January 28, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Move the Sticks, Daniel Jeremiah and Rhett Lewis are coming to you live from Mobile, Alabama, as Reese’s Senior Bowl practices get underway. The guys recap Day 1 of practice, breaking down standout players and positional groups that caught their attention. Tune in for their insights on the top performers and what to watch as the week progresses.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now move the sticks with Daniel, Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What's up, everybody. Welcome to move the sticks. DJ and
Rhett coming to you from a hotel room and mobile Alabama.
Buck is at the East West. He's doing his work there.
For if you're not watching this, I am holding a
stick mic sitting really close to you. You're on a
little couch that we've got in this room. I'm gonna yeah,
I'm I'm gonna chair. That's not a lot of cushion.
(00:27):
I'm not gonna lie to you. It's like sitting on
a piece of plywood. But we had a fun day
to day. Htt I got a chance to see two practices.
We've got two more days to go here. But what
we're gonna do today is just kind of go practice
by practicing, break down some of the fun things we saw.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, and look, I think that you know this is
you know for all that you kind of do while
you're here and all the work that goes into it,
you know, at the end, like this is why we
love this part of the year because this really starts
the clock for us on the draft. So you've got
your first mock draft out, You've got your first top
fifty out as of the recording of this podcast today,
(01:02):
So it feels real that the draft is here, and now,
you know, we get to really kind of hone in
on some of the best players. You have sixteen of
your top fifty players that are here competing in this game.
We've got a bunch of guys that are in that
mock draft first round that we're going to talk about,
and we can kind of take this kind of the
same way that we did on NFL Network today. By
the way, if you're listening to this and you're not
(01:22):
watching the practices which are available for you starting every
day at noon Eastern time on Tuesday through Thursday practice
Recap show eight o'clock Eastern time, like you are going
to get your fill of Senior Bowl content and we're
going to give you kind of the best of the
best in some of the highlights here on the Move
the Sticks Pod today, starting you know, with the national
American teams.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, first of all, before we get to that, I
always forget that when you're in mobile during Senior Bowl week,
everybody you we went into whether you're at a Chick
fil A down the street, whether you're in the elevator
or you're walking around. Everybody is affiliated in the NFL somehow,
and I always forget it because I'm in an elevator,
I just arrived, got my bag, and and someone's in
the elevator with me doesn't have any team gear on
or anything. Yeah, and he goes, so you like Golden, huh?
(02:05):
And my first thought was like, Okay, there's the auction
company like Ken Golden, who does like.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
The and I'm to sell?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And I was just like, I just like confused, like
excuse me. He's like Golden, You like you had him
twenty four And I'm like, oh, yeah, the Texas wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, yeah, No, I do like Golden.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
He's a good player. But it's just every conversation everybody
run into its football football football.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And it's also, you know, like you're doing top fifty work,
you're also trying to get familiar with all these players.
We got one hundred and you know, thirty guys here
at the Senior Bowl, and it is kind of like
drinking through a water hose or fire hose right these
first couple of days. But then you know, like we'll
get the game on Saturday, and I think we'll kind
of put it all together, and that's kind of what
(02:49):
we're judging now. It's like, all right, they want to
practice is in the books. You know, we can kind
of put that to bed and and you know, kind
of hope that we really see guys take off tomorrow.
But there were definitely some standouts here to begin on
the national.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Side, Yeah, one hundred percent. Now it is it's always
a whirlwind this first day and then it kind of
settles in. You recognize the helmets, the numbers, and then
it comes a little bit easier. But you mentioned it,
let's start with the national things that stood out there.
Quarterback wise. You got Tyler Schuck and Dylan Gabriel, and
then give me Canada's last name, Taylor.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Taylor elger Zma from Laurier University in Canada.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't think anybody blew us away from that quarterback group.
Excited to watch a tape and we'll have more takeaways
as we go through the week on what the quarterbacks
do look like. Did enjoy the visit though with Dylan
Gabriel afterwards?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, Dylan's like just a really he kind of understands
his surroundings and I remember talking to him this summer
at the Manning camp, going into this his only year
at Oregon, and he was really trying to kind of
right some of the wrongs. He felt like you were
on him from the first time he transferred from UCF
to OU and felt like he was much more mature
(03:55):
about it this time around, a real connector. We talked
about him, you know, having the minivan and bringing all
of his teammates together through that, piling them into the van,
you know, going on their dimetime retreats, and I think
you could see that, and I think I would imagine
by the end of the week we'll be talking about
you know, Dylan Gabriel is a guy that brought the
national team guys together, at least on the offensive side
(04:17):
of the ball.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Because that's the type of guy he is. And that
was the.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Vibe I think we got from him when we talked
to him after practice too. It obviously the guy can
spin him with the left hand. Looks he's not prototypical
NFL size, So this is a great opportunity for him
to kind of show that he can compete with the
best of the best in those type of scenarios.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I know, I think the game will be big for him.
And again everything real quick, RPO's ball comes out. That's
really his strength. All right, let's just go shotgun. We'll
go back and forth players that stood out. I'm going
to start first of all. I don't know I even
had a better day than Grey's Abel from North Dakota State.
His first of all, he checked in. He was six
zho five three, three hundred and sixteen pounds, arms a
(04:54):
little bit shorter, thirty two and a quarter, which is
one of the reasons some people thought, Okay, well he's
going to go from tac to guard. Well not only
to go tackle to guard today, but he went played
some tackle, played some guard, played some center, and I
don't know that he lost to rep the entire day.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I don't think he did.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And you know, one of the first things we talked
about in the open of our Senior Bowl shows today
was the strength of this defensive line group really kind
of overall in the draft class. And then so many
of those guys are here in Mobile at the Senior
Bowl that we kind of thought it was really just
going to be, you know, a showcase of domination. But
I thought the offensive line kind of overall on the
national team side really held their own. You talked about
(05:33):
Gray's abel, I think you could kind of say the
same for Ariantae Ersrie from Minnesota left tackle, had a
nice performance against Abdul Carter Penn State in the regular season.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Thought he was really.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Anthony Belton might have had one of the best days too.
Who is the heaviest guy. He is a big man playing.
He played a little bit of tackle and interior for
the national team as well. I thought we saw some
good things from Jalen Travis from Miami moving up and down,
but Joonah Manheim might be I mean, where do we
(06:04):
think he is on centers in this class?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, I think he's up there. You know, he got
moved around a little bit today, but he stayed attached
and he lost slowly, So it wasn't like he got
bet right off the snap. He just did a really
good job. Now, I just you get some heavy size,
which you'll see here in this game right over his nose.
He's gonna have a little bit tougher time just putting
the breaks down. But I think once you get in
in eleven on eleven and he's got some neighbors, I
(06:26):
think he plays really well.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
So I was.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I was a fan of what he did. A couple
other guys that we'll hit on here the tight end.
Oh yeah, because we just talked about that.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
We can go over there. Look to me, Mike Green
was as advertised carrying his two hundred and fifty one
pounds from Marshall. He played it or he was measured
and weighed in the spring he was two hundred and
thirty six pounds, so he's added a lot of weight
over the last you know, half a year, and he
carried it well. Today, had a bunch of wins. Zura
k I get that right as a rocket by the end,
(06:59):
by Saturday, get it. Ez A raq I thought he's
a little spin happy today. I like to see him
just win. Just went straight up, use your length, use
your power. He'll be able to, I think, be a
little bit better as the week goes along. Josiah Stewart
still a fastball from Michigan. Off the edge. He was
able to, you know, kind of win on the on
the edge with speed, So he had a nice day.
(07:20):
Anybody else from that group and there that jumped out to.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
You, Yeah, definitely as far as like the edge guys,
goes John Joyner. I think was was kind of you know,
Charles Davis kind of noticed him a couple of different times,
and we called his name a few times.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Oli with femi Ola Dajo from UCLA kind of a
roller coaster day.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
He had some really good reps and then he had
some reps that show that he's played about nine games
at this position. So I think, you know, it's an
intriguing prospect on that front, but still a guy that
was able to quit himself very well. And then josh Farmer,
you know, if we're talking about you know, Monheim, you know,
losing slowly, Joshua Farmer was winning slowly.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, just steady push. He's just strong. He's a powerful,
powerful dude. So I was impressed with what we saw
from him. Black as well as man. He is enormous
out of Iowa. Give me by the way that that's
just so a.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Short Yeah, whya whye.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Why ye see see I got I'll get a bigger
print tomorrow so I can actually read this sheet. Anyways. Yeah,
Black is a he is a big, big dude. Let's
get to what I think was the star of the
show that's got the tight end position. Elijah a royo.
I still want to say arroyo. I know, a royo.
Arroyo just sounds so short, stoppy. I kind of like
that from a baseball but a royo he was. He
(08:36):
was literally one of the top three players the entire day.
He's over six four six four four, so six four
and a half two hundred and fifty one pounds, And
when I watched him, put in my top fifty because
he's a stream a seam stretcher. He can really get
down the seam, he can get over the top. He's
got big time speed that showed up today, as well
as a little route savvy to go along with it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, I thought he was really impressive, and you know,
I like the athleticism they he showed. I mean, you
and I kind of both had visions of, you know,
watching him in an orange eighty jersey with the Miami helmet.
We were like, it was a little bit of Jimmy
Graham there, you know. But I don't know if he's
got that kind of athleticism that was pretty unique, but
he's got This is a really good tight end group
(09:17):
on both sides. We'll tell you about Mason Taylor and
the American team tight ends here in just a moment.
But Terrence Ferguson's a guy to watch from that group
in the tight end spot. But look, I think, you know,
one of the things that I'm really kind of interested
in as we progress throughout the week is which.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Wide receivers are going to separate themselves.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Because the only one to me that really separated today
was tes Tes Johnson. And that was not just kind
of an overall evaluation separation. That's what he was doing
on the field was creating separation. That is one of
his superpowers. You know, he sticks that foot in the
ground at the top of the route. You're gonna be
hard pressed to find a corner or whomever out there
that's going to try to be able to keep up
(09:56):
with him. So I thought Dylan Gabriel's college teammate there
at Oregon, Tess Johnson, it was best in show at
the wide receiver spot on the national team.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You could make a case Oregon had the best quarterback
day one, had the best receiver day one, and I
can make a strong argument they had the best off
the ball linebacker day one. Bossa was all over the field.
Bossop sounds right that time. You know, big time Range
had a couple of nice pills. Not tackling out here,
so just kind of pass him off and tag him off.
(10:26):
But I thought instinct wise and energy wise was excellent
from him.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, and I think we'll see him, you know, really
pop once we kind of start unleashing a little bit
of that pad pop and when the you know, when
the full pads come on, and we'll see him, you know,
get after it with some of these running backs. Looking
forward to seeing that as the week progresses. But Boss
is that alpha dog leader like that. He's gonna ace
the interviews.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Too, no doubt. Oh there you are. There's a look
at the national team. We'll take a quick break, we'll
come back and we will knock out what we saw
from the American team practice right after this. All right, right,
let's get to the American team in the afternoon, and
I will say, look, and the coaches even admitted after
the game when they were talking, a little bit of
(11:08):
a slow start for this group. Energy was not great,
pace was not great. Wasn't a great practice, to be
totally honest with you, And then it picked up towards
the end.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Well, yeah, and I think, you know, Bubba Ventrone who
as part of the coaching up program with the Senior
Bowl here is the special teams coordinator for the Cleveland
Browns in the head coaching role for the American team,
kind of noticed that himself and he was like, at
the end, we got to finish this thing with some juice.
So he pulled down like the microphone from this from
the rafters as a boxing announcer like Michael Buffer would do,
(11:36):
and he started doing these kind of crazy introductions for
the best on best competitive period.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So they had I'd say what five to ten.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Reps where he called out guys you know that played
really well in this first practice and had them go
again in front of the entire team, in front of
the entire stadium, and I kind.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Of everybody's watching this rep.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Type of moment. A couple of guys really stood out
in those moments. To Carson Benson was one of those
guys the the Alabama A and M tackle who stood
up Shamar Stewart. We'll talk about both those guys, but
but yeah, it did kind of echo your point on
the energy. It didn't really pick up to the end,
like to see them start with that type of energy
as we get into Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, and you look at the quarterbacks. Mcmilroe was a
little inconsistent accuracy wise. Jackson Dart I would say was
was solid, was steady, but didn't really see the you know,
the big arm that you're hoping to see. That's the
question mark on him. Riley Leonard a little up and down.
That's kind of what you're gonna get there. But you're
gonna see, you know, him at his best probably when
we get to game day and again some again, just
(12:36):
some some inconsistencies, some up and down, a little bit
late out to the perimeter on a couple of throws.
But uh, you know, hopefully we see a little bit
more from that quarterback group tomorrow. Where do you want
to go next?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, let's just stay on the offensive side of the ball,
because you know, I think we can't bury the lead here.
The best player of the day on the American team
was Mason Taylor, you know from LSU, And you know,
I think he's a guy obviously, Jason Taylor, Hall of
Fame dad, you know there and got to he was
actually using his cell phone there to try and I
don't know why why he felt like.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
He needed to, yeah, to watch our broadcast exactly. But
I thought I thought he was as advertised. You've got
him in your top fifty high up there for a
good reason.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
He was one of those guys that really kind of
showed up to the level of play you'd expected from it.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, everything, And I thought the interview with Jason was
excellent because he just kept using the word natural, natural,
And I think sometimes people hear that word and they
it's almost like it can be a code word for
some people and they think, oh, he doesn't work hard.
It comes easy to him, and it's like no, no, no.
Some people were put on this earth to do certain things.
Jason Taylor was put on this earth to rush the quarterback.
And he would readily admit he's a natural pass rusher.
(13:44):
His son is a natural pass catcher, and that showed
out through the first day. Let's go through the rest
of these what stood out.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yeah, I don't know that we had a real state.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It wasn't a great practice.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, Jack Besh had one of the other catches of
the day, kind of contested catch ball that he had today,
So I would say he was pretty good from the
wide receiver group. And then as you get to the
offensive line group. Let to be honest, they struggled a
little bit, and armand Membu, the highest graded player that
you have and that you put in your mock draft
(14:17):
from this game was unavailable to go. Today's dealing with
the stomach illness and who knows.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Whether we're gonna I do he's done?
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Yeah, Okay there, yeah, he's he's gonna. Like that's hard.
Who knows how much weighty loss? And you got all that.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, the other side of it is do you want
do you want him here getting potentially others sick as well?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
That that's a that's a big, a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
So but I kind of thought Carson Vincent from Alabama
A and M, you know, one of.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Our HBCU he hung in there.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I thought he did a really nice job, especially as
I mentioned at the end against a guy who was
arguably best in show on the defensive side and Shamar Stewart,
So I thought, you know, he was really good looking
at the interior offensive lineman Clay Webb, I thought from
Jacksonville State, who was a very highly recruited player, I
think a five star player, went to Georgia and transferred
(15:04):
to Jacksonville State. I thought he was maybe the best
of the interior guys that played out there today.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, he got one of those big wins at the
end of practice. So it's cool to see those competition periods.
We go to the other side of the ball defensive
line wise. When you look at this group, I mean,
you can make a case that Walter Nolan in terms
of if you're going to just rate the players for
the entire day, I might go Zabel one and I
might go Walter Nolan too, and then the two tight
(15:30):
ends those would be probably the top four guys.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, that's that's a good point. I mean, Walter Nolan,
you know, we talked about on the show, like he
wants to have an Aaron Donald like impact, you know,
and he's not the type of player that Aaron Donald is.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
But look, yeah, set your sights on the stars, and
that's what he did.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And I think, you know, he did as good as
you could imagine for a player on day one of
the practice week in terms of kind of setting the
expectations for what he is capable of. T J Sanders
and his sweatpants was good. I'd love to see him
now in full pads moving forward. Tim Smith had a
couple of nice reps today as they camp. I thought
the interior d line guys really showed up on this
team now that we kind of look for it. Omar
(16:08):
Norman Lott was definitely one of those guys. I think
he's dealing with a little bit of an injury now,
so I'm not sure how much more we were going
to see of him, but I think we saw enough
today to feel pretty.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Good about it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
He had about three plays in a row where he
was knifing through the line of scrimmage and they didn't
even get a hand on him, to the point where
we kind of laughed. During the broadcast, the offensive line
coach was like, guys, we got to put our hands
on him. I'm like, that is a good piece of advice.
Blocking hands are requirement there. When we look at the
the rest of this group, I think, corner wise, you know,
(16:39):
is this the afternoon group was the Kentucky corner yeat.
Maxwell Harriston had a really nice day. Now. He's a
buck seventy nine and he came in at five to one,
one two. I thought he was going to be a six,
you know, over six feet. I thought he'd be like
one hundred and ninety pounds. So one of those ones
where you never know what you're going to get measurement
wise when you see on paper and what you see
when they actually get officially weigh and measured. But man,
he was sticky and coverage.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Max week Williams had a good rep too, as did
uped In Stout in one of those kind of call
out competitive periods at the end of practice. But without question,
Maxwell Harston stood out as the best there. And then
as you look at kind of the the the other
Dante Trader had a big rep you know, at the
end of practice.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Really interesting story there.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
One of the best lacrosse players in the country in
high school, played both at Maryland both you know lacrosse
and then competing at safety for the Terps. Other guys
out there that that stood out, you know, Jack Kaiser
is a guy that was around the ball, a bunch
of Notre Dame linebacker again, like Riley Leonard, probably still
(17:39):
feeling the after effects a planner in a national title
not too long ago. But I think what it did
today was set the table for guys that we want
to see kind of ramp the game up as we
get in to Wednesday's practice.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, looking forward to seeing what we get day two
of practice. Usually it's a little crisper. Even it sounds
like it's not a big deal. But going from just
shells to putting some pads on it just makes everything
go even a little faster, and I think that makes
things easier to see and I think hopefully we'll see
some better execution as well. But if you're looking for
tight ends, you're going to like this draft. You're going
to like what you've seen here in Mobile. We've got
(18:13):
running backs, We've got a ton of defensive lineman. I
think this is it's always a kind of a microcosm
of the draft as a whole. What you see down
here in Mobile, and those are the strengths of this draft.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, I would agree with you, and you have final thought.
There are those position groups to me really stood out.
But again, I think a big hat tip to the
offensive line guys on the national side in particular for
rising to the challenge because this is an opportunity, you know,
like they know that these are some extremely highly regarded
defensive players in that position group, and so those those
(18:45):
O line guys I think kind of felt like they
took that personally and really kind of came out there
and they won the day on the national side when
you look at you know, O line versus D line.
So excited to see who takes the next step as
we move forward here.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
But a lot to like from day one.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
And I'm excited to see if those offensive linemen are
going to jump the snap count every single rep like
they did today. And I'm gonna excite. I've seen I've
been to a million of these things, so this is
I've been over twenty of these Day two. The defensive lineman,
look at the difference in the jerseys. They will be
taped up, they will not have any cloth to grab,
and then they're gonna give holy hell to the offensive
line coach for allowing them to get an early start
(19:21):
in every single rep.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, we're gonna start to see some of those inequalities
start to level out a little bit. There were definitely
a lot of flags on the ground. Hopefully we can
clean it up really on both sides of the ball
and get this thing rolling. But a lot of fund
still to come and excited for what the rest of
the week is.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Going to bring us.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You can't see it. I think we almost have a
sunset over a red shoulder, right, We actually do have
a sunset back there well, Bill showing out. Appreciate you
guys hanging with us. That was a little snippet of
what we saw. Again, check out the coverage on NFL
Network all throughout the day. We've got practices coming your
way all day Wednesday and Thursday. The game will be
coming your way on Saturday. So appreciate you guys hanging
(19:54):
with us. We see you next time right here on
with the sticks.
And now move the sticks with Daniel, Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
What's up, everybody. Welcome to move the sticks. DJ and
Rhett coming to you from a hotel room and mobile Alabama.
Buck is at the East West. He's doing his work there.
For if you're not watching this, I am holding a
stick mic sitting really close to you. You're on a
little couch that we've got in this room. I'm gonna yeah,
I'm I'm gonna chair. That's not a lot of cushion.
(00:27):
I'm not gonna lie to you. It's like sitting on
a piece of plywood. But we had a fun day
to day. Htt I got a chance to see two practices.
We've got two more days to go here. But what
we're gonna do today is just kind of go practice
by practicing, break down some of the fun things we saw.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, and look, I think that you know this is
you know for all that you kind of do while
you're here and all the work that goes into it,
you know, at the end, like this is why we
love this part of the year because this really starts
the clock for us on the draft. So you've got
your first mock draft out, You've got your first top
fifty out as of the recording of this podcast today,
(01:02):
So it feels real that the draft is here, and now,
you know, we get to really kind of hone in
on some of the best players. You have sixteen of
your top fifty players that are here competing in this game.
We've got a bunch of guys that are in that
mock draft first round that we're going to talk about,
and we can kind of take this kind of the
same way that we did on NFL Network today. By
the way, if you're listening to this and you're not
(01:22):
watching the practices which are available for you starting every
day at noon Eastern time on Tuesday through Thursday practice
Recap show eight o'clock Eastern time, like you are going
to get your fill of Senior Bowl content and we're
going to give you kind of the best of the
best in some of the highlights here on the Move
the Sticks Pod today, starting you know, with the national
American teams.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, first of all, before we get to that, I
always forget that when you're in mobile during Senior Bowl week,
everybody you we went into whether you're at a Chick
fil A down the street, whether you're in the elevator
or you're walking around. Everybody is affiliated in the NFL somehow,
and I always forget it because I'm in an elevator,
I just arrived, got my bag, and and someone's in
the elevator with me doesn't have any team gear on
or anything. Yeah, and he goes, so you like Golden, huh?
(02:05):
And my first thought was like, Okay, there's the auction
company like Ken Golden, who does like.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
The and I'm to sell?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And I was just like, I just like confused, like
excuse me. He's like Golden, You like you had him
twenty four And I'm like, oh, yeah, the Texas wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, yeah, No, I do like Golden.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
He's a good player. But it's just every conversation everybody
run into its football football football.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And it's also, you know, like you're doing top fifty work,
you're also trying to get familiar with all these players.
We got one hundred and you know, thirty guys here
at the Senior Bowl, and it is kind of like
drinking through a water hose or fire hose right these
first couple of days. But then you know, like we'll
get the game on Saturday, and I think we'll kind
of put it all together, and that's kind of what
(02:49):
we're judging now. It's like, all right, they want to
practice is in the books. You know, we can kind
of put that to bed and and you know, kind
of hope that we really see guys take off tomorrow.
But there were definitely some standouts here to begin on
the national.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Side, Yeah, one hundred percent. Now it is it's always
a whirlwind this first day and then it kind of
settles in. You recognize the helmets, the numbers, and then
it comes a little bit easier. But you mentioned it,
let's start with the national things that stood out there.
Quarterback wise. You got Tyler Schuck and Dylan Gabriel, and
then give me Canada's last name, Taylor.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Taylor elger Zma from Laurier University in Canada.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't think anybody blew us away from that quarterback group.
Excited to watch a tape and we'll have more takeaways
as we go through the week on what the quarterbacks
do look like. Did enjoy the visit though with Dylan
Gabriel afterwards?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, Dylan's like just a really he kind of understands
his surroundings and I remember talking to him this summer
at the Manning camp, going into this his only year
at Oregon, and he was really trying to kind of
right some of the wrongs. He felt like you were
on him from the first time he transferred from UCF
to OU and felt like he was much more mature
(03:55):
about it this time around, a real connector. We talked
about him, you know, having the minivan and bringing all
of his teammates together through that, piling them into the van,
you know, going on their dimetime retreats, and I think
you could see that, and I think I would imagine
by the end of the week we'll be talking about
you know, Dylan Gabriel is a guy that brought the
national team guys together, at least on the offensive side
(04:17):
of the ball.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Because that's the type of guy he is. And that
was the.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Vibe I think we got from him when we talked
to him after practice too. It obviously the guy can
spin him with the left hand. Looks he's not prototypical
NFL size, So this is a great opportunity for him
to kind of show that he can compete with the
best of the best in those type of scenarios.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I know, I think the game will be big for him.
And again everything real quick, RPO's ball comes out. That's
really his strength. All right, let's just go shotgun. We'll
go back and forth players that stood out. I'm going
to start first of all. I don't know I even
had a better day than Grey's Abel from North Dakota State.
His first of all, he checked in. He was six
zho five three, three hundred and sixteen pounds, arms a
(04:54):
little bit shorter, thirty two and a quarter, which is
one of the reasons some people thought, Okay, well he's
going to go from tac to guard. Well not only
to go tackle to guard today, but he went played
some tackle, played some guard, played some center, and I
don't know that he lost to rep the entire day.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I don't think he did.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And you know, one of the first things we talked
about in the open of our Senior Bowl shows today
was the strength of this defensive line group really kind
of overall in the draft class. And then so many
of those guys are here in Mobile at the Senior
Bowl that we kind of thought it was really just
going to be, you know, a showcase of domination. But
I thought the offensive line kind of overall on the
national team side really held their own. You talked about
(05:33):
Gray's abel, I think you could kind of say the
same for Ariantae Ersrie from Minnesota left tackle, had a
nice performance against Abdul Carter Penn State in the regular season.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Thought he was really.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Anthony Belton might have had one of the best days too.
Who is the heaviest guy. He is a big man playing.
He played a little bit of tackle and interior for
the national team as well. I thought we saw some
good things from Jalen Travis from Miami moving up and down,
but Joonah Manheim might be I mean, where do we
(06:04):
think he is on centers in this class?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, I think he's up there. You know, he got
moved around a little bit today, but he stayed attached
and he lost slowly, So it wasn't like he got
bet right off the snap. He just did a really
good job. Now, I just you get some heavy size,
which you'll see here in this game right over his nose.
He's gonna have a little bit tougher time just putting
the breaks down. But I think once you get in
in eleven on eleven and he's got some neighbors, I
(06:26):
think he plays really well.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
So I was.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I was a fan of what he did. A couple
other guys that we'll hit on here the tight end.
Oh yeah, because we just talked about that.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
We can go over there. Look to me, Mike Green
was as advertised carrying his two hundred and fifty one
pounds from Marshall. He played it or he was measured
and weighed in the spring he was two hundred and
thirty six pounds, so he's added a lot of weight
over the last you know, half a year, and he
carried it well. Today, had a bunch of wins. Zura
k I get that right as a rocket by the end,
(06:59):
by Saturday, get it. Ez A raq I thought he's
a little spin happy today. I like to see him
just win. Just went straight up, use your length, use
your power. He'll be able to, I think, be a
little bit better as the week goes along. Josiah Stewart
still a fastball from Michigan. Off the edge. He was
able to, you know, kind of win on the on
the edge with speed, So he had a nice day.
(07:20):
Anybody else from that group and there that jumped out to.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
You, Yeah, definitely as far as like the edge guys,
goes John Joyner. I think was was kind of you know,
Charles Davis kind of noticed him a couple of different times,
and we called his name a few times.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Oli with femi Ola Dajo from UCLA kind of a
roller coaster day.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
He had some really good reps and then he had
some reps that show that he's played about nine games
at this position. So I think, you know, it's an
intriguing prospect on that front, but still a guy that
was able to quit himself very well. And then josh Farmer,
you know, if we're talking about you know, Monheim, you know,
losing slowly, Joshua Farmer was winning slowly.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, just steady push. He's just strong. He's a powerful,
powerful dude. So I was impressed with what we saw
from him. Black as well as man. He is enormous
out of Iowa. Give me by the way that that's
just so a.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Short Yeah, whya whye.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Why ye see see I got I'll get a bigger
print tomorrow so I can actually read this sheet. Anyways. Yeah,
Black is a he is a big, big dude. Let's
get to what I think was the star of the
show that's got the tight end position. Elijah a royo.
I still want to say arroyo. I know, a royo.
Arroyo just sounds so short, stoppy. I kind of like
that from a baseball but a royo he was. He
(08:36):
was literally one of the top three players the entire day.
He's over six four six four four, so six four
and a half two hundred and fifty one pounds, And
when I watched him, put in my top fifty because
he's a stream a seam stretcher. He can really get
down the seam, he can get over the top. He's
got big time speed that showed up today, as well
as a little route savvy to go along with it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, I thought he was really impressive, and you know,
I like the athleticism they he showed. I mean, you
and I kind of both had visions of, you know,
watching him in an orange eighty jersey with the Miami helmet.
We were like, it was a little bit of Jimmy
Graham there, you know. But I don't know if he's
got that kind of athleticism that was pretty unique, but
he's got This is a really good tight end group
(09:17):
on both sides. We'll tell you about Mason Taylor and
the American team tight ends here in just a moment.
But Terrence Ferguson's a guy to watch from that group
in the tight end spot. But look, I think, you know,
one of the things that I'm really kind of interested
in as we progress throughout the week is which.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Wide receivers are going to separate themselves.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Because the only one to me that really separated today
was tes Tes Johnson. And that was not just kind
of an overall evaluation separation. That's what he was doing
on the field was creating separation. That is one of
his superpowers. You know, he sticks that foot in the
ground at the top of the route. You're gonna be
hard pressed to find a corner or whomever out there
that's going to try to be able to keep up
(09:56):
with him. So I thought Dylan Gabriel's college teammate there
at Oregon, Tess Johnson, it was best in show at
the wide receiver spot on the national team.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You could make a case Oregon had the best quarterback
day one, had the best receiver day one, and I
can make a strong argument they had the best off
the ball linebacker day one. Bossa was all over the field.
Bossop sounds right that time. You know, big time Range
had a couple of nice pills. Not tackling out here,
so just kind of pass him off and tag him off.
(10:26):
But I thought instinct wise and energy wise was excellent
from him.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, and I think we'll see him, you know, really
pop once we kind of start unleashing a little bit
of that pad pop and when the you know, when
the full pads come on, and we'll see him, you know,
get after it with some of these running backs. Looking
forward to seeing that as the week progresses. But Boss
is that alpha dog leader like that. He's gonna ace
the interviews.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Too, no doubt. Oh there you are. There's a look
at the national team. We'll take a quick break, we'll
come back and we will knock out what we saw
from the American team practice right after this. All right, right,
let's get to the American team in the afternoon, and
I will say, look, and the coaches even admitted after
the game when they were talking, a little bit of
(11:08):
a slow start for this group. Energy was not great,
pace was not great. Wasn't a great practice, to be
totally honest with you, And then it picked up towards
the end.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Well, yeah, and I think, you know, Bubba Ventrone who
as part of the coaching up program with the Senior
Bowl here is the special teams coordinator for the Cleveland
Browns in the head coaching role for the American team,
kind of noticed that himself and he was like, at
the end, we got to finish this thing with some juice.
So he pulled down like the microphone from this from
the rafters as a boxing announcer like Michael Buffer would do,
(11:36):
and he started doing these kind of crazy introductions for
the best on best competitive period.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So they had I'd say what five to ten.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Reps where he called out guys you know that played
really well in this first practice and had them go
again in front of the entire team, in front of
the entire stadium, and I kind.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Of everybody's watching this rep.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Type of moment. A couple of guys really stood out
in those moments. To Carson Benson was one of those
guys the the Alabama A and M tackle who stood
up Shamar Stewart. We'll talk about both those guys, but
but yeah, it did kind of echo your point on
the energy. It didn't really pick up to the end,
like to see them start with that type of energy
as we get into Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, and you look at the quarterbacks. Mcmilroe was a
little inconsistent accuracy wise. Jackson Dart I would say was
was solid, was steady, but didn't really see the you know,
the big arm that you're hoping to see. That's the
question mark on him. Riley Leonard a little up and down.
That's kind of what you're gonna get there. But you're
gonna see, you know, him at his best probably when
we get to game day and again some again, just
(12:36):
some some inconsistencies, some up and down, a little bit
late out to the perimeter on a couple of throws.
But uh, you know, hopefully we see a little bit
more from that quarterback group tomorrow. Where do you want
to go next?
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, let's just stay on the offensive side of the ball,
because you know, I think we can't bury the lead here.
The best player of the day on the American team
was Mason Taylor, you know from LSU, And you know,
I think he's a guy obviously, Jason Taylor, Hall of
Fame dad, you know there and got to he was
actually using his cell phone there to try and I
don't know why why he felt like.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
He needed to, yeah, to watch our broadcast exactly. But
I thought I thought he was as advertised. You've got
him in your top fifty high up there for a
good reason.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
He was one of those guys that really kind of
showed up to the level of play you'd expected from it.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, everything, And I thought the interview with Jason was
excellent because he just kept using the word natural, natural,
And I think sometimes people hear that word and they
it's almost like it can be a code word for
some people and they think, oh, he doesn't work hard.
It comes easy to him, and it's like no, no, no.
Some people were put on this earth to do certain things.
Jason Taylor was put on this earth to rush the quarterback.
And he would readily admit he's a natural pass rusher.
(13:44):
His son is a natural pass catcher, and that showed
out through the first day. Let's go through the rest
of these what stood out.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yeah, I don't know that we had a real state.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It wasn't a great practice.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, Jack Besh had one of the other catches of
the day, kind of contested catch ball that he had today,
So I would say he was pretty good from the
wide receiver group. And then as you get to the
offensive line group. Let to be honest, they struggled a
little bit, and armand Membu, the highest graded player that
you have and that you put in your mock draft
(14:17):
from this game was unavailable to go. Today's dealing with
the stomach illness and who knows.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Whether we're gonna I do he's done?
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Yeah, Okay there, yeah, he's he's gonna. Like that's hard.
Who knows how much weighty loss? And you got all that.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, the other side of it is do you want
do you want him here getting potentially others sick as well?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
That that's a that's a big, a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
So but I kind of thought Carson Vincent from Alabama
A and M, you know, one of.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Our HBCU he hung in there.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I thought he did a really nice job, especially as
I mentioned at the end against a guy who was
arguably best in show on the defensive side and Shamar Stewart,
So I thought, you know, he was really good looking
at the interior offensive lineman Clay Webb, I thought from
Jacksonville State, who was a very highly recruited player, I
think a five star player, went to Georgia and transferred
(15:04):
to Jacksonville State. I thought he was maybe the best
of the interior guys that played out there today.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, he got one of those big wins at the
end of practice. So it's cool to see those competition periods.
We go to the other side of the ball defensive
line wise. When you look at this group, I mean,
you can make a case that Walter Nolan in terms
of if you're going to just rate the players for
the entire day, I might go Zabel one and I
might go Walter Nolan too, and then the two tight
(15:30):
ends those would be probably the top four guys.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, that's that's a good point. I mean, Walter Nolan,
you know, we talked about on the show, like he
wants to have an Aaron Donald like impact, you know,
and he's not the type of player that Aaron Donald is.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
But look, yeah, set your sights on the stars, and
that's what he did.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And I think, you know, he did as good as
you could imagine for a player on day one of
the practice week in terms of kind of setting the
expectations for what he is capable of. T J Sanders
and his sweatpants was good. I'd love to see him
now in full pads moving forward. Tim Smith had a
couple of nice reps today as they camp. I thought
the interior d line guys really showed up on this
team now that we kind of look for it. Omar
(16:08):
Norman Lott was definitely one of those guys. I think
he's dealing with a little bit of an injury now,
so I'm not sure how much more we were going
to see of him, but I think we saw enough
today to feel pretty.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Good about it.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
He had about three plays in a row where he
was knifing through the line of scrimmage and they didn't
even get a hand on him, to the point where
we kind of laughed. During the broadcast, the offensive line
coach was like, guys, we got to put our hands
on him. I'm like, that is a good piece of advice.
Blocking hands are requirement there. When we look at the
the rest of this group, I think, corner wise, you know,
(16:39):
is this the afternoon group was the Kentucky corner yeat.
Maxwell Harriston had a really nice day. Now. He's a
buck seventy nine and he came in at five to one,
one two. I thought he was going to be a six,
you know, over six feet. I thought he'd be like
one hundred and ninety pounds. So one of those ones
where you never know what you're going to get measurement
wise when you see on paper and what you see
when they actually get officially weigh and measured. But man,
he was sticky and coverage.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Max week Williams had a good rep too, as did
uped In Stout in one of those kind of call
out competitive periods at the end of practice. But without question,
Maxwell Harston stood out as the best there. And then
as you look at kind of the the the other
Dante Trader had a big rep you know, at the
end of practice.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Really interesting story there.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
One of the best lacrosse players in the country in
high school, played both at Maryland both you know lacrosse
and then competing at safety for the Terps. Other guys
out there that that stood out, you know, Jack Kaiser
is a guy that was around the ball, a bunch
of Notre Dame linebacker again, like Riley Leonard, probably still
(17:39):
feeling the after effects a planner in a national title
not too long ago. But I think what it did
today was set the table for guys that we want
to see kind of ramp the game up as we
get in to Wednesday's practice.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, looking forward to seeing what we get day two
of practice. Usually it's a little crisper. Even it sounds
like it's not a big deal. But going from just
shells to putting some pads on it just makes everything
go even a little faster, and I think that makes
things easier to see and I think hopefully we'll see
some better execution as well. But if you're looking for
tight ends, you're going to like this draft. You're going
to like what you've seen here in Mobile. We've got
(18:13):
running backs, We've got a ton of defensive lineman. I
think this is it's always a kind of a microcosm
of the draft as a whole. What you see down
here in Mobile, and those are the strengths of this draft.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, I would agree with you, and you have final thought.
There are those position groups to me really stood out.
But again, I think a big hat tip to the
offensive line guys on the national side in particular for
rising to the challenge because this is an opportunity, you know,
like they know that these are some extremely highly regarded
defensive players in that position group, and so those those
(18:45):
O line guys I think kind of felt like they
took that personally and really kind of came out there
and they won the day on the national side when
you look at you know, O line versus D line.
So excited to see who takes the next step as
we move forward here.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
But a lot to like from day one.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
And I'm excited to see if those offensive linemen are
going to jump the snap count every single rep like
they did today. And I'm gonna excite. I've seen I've
been to a million of these things, so this is
I've been over twenty of these Day two. The defensive lineman,
look at the difference in the jerseys. They will be
taped up, they will not have any cloth to grab,
and then they're gonna give holy hell to the offensive
line coach for allowing them to get an early start
(19:21):
in every single rep.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, we're gonna start to see some of those inequalities
start to level out a little bit. There were definitely
a lot of flags on the ground. Hopefully we can
clean it up really on both sides of the ball
and get this thing rolling. But a lot of fund
still to come and excited for what the rest of
the week is.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Going to bring us.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You can't see it. I think we almost have a
sunset over a red shoulder, right, We actually do have
a sunset back there well, Bill showing out. Appreciate you
guys hanging with us. That was a little snippet of
what we saw. Again, check out the coverage on NFL
Network all throughout the day. We've got practices coming your
way all day Wednesday and Thursday. The game will be
coming your way on Saturday. So appreciate you guys hanging
(19:54):
with us. We see you next time right here on
with the sticks.
Hosts And Creators
Daniel Jeremiah
Bucky Brooks
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