Starting at noon, Eastern time, NFL Network will show an hour of practice from the Senior Bowl. They’ll air another hour at 3 p.m. Join us here for a live discussion of what’s going on.
Live blogging Day 3 of Senior Bowl practice on NFL Network
Twitter has been immensely useful for following Senior Bowl practice. Here are some good ones:
Find North and South practice notes after the jump.
Mike Mayock and Corey Chavous are talking about Taylor Mays as having value in the second round. Before the season, who would have thought? Chavous compared Mays to former Broncos safety Dennis Smith.
Mays is running drills at the same time as South Florida’s Nate Allen. They’re backpedaling, coming forward and catching the ball. Where Mays struggled was the coming forward part. He backpedals fine, but transitioning from one movement to another is where he has problems.
They’re showing Lamarr Houston working through dummies. He’s so quick. It’s easy to get impressed more and more with Houston.
Cody says he wants to get down to 345. Why didn’t you do that after the national title game?
South running backs Stafon Johnson and Ben Tate looked good in blocking. Miami tight end Jimmy Graham and Dexter McCluster not so much. Graham was working against Dekoda Watson, who doesn’t have the best power.
Eric Norwood has looked excellent as a pass rusher here against a fullback. Great swim move.
To Tebow’s credit, his non-shotgun snaps have been good. He threw a really nice pass to Graham over the middle. Tebow also completed a nice out route to Johnson, but it came out very slow after a play-action setup.
Graham is looking more and more like a project at tight end. He can’t blog and doesn’t finish his routes. Ton of upside, but a team will have to have an established tight end already. Kind of like Martellus Bennett going to Dallas a couple years ago.
The South defensive line is big, fast and physical. Probably the single-most impressive unit in the Senior Bowl this year. C.J. Wilson of East Carolina is looking good in double-team drills.
Riley Cooper of Florida is a very hot and cold player. He got shut down by Perrish Cox. Nice matchup between Javiers Arenas and Shay Hodge. Arenas stuck with him well, but Hodge was able to make the catch.
Trevard Lindley showed he’s excellent when he plays off-man coverage. He’s going to struggle some against big guys, but he can move so well in space. Mays got beat on a crossing route by Jeremy Williams. Mays doesn’t blanket enough in coverage. I still want to see him line up against a tight end.
Hodge just made Lindley look silly. Beat him off the line and Lindley fell in the end zone. This is a “green zone” drill, inside the 10-yard line. The cornerbacks get the advantage here, but Lindley, and Arenas, got beat off the line pretty easily.
NORTH PRACTICE
The word thus far today is that Boise State cornerback Kyle Wilson continues to look good. He may have bypassed Kentucky’s Trevard Lindley as the best senior cornerback.
Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli said the Senior Bowl is just another piece of the puzzle. And that’s a great way of putting it. The Senior Bowl week is important, but shouldn’t supersede four years of tape. He said “This is a week where they’re starting to change and feel the pressure ... of playing in the NFL.”
Sean Canfield of Oregon State is having some trouble placing his deep passes. That’s what holds him back the most. Jacoby Ford, on the other hand, shows a good burst off the line.
It’s surprising that Pittsburgh’s Dorin Dickerson continues to be played at wide receiver. He’s not fast and gets off the line slow. Lining up against Mardy Gilyard, Brandon Ghee showed his physical skill breaking up a pass.
Jacoby Ford of Clemson is such a streaky player. Everyone knows he’s incredibly fast, but he doesn’t always show it. He might be only a return guy and fourth receiver in the pros. But I don’t think he can cover on kicks, which is sometimes expected of receivers who are deep in a depth chart.
It’s settled, Mike Iupati is the best player in this year’s Senior Bowl. When he’s played guard here in practices, he’s been unstoppable. The question now becomes how high does he get drafted? I thought he was an early second-round guy before this week. Now I don’t think he gets passed Dallas’ pick in the first.
Other than his pass blocking, LeGarrette Blount has looked pretty good. He ran routes earlier and looked better than the other runners.
The North has been running 11-on-11 drills for a bit here. No one is really looking better than anyone else. Jared Odrick of Penn State broke through the line, so that was impressive.Washington’s Donald Butler has been an under-the-radar standout. There’s no tackling during these practices, but he put down Lonyae Miller.
Odrick broke though the line again. He’s good against single blockers but does have some struggles against multiple blockers.
Note: Donald Jones | WR | Youngstown State is now participating in the game. He’s a big receiver. We’ve talked about him some in comments on the site. He doesn’t have a lot speed, but is physical. A pass his way got broken up by Thompson.
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