2023 Senior Bowl Rumors Friday
Updated Feb. 3, 2023
By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter
@draftcampbell.
With all the general managers, coaches and scouts in attendance for the Senior Bowl there is a lot of chatter going around. Here are some of the highlights from around the league on Day 5 of the 2023 Senior Bowl week.
In surveying team sources, here is a list of Senior Bowl players who have helped themselves with a good week of practice:
- USC cornerback Mekhi Blackmon
- Michigan center Olusegun Oluwatimi
- Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz
- Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright
- Iowa State defensive end Will McDonald IV
- Illinois safety Sydney Brown
- Oregon State tight end Luke Musgrave
- Ole Miss wide receiver Jonathan Mingo
While some teams graded him on Day 2 of the 2023 NFL Draft, Clemson defensive end Myles Murphy is a consensus first-round pick for the 2023 NFL Draft because he has a good skill set and plays a premium position. Murphy is very much a love/hate prospect depending on which scout you speak with. The evaluators who love him feel he is fast, strong, athletic, and has a ton of untapped potential. Those who don’t like him said they think he could be “Clelin Ferrell 2.0” and feel he lacks intensity and plays too soft. They worry Murphy could continue a line of disappointing Clemson edge rushers that includes the likes of Ferrell, Kevin Dodd, Vic Beasley, Shaq Lawson, DaQuan Bowers and the late Gaines Adams. Some teams picking in the top 10 that could use defensive line help are not interested in Murphy, although others are. Hence, Murphy has a very wide selection range entering the workout stage of the 2023 NFL Draft process. Making matters more complicated with Murphy is that teams feel the Clemson program is not forthcoming and honest about its players. They say the Tigers staff is all sunshine and rainbows about their players while masking the issues that could be problems. Other schools, such as Alabama, are said to be much more straightforward. Thus, some players coming from Clemson require more scrutiny by a franchise’s investigators. On Wednesday, we discussed how the Jacksonville Jaguars would like to add talent at wide receiver and cornerback in the 2023 NFL Draft. In following up with team sources, they say Jacksonville wants to acquire two or three cornerbacks. One player to keep an eye on late in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft is Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo. Ringo is extremely similar to Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell. Campbell also is a Georgia product with excellent height, weight and speed. The Jacksonville scouting staff was part of drafting Campbell, so Ringo fits a lot of the criteria they like in a cornerback. If the Jaguars go with a receiver in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, a player to keep an eye on is USC wideout Jordan Addison. Even though Jacksonville has a smaller shifty receiver in Christian Kirk, the organization really likes Addison based on his tape and scouting him in person. The Jaguars would like a big outside wide receiver, but surprisingly, they are not high on TCU wideout Quentin Johnston. They see some issues with Johnston tracking balls downfield and feel he is a project who needs some development. While it still is early in the process, Addison and Ringo are two early candidates for Jacksonville. Over the past few months, we have documented in the Hot Press how sources from a number of teams have Bijan Robinson graded higher than other recent top-five running back prospects of Saquon Barkley, Leonard Fournette and Ezekiel Elliott. Just a few weeks ago, team sources across the league said that 2023 NFL Draft lacked true high first-round talent with the exception of Robinson, who was the only one receiving a consensus elite grade around the league. In following up this week with an AFC director of player personnel, they had something interesting to say about Robinson.
“Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs are two of the best players in the draft,” said the director. “They are two of the safest picks also. They get hurt by the position, but in terms of pure football players, they are near the top in this draft.”
Sources from the around the NFL are very intrigued to see how high Robinson will go in Round 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft and if he will end up being a Thursday night pick.
