Senior Bowl 2009: Friday practice wrap-up

January 23rd, 2009 by Drew Smith

Fantasy College Blitz is in Mobile, Alabama to watch the Senior Bowl which is arguably the biggest college all-star game event. This year we decided to get into town a little earlier and catch some of practices and press conference leading up the game on Saturday. I will give you my thoughts on the game in my next article but want to share some of the observations I had from Friday’s practices.

I was especially interested in a small handful of players I followed throughout their college careers so I will start with those players first before moving onto others that stood out (both negative and positive)

Patrick Turner – WR USC

Turner (left) is a man among boys and while Juaquin Iglesias stole the show with his performance it was hard to not be impressed with Turner. He has a chance to be a Brandon Marshall/Terrell Owens type player who slips in the draft because concerns about his attitude and top-end speed but gets to the NFL and has the size and height (6-5, 225) that just abuses smaller cornerbacks.

Javon Ringer – RB Michigan State

Ringer was one of players I was most looking forward to as he has been a favorite of ours for several years. Unfortunately Ringer had a knee scope and was a late scratch for the game. Reports say the procedure was minor and Ringer should be able to work out before the draft.

James Davis – RB Clemson

He didn’t appear to be explosive in his cuts, ran a bit upright and struggled catching the ball. Davis was the most disappointing running back that I watched.

Greg Carr – FSU: Carr might be 6’6 but that was the only thing going for him on Thursday as he had a rough practice dropping several passes and not looking comfortable in traffic. He also looked slow to me and didn’t run any routes that created any separation from the defenders. Carr is looking more like a project type pick more so than a 2nd tier receiver.

Derrick Williams – Penn State: Williams was someone I was very excited to see as I was hoping to see some of that explosiveness that he displayed in college but I didn’t really see much of it. Williams had a fine practice that I would have trouble criticizing but I was left a little disappointed that I wasn’t left a ‘wow’ impression.

Juaquin Iglesias – Oklahoma: Speaking of ‘wow’ that would have to go to Iglesias who caught everything thrown to him. It didn’t matter if the pass was erratic, Iglesias showed great adjustments and found a way to make the catch. The was a buzz in the air talking about him on Thursday and is most likely a great 40 time away from making a case as a late 1st early 2nd round pick.

Pat White – West Virginia: White actually threw the ball pretty decently but I just don’t see NFL teams investing anything more than a 5th-7th round pick on him with the hopes of convincing him to switch positions. It is more than a height thing for him, it is a complete body makeup and I just find it hard to imagine him being able to pull it off in the NFL.

Graham Harrell (Texas Tech), Rhett Bomar (Sam Houston St), Nathan Brown (Central Arkansas), John Parker Wilson (Alabama) and Cullen Harper (Clemson): All of the quarterbacks had decent practices with none of them doing anything to really stand out as anything special. Brown appears too small to play QB in the NFL without just being amazing in all the other areas which I didn’t witness. Harper just barely out-played the other QBs whereas Bomar was the one that looked the part as a NFL QB but will likely be viewed as the type to draft and let him sit behind a veteran for a few years to see if he can develop.

Ramses Barden – Cal Poly: There was a lot of buzz around Barden when I arrived but unfortunately he didn’t dress up for practice. I was able to shake his hand and ask him if would be playing on Saturday after practice and I have to say he looks like a TE more than a WR. A player who looks like a TE but plays like a WR, well that is my type of player, so I will be watching him closely in the game to see how he fares.

Kory Sheets (Purdue, Cedric Peerman (Virginia) and Jeremiah Johnson (Oregon): All three of these backs looked very comfortable in the passing game and nice quickness in there cuts. Johnson doesn’t seem big enough to be an every-down back but with the NFL moving towards a duel-back system he looks like a perfect compliment to a power back.

Brian Robiskie – Ohio State: Robiskie had to be the most disappointing receiver I saw today, even more so that Greg Carr as he went almost the entire practice dropping pass and after pass before finishing with three nice snags. He will have his work cut out for him to help erase the perception of bad-hands before draft day.

Brandon Pettigrew – Oklahoma State: Pettigrew is just a monster when looking at him but didn’t really see him doing much of anything that caught my attention.

Mike Thomas – Arizona: Thomas is a tiny receiver both in height and size but made some nice plays and showed excellent quickness.

Shawn Nelson – Southern Miss: Nelson is a tall athletic TE who I have seen play a lot over his career and he did exactly on the practice field as I have seen him do in his college career. He is a matchup nightmare for linebackers and if he can prove he can block then he should be one of the top TEs off the board on draft day.

Rashard Jennings (Liberty) and Andre Brown (NC State): Both of these players offer the other side of the two-back scheme NFL teams are going towards by offering both size and downhill running style. Brown was not durable in college and Jennings playing at a small school will be some a perception that these players will need to over-come in the next few months. A 40 time in the low 4.5s should solidify Jennings a solid second-tier back.

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