East West Shrine Game Report and Senior Bowl Practice Reports

Mark Morse

2 years ago at 11:44 am ET

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Posted Under: 2022 NFL Draft

David Butler II - USA TODAY Sports

Reports have been coming in all week from various sources on whom the experts have been impressed with at the Senior Bowl.  I will highlight some of those players and the source that has reported the data.  The Senior Bowl is Saturday on NFL Network at 2:30.

The following players were selected by their peers, the players they have been practicing against all week, as Practice Players of the Week.  The list of players was released by Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy.  The Awards were given at a banquet held on Friday night.  This list mirrors many of the reports that have been circulated by draft experts all week.

NFL.com Top 10 Players in the Senior Bowl by Daniel Jeremiah

These are players Jeremiah thought had the best week of practice.  You will start and see the same names appear from multiple sources.

Greg Dulcich TE UCLA

Kingsley Enagbare EDGE South Carolina

Logan Hall DT Houston

Jermaine Johnson EDGE Florida St

Travis Jones DT UConn

Trevor Penning OT Northern Iowa

Jalen Pitre S Baylor

Khalil Shakir WR Boise St

Malik Willis QB Liberty

DeVontae Wyatt DT Georgia

Next Level Scouting

Christian Watson WR North Dakota St – 6’4” quick off the line, sunk into his cuts, shot away from defenders, smooth routes, catches the ball away from his body, blocks well on run plays, 5^th highest speed measured at the Senior Bowl, clocked at 20.71 MPH.

Calvin Austin WR Memphis – at 5’7” (2” shorter than advertised) put on a clinic with his jets, cooked press coverage, no press and he just blew past defenders.

Coby Bryant CB Cincinnati – Calm, fluid, and confident.  No matter which receiver he was matched against

Akayleb Evans CB Missouri – The biggest surprise in the Senior Bowl so far.  Standout in pass coverage, easily turned and ran with WR’s blanketing his assigned WR.

NFL Draft Scout

Kenny Pickett QB Pittsburgh – Arm Strength poise and delivery stood out.  “Good Players should look good in Mobile” per Jim Nagy.  NOTE:  Pickett would not allow the Senior Bowl officials to measure his hand size.  This is a red flag that he is trying to hide the fact that he has small hands.  His 2nd practice in the rain and wind only highlighted that fact.  He had a miserable practice.

Jermaine Johnson EDGE Florida St. – 1^st step quickness and speed looked better in Mobile than on tape.  He worked over several O-lineman ranked in the top 50.

Sam Howell QB North Carolina – showed good arm strength, cutting the ball through the wind on Day 2.

Billy Zappe QB Western Kentucky – He may be slightly over 6’, but he throws such a nice deep ball.

Dominique Robinson EDGE Miami (OH) – length, power, and quickness overpower OT’s.

Christian Watson WR North Dakota St – 6’4” and very fluid

Jordan Stout P Penn St – Made an 85 yard kickoff.  Stand up Patriots scouts.  This is just about the time we replace our punter!

NFL Stock Exchange

The following players had a good week in Mobile and helped their draft position.

Malik Willis QB Liberty

Jermaine Johnson EDGE Florida St

Dameon Pierce RB Florida

Christian Watson WR North Dakota St

Calvin Austin WR Baylor

Perrion Winfrey DT Oklahoma

Travis Jones DT UConn

Coby Bryant CB Cincinnati

Pigskin Paul Guilmette

GREG DULCICH   TE    UCLA   6’036/248   9 7/8″H-33 7/8″A-81 2/8″ WS   #85/American Squad

Dulcich was a late add to Draft Lists, Few LBs are able to stay with him up-field or on crossing patterns. Soft hands create a large target area for his QB. He catches everything thrown his way and is a threat to pull away from many DB after the catch. I would project late Round 2, early to mid-Round 3. Quick comparison, has me seeing him in the Travis Kelce class as a pro.

BRAXTON JONES  OT    SOUTHERN UTAH   6’051/306   10 1/8″H-36″A-84 1/4″WS  #77/American

Small school player who seems to have unlimited potential. He looks quite lean but showed good strength this week. He has a natural knee bend and understands the basics of pass pro, especially hand/arm usage to keep defenders off his body. Certainly not a bulldozer in run blocking, but again he uses his arms/hands well to scream off defenders from the ballcarrier.   A solid, teaching OL Coach can help him attain a starting job after a couple of years.

JEREMY RUCKERT   TE   Ohio State   6’5/250       10 1/8″H/32 3/4″A/79 1/4″WS     #88/National

Unfortunately, Ruckert suffered a lower leg injury in the Thursday practice, so he won’t play in the game,

*Just as an aside, with adding both Dulcich & Ruckert to my Top 100, I now have 5 TE in that Top 100. However, it looks like there is a good chance that there may not be any of them in Round 1.

JOSHUA WILLIAMS   CB   Fayetteville St   6’024/193    9 1/4″H-32 1/4″A-78 1/8″WS   #30/National

WILLIAMS was in my Top 200, and just on the cusp of breaking into the Top 100. I kept him out there knowing I would get a better chance to assess his talents for a week in Mobile. He showed some of the deficiencies here of a guy trying to step it up against a higher level of competition. But overall he held up well, especially in his cover skills. He also shows better ball skills than the average CB coming out of college, where soft zones still prevail. His size is highly desirable given the trend back to bigger wideouts in the NFL.

My final two guys are players who had been in my Top 100, but I had bounced them out after the final list of Underclassmen eligible for the Draft was officially released. After this week’s work, they are going back in.

TRAVIS JONES   DT   UCONN    6’043/326      10 1/4″H-34″A-82 3/4″WS     #57/National

UCONN games were pretty much unwatchable to my eyes this past season… again. So underclassman declaring pushed JONES out of my Top 100. It took me less than one full practice to realize the error of my ways in rating him as a future pro. He was literally unblockable in one-on-one’s down here.

KHALIL SHAKIR    WR    BOISE ST    6’0/193    9 3/8″H-29″A-70 3/8″WS    #14/National

Seems like this guy has been the No.1 receiver target for Boise a long time. And he was originally in my Top 100. I had second thoughts about bumping him out early last month, but when I needed to make room for 8 Underclassmen Shakir was out. He’s back in because he showed out all week. Quicker than flat-out fast, but he gets separation and showed very good ball skills and ups this past week.  We will have to wait until his Pro-Day to confirm his estimated 4.42 speed.  Shakir did not receive a Combine invite.I’ll

East-West Shrine game recap

EJ Perry QB Brown – from Andover MA was named Most Valuable Player of the game.  It was a good week for Perry as he received a late invite to NFL Combine March 1-7 at Lucas Oil Stadium, in Indianapolis.    He completed 13-18 passes, most of which were in no-huddle hurry-up offense because the American team trailed 19-0.   He threw for 241 yards, 3 TDs, and no interceptions for a passer rating of 153.9.  That’s damn near perfect.  It is going to be interesting to see what he runs at the combine because he is more of an athlete than just a QB.  He stands 6’2’ 212 lbs and runs an estimated 4.62 40.

In his career at Brown and Boston College, he threw for 6, 299 yards, 47 TDs, and 27 INT.  He also ran for 1199 yards.  He showed off his running ability on a pair of 2 pt conversions and a few other runs.

Perry was easily the most productive quarterback leading an impressive comeback. It’s also a rarity that the Offensive MVP comes from the losing team.

Ty Chandler, RB, North Carolina – Chandler ran hard in his 11 carries for 69 yards.  He was most impressive, making a good judgment when to cut and get upfield.  He needed a strong showing to even be considered draftable in this RB-heavy draft.

Jelani Woods,  TE, Virginia – Originally a Quarterback recruit at Oklahoma St, he converted to TE.  He was considered an excellent blocker.  Transferred to Virginia and he breaks out with 44 catches and 598 yards and 8 TDs.  Woods only had three grabs for 30 yards — one of which was a touchdown — but he showcased snappy breaks in his routes at nearly 6-foot-7. For a big man, his route running was excellent.  His ability to separate at that size is unusual, and certainly a positive to his game.

He also ended the game by recovering an onside kick by the East squad with a one-handed grab.  Huge hands and catch radius make him an attractive choice.

Pierre Strong, RB, South Dakota State – Strong took a screen pass 65 yards for a touchdown, demonstrating not only impressive down-the-field speed but vision and cutting skills to set up his blocks.  He broke a Jack Sandborn tackle on his way for the TD.   He played very little and had one other good run.

Samori Toure, WR, Nebraska – Toure fueled the East club’s comeback, first with a nice spin move on a throw from Perry into the flat that had no business finishing as a touchdown.

Later, Toure beat his cornerback down the sideline for his second score of the fourth quarter — this time a 17-yarder — to bring this team within one score. Toure finished with 32 yards on five receptions and the pair of touchdowns

Diego Fargot, LB NAVY – Named the Defensive MVP with 7 tackles, 1 Tackle for loss, 1 Pass Breakup, and 1 sack.  It is rare that the losing team has either Offensive or Defensive MVP, but in this case, both Perry and Fargot were on the American team that lost.  Fargot has Bill Belichick UDFA signee written all over him.  Unfortunately, after this performance, I think Fargot gets drafted in the 7^th round.

Kyle Phillips, WR UCLA – He had a special week in Mobile.  He was always open and caught everything thrown to him.  He is strictly a slot receiver in the mold of Hunter Renfrow.  Need to see his speed numbers to determine if he will get drafted.  Phillips got kicked up with a slight injury and did not play in the game.