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Senior Bowl Practice Wrap: Defense – 2017 NFL Draft Prospects
The week of Senior Bowl practices is a worthwhile evaluation period. NFL coaches take teaching drills seriously and are encouraging but demand improvement. Many of these players are facing the best competition they’ve seen all season. However, it’s important to understand the limitations of the week. Practices are non-contact and repetitions are limited. This year’s […]
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Senior Bowl Day 2: Offense – 2017 NFL Draft Prospects
It was an action-packed day for both teams. Continuing the theme that players are on different development tracks and coaches recognize it, there’s no better place to begin on Day 2 than with the South wide receivers and Al Saunders.The work that the venerable receiving coach of the Browns revealed great intel on each of […]
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Senior Bowl Day 2: Defensive Practice Report – 2017 NFL Draft Prospects
The second day of Senior Bowl practice confirms first impressions and highlights the players who quickly grow comfortable with newer concepts and better competition. We’re still seeing limited repetitions in non-contact situations but, many players take a day to understand a drill they haven’t seen in college or fully assimilate the alignments and schemes they’ll […]
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A Senior Bowl Practice FAQ
Matt Waldman answers common questions posed to him by writers and readers about the practices and player development. At the tail end of practice, a draft writer approached me with questions about the sessions, player performance, and player development. He wanted my thoughts on what he observed. His observations and subsequent questions were similar to […]
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A Senior Bowl Primer
What I’ve learned about these practices and events and how I approach them. [Matt’s Note: I originally wrote this in 2017. With minor updates, these thoughts still apply.] Whether you’re a writer attending the Senior Bowl for the first time or you’re new to the all-star game as a fan, I’m sharing my perspective here. […]
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Senior Bowl Offensive Wrap
What Waldman learned about each offensive skill player after three Senior Bowl practices. The Mobile Mardi Gras parade derailed our opportunity to reveal the tape for extra nuggets to share with you, but missing out on practice tape is far from a devastating development. The takeaways I seek from the Senior Bowl practices are basic: […]
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Senior Bowl Defensive Wrap
There’s really no sugar coating it; it was a weird Senior Bowl week. The North practices were strong, but there weren’t any clear difference makers among the front seven prospects. The South roster was strong, but their practice sessions were light on full speed drills. And it didn’t help that there were 17 front seven […]
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Brief Thoughts on South Practice Day 2
When you think you got a highlighter and what you got was a light blocker…during a rainy week no less. It’s totally metaphorical for the South Practice as it is literal for the Senior Bowl event. If you asked me this afternoon from the nosebleeds of Ladd Peeples Stadium about the Jacksonville-led practice on a […]
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Rod Marinelli: Mickey Goldmill and the Physics of Defensive Line Play
Widely recognized as one of the best teachers in the game, Rod Marinelli’s direct, passionate, encouraging, and personable demeanor was on display throughout practice. As I stalked Rod Marinelli from one end of Ladd-Peebles Stadium today, I kept hearing Mickey Goldmill and Richard Feynman in my head. Stay with me. The parallels to Rocky Balboa’s […]
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Defenders I’ll Be Watching In Mobile
Bramel shares where practice helps analysts value defensive prospects and who he’ll be watching perform these drills in Mobile. Some argue the limited playbook and lack of full contact during team drills prevent a full reckoning of a defensive player’s talent during Senior Bowl practices. I always counter that there’s much to see in the […]