific catches in scrimmage. He continues to run good routes and really does a nice job using his 220-pound frame to box out cornerbacks and physically beat them down for the catch.

LaDarius Green(TE) of Louisiana Lafayette has caught the ball exceptionally well today. He's very fluid and the 237-pounder looks more like a possession receiver. He needs to improve his blocking, which will come by adding strength, but he looks like a good candidate as a move tight end for the next level.

Overall, there has been some impressive prospects that have stepped up and exhibited their abilities and others that have underwhelmed. Most notably some prospects that really caught the scouts' attention included: Mike Martin, Cam Johnson, Kendall Reyes, Alameda Ta'amu, Chris Rainey, Brian Quick, and Marvin McNutt.

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