2019 Senior Bowl: 5 players to watch
By Joe Romano
The eyes of the NFL will be focused on Mobile, Alabama for the 2019 Reeses’ Senior Bowl. Here are five players fans should keep an eye on.
Every year in Mobile, Alabama a group of college football’s best talent gets together to showcase their skills in preparation for the NFL draft. The Reese’s Senior Bowl has been an institution ahead of the draft since the 1950’s. A collection of graduated, draft-eligible players are hand selected by a committee and placed on either the North or South squad.
This year will be the first for new president of the game, Jim Nagy. The former scout has surrounded himself with other former NFL scouts to produce what might be the most loaded roster the game has ever seen.
Teams are coached by the coaching staffs that had the NFL’s worst records but did not change the majority of their coaching staff. That eliminated the top-pick Arizona Cardinals after signing Kliff Kingsbury and the third-pick Jets after grabbing Adam Gase to be their respective head coaches. That left San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Oakland’s Jon Gruden as the choices to coach the team. The Draft Network’s Trevor Sikkema ran a piece detailing the connection between coaching staff and players selected here.
Last year’s game featured first round picks Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Marcus Davenport and Rashaad Penny. That group could highlight the importance of teh game. Mayfield used it to seperate himself from Allen and the underclassmen quarterbacks on the way to becoming the first pick. Allen and Davenport proved that just because they played in non-Power 5 conferences, they were still worthy of first round picks. There will be plenty of talent this year and should match what we saw in 2018.
There will only be five names that appear on this list but with this loaded group, here are a few players that just missed the cut. Boston College’s Zach Allen is a guy I’ve enjoyed watching and could elevate his stock if he can prove to be athletic enough to win on the edge. Baylor’s Jalen Hurd is a former running back who has shown traits to be an excellent receiver since he arrived at Baylor after a transfer.
Missouri’s Drew Lock could end up a first round pick due to his traits but I’ve not loved what I’ve seen from him in college. ACC safeties Juan Thornhill and Jaquon Johnson are fun players that will contribute to NFL teams next year after productive collegiate runs. Finally Yodny Cajuste and Dalton Risner are battling to be a first round offensive tackle and both have traits that should excite at the next level.
Here are the five players to keep an eye on in Mobile.