Senior Bowl - North Practice Day One
- TE Clark Harris (Rutgers) working against Adam Carriker in line drills, while eventually thrown down by Carriker, he held the block for a 3 mississippi count before Carriker had him down and could begin his rush.
- In a 9 on 7 scrimmage, a hole was opened with LT Levi Brown (Penn State) turning LDE Anthony Spencer (Purdue) outside while RB Brian Leonard (Rutgers) led into the ‘b’ gap and cleared OLB Stewart Bradley (Nebraska) out of the hole pancaking him. LG Josh Beekman (Boston College) chipped LDE Brandon Mebane (California), leaving C Dan Mozes (West Virginia) to wrestle with him, before moving to the next level and blocking MLB David Harris (Michigan). OLB Paul Posluzny (Penn State) was unblocked and filled the hole behind Beekman for the tackle on RB Tony Hunt (Penn State). RDT Quinn Pit**** (Ohio State) fought laterally splitting the RG/RT double-team to get in on the play - he also prevented the RG Doug Datish (Ohio State) from handing him off to the RT Marshall Yanda (Iowa) which meant the G could not get out to block Posluzny. TE Scott Chandler (Iowa) had a good block on RDE Victor Abiamiri. - Analysis: Harris made the play, getting outside Beekman, preventing Hunt from getting into the hole created by the blocks, and turning him back inside where Posluzny and Pit****’s pursuit could make the play. Leonard won the leverage battle with Bradley, getting under his pads. Harris held up well to Beekman’s block, sealing the hole. Hunt hesitated in the hole, but was still able to generate positive yardage against Posluzny’s tackle. Harris, Leonard, and Pit**** made the strongest positive impressions, Brown and Chandler get positives for good blocks. Hunt wasn’t able to bounce outside, with his weight (239), he basically was a smaller version of Heath Evans.
- 1 on 1 drills: WR Aundrae Allison (East Carolina) and WR Brandon Myles (West Virginia) look like decent possession receivers while WR Jason Hill (Washington State) showed some quicks and speed. CB Daymeion Hughes (California), CB Josh Wilson (Maryland), and CB Leon Hall (Michigan) all looked decent in coverage.
- Line drills: DE Adam Carriker (Nebraska) beat the LG Doug Datish (Ohio State) inside getting his hands on the G to steer him. DE Jay Moore (Nebraska) beat LT Ryan Harris (Notre Dame) with a good straight arm on a speed rush outside. RT Marshall Yanda (Iowa) won against DE Victor Abiamiri’s (Notre Dame) bull rush. DT Brandon Mebane (California) beat OC/OG Dan Mozes (West Virginia) with a good power move. Mozes won the second battle, but got knocked down doing it. DT Amobi Okoye (Louisville) was managed by OC/OG Josh Beekman (Boston College) twice in a row. DT David Patterson (Ohio State) split with OC/OG Dan Mozes (WV). DE Lamarr Woodley (Michigan) was handled by LT Levi Brown (Penn State), quite easily the second time on the inside move. Woodley did show good quickness and speed on the edge, Brown just did a great job of staying with him. DE Anthony Spencer (Purdue) stressed RT James Marten (Boston College) on a speed move, but Martin was able to get his hands on him enough to knock him off balance and buy himself time to recover and cut the inside corner to drive him past the “QB”. Spencer had the speed, but Marten’s hand punch saved his QB. DT Amobi Okoye beat OG/OC Manuel Ramirez (Texas Tech) with a spin move, Ramirez shook it iff and owned him on the next try. Ramirez is a OT moving inside and hasn’t played much from a 3-point stance in TT’s offense.
- scrimmage: 1st play was a 3-step drop/quick out overthrown by QB Drew Stanton (Michigan State). Anthony Spencer was easily handled by Levi Brown. Stewart Bradley was at WLB and showed good reaction reading the pocket and trying to get outside to help the CB Marcus McCauley (Fresno State) who was off allowing WR Aundrae Allison (East Carolina) to get open quickly.
2nd play, this was the same play run above handing off to Tony Hunt behind the left side. Brown handled Spencer again. Leonard handled Stewart who filled well but is losing the leverage battle. Beekman chipped Mebane and drove Harris outside, but Harris’ positioning again forced Hunt to turn back inside and meet Posluzny coming over to fill. S Josh Gattis (Wake Forest) was playing deep and came into the picture very late. CB Leon Hall did a better job on coming up in run support from the RCB spot (Offense’s right).
NFL Network wants us to look at John Gruden’s face and not the action on the field, so they have an inset window on Gruden taking up half my screen.
3rd play, RB Kolby Smith (Louisville) was offset right with Brian Leonard at Tailback. Stanton and Leonard made a nice play action fake allowing Stanton to roll out and hit Smith flaring into the flat. Stewart Bradley was keying on Smith and went with him - though at that point the coverage looked a lot like John Gruden’s face.
4th play, DE Jay Moore working against LT Ryan Harris got pressure on the QB. DE Lamarr Woodley was able to beat TE Clark Harris inside, coming free on 3 mississppi. Coverage upfield was apparently good since Stanton finally went to his dump-off RB Tony Hunt at 5 mississippi, Hunt dropped it.
5th play, DB Eric Weddle (Utah) was up on the line inside the WR, he read the run and went in to take on RB/FB Brian Leonard. TE Scott Chandler (Iowa) locked it up with DE Jay Moore, while DE/DT Adam Carriker was doubled inside by the LT/LG. Those three defenders shut down the left side, leaving the LBs picking their noses. The handoff was fumbled killing the play, but Hunt would have needed to try and cut back right for any hope of positive yardage. The second set of LBs appears to be SLB Prescott Burgess (Michigan), MLB H.B. Blades (Pittsburgh), and WLB Boo McLee (West Virginia), Blades was the only one who seemed to know what he was doing, and he was late.
6th play, DE/DT Adam Carriker beat LG Doug Datish outside and practically took the handoff in the backfield.
7th play , 3-step drop, play action, WR flare easily read and handled by CB Marcus McCauley. DT Brandon Mebane drove the C (Mozes I think) back almost into the QB.
8th play, handoff to Leonard at tailback going off-tackle. The RT Marshall Yanda rode RDE Victor Abiamiri downfield and outside. RDT Mebane was doubled by RG Datish and C Mozes, LT Levi Brown blocked down on LDT Patterson and TE Clark Harris stood up LDE Anthony Spencer. MLB David Harris beat WLB Posluzney to Leonard, meeting him at the line for what would have been a one or two yard gain. Unless Posluzny was at MLB and Harris WLB, I can’t explain why he was out of the play. SLB Stewart stayed home on the backside playing his responsibility. Gruden lined up TE Chandler as a WR to block the CB.
9th play, DE Anthony Spencer beat LT Levi Brown outside. The pass was completed over the middle to TE Clark Harris tightly covered by S Josh Gattis. Real world, QB Troy Smith might have got the ball off if he stepped up (he had room), but more likely he was strip sacked by Spencer. They showed a replay centered on MLB David Harris who was sucked in by the play action and failed to read the TE releasing inside. SLB Bradley gave the TE a chuck, then keyed on RB Kolby Smith coming through and flaring into the flat, MLB Harris wound up doubling on Smith instead of dropping into an underneath zone which would have taken the TE away.
10th play (fumbled snap, replayed again), RB Kolby Smith running play to the right side - almost a stretch play. TE Clark Harris blocked down on RDE Lamarr Woodley who threw him off, but then ran into RG Manuel Ramirez who pulled outside and the RT blocked down on the RDT before releasing and “holding” SLB Prescott Burgess. Brian Leonard led and blocked SS Eric Weddle. LDE Jay Moore was unblocked, but kept his backside containment instead of haring off on the chase. LDT/DE Adam Carriker beat his man and was chasing from behind. Weddle strung the play out, allowing Woodley and MLB Blades to get off their blocks and combine for a tackle at the LOS.
11th play, LT Ryan Harris was barely able to keep LDE Jay Moore off the QB. RDE Lamarr Woodley came into the picture about 3.5 mississippi on a 5-step drop.
The camera focus is now narrowly on the QB and nobody else is in the picture to evaluate.
Closing soliquey from NFL network commentators: Leon Hall, Amobi Okoye and Levi Brown looked the best.
Rewatching this using slo-mo and tuning out the drivel from the commentators laughing at Gruden, the player who had the greatest impact was S Eric Weddle (Utah) followed closely by the man struggling to block him RB Brian Leonard (Rutgers). The two of them just made plays and showed they both have good trench warfare skills.
Summary:
- RB Brian Leonard (6’1” 224) good blocking, though he had trouble with Weddle. He executed well across the board.
- LT Levi Brown (6’6” 323) was beaten once by Anthony Spencer, but looked very good overall.
- TE Clark Harris (6’6” 257) struggled a bit with Lamarr Woodley, but did well overall.
- TE Scott Chandler (6’7” 268) also looked good blocking.
- S Eric Weddle (5’11” 201) solid job in run support, no coverage opportunities observed.
- DE Adam Carriker (6’6” 292) dominating player.
- DE Jay Moore (6’5” 276) looked good, may need to get stronger, but looked good nonetheless.
- DE Lamarr Woodley (6’2” 269) had flashes in the scrimmage, wasn’t doing as well in one-on-ones.
- DE Anthony Spencer (6’3” 266) was much the same as Woodley.
- MLB David Harris (6’2” 239) great against the run, completely out of place on the one pass I saw.
- OLB Stewart Bradley (6’4” 256) filled quickly against the run, but was handily blocked by Leonard, showed good coverage and awareness in pass defense.
