2015 East-West Shrine Game: Monday’s West Team Practice Report
By Charlie Campbell –
@draftcampbell
The first practice of the West squad in the East-West Shrine was held in St. Petersburg, Florida under rainy skies with temperatures in the 60s. The West team is being coached by former Redskins head coach and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jim Zorn. Zorn had the players practicing in full pads.
With steady rain for the first half hour of practice, the high school field the players were practicing on was getting torn apart and was extremely sloppy. The wide receivers and cornerbacks had a horrific time keeping their footing as players were constantly slipping and falling down. The wet weather led to a ton of dropped passes and some fumbled handoffs as well. This wasn’t a good environment to evaluate the receivers and defensive backs.
The wet weather also impacted the attendance of scouts and NFL personnel as many waited for the rain to stop before going out to the practice.
One wide receiver who was able to overcome the conditions and impress was Washington’s Kasen Williams. He had some production earlier in his collegiate career before becoming a forgotten man in 2014. This practice didn’t start well as Williams had a drop in the one-on-ones, but he came back to impress in the team scrimmage. Williams had an impressive run after the catch on a wide receiver screen and made a nice hands catch on a slant to move the chains.
To help mitigate the damage of his down season, Williams could really use a big week in St. Petersburg. This was a strong start.
Between the two East-West teams, Nevada quarterback Cody Fajardo looked the best of the signal-callers on Day 1. He threw tight spirals and did the best job completing passes of all of the West quarterbacks. He was much better than South Carolina’s Dylan Thompson, who struggled on Monday.
There were a few defenders who were impressive. Baylor linebacker Bryce Hager had a number of good plays in the run scrimmage and the team scrimmage where he read his keys to fill a hole with a tough tackle. Hager (6-2, 230) looks too small to play middle linebacker, but he could be a backup outside linebacker and special teams contributor.
Scouts said that Stanford linebacker David Parry impressed them with his performance in the one-on-ones. Parry showed some scrappiness to him with strength and quickness that gave blockers issues.
Kansas State center B.J. Finney is a potential mid-round pick, and he had a mixed start to the week. Finney started the one-on-ones well by holding his ground against Northern Iowa’s Xavier Williams, but Parry beat him on a bull rush and followed it up by firing by Finney with speed. Finney needs to be more consistent with his ability to sustain blocks.
Oklahoma guard Adam Shead had a nice start. He handled Fresno State defensive tackle Tyeler Davison by standing him up on a bull rush. Shead followed that up by pancaking Xavier Williams into the turf. Shead has some power to him and doing well in the pass-rushing one-on-ones could really help his draft stock.
As stated above, there were a lot of dropped passes at this practice, and a bunch came courtesy of Regina wide receiver Addison Richards. Richards (6-5, 210) is a big wideout, but he dropped a handful of passes as he consistently went to body-catch the ball before it would bounce off his pads for incompletion. Maybe it was first-day jitters against better competition, but Richards didn’t look draftable.
North Dakota State linebacker Kyle Emanuel had an impressive sack with a speed rush to beat UNLV’s Brett Boyko in the team scrimmage.
Rice cornerback Bryce Callahan is a smaller slot corner, but he had a solid practice. Callahan did a nice job of preventing separation and made a diving pass breakup. He’s a cornerback to watch this week.
WalterFootball.com will have more recaps from the East-West Shrine practices on Tuesday and Wednesday along with a run-down of the post-practice team interviews. Follow @walterfootball for updates.
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Recap - 1/18
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Stock Report - 1/16
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Wednesday's East Team Practice Report - 1/14
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Wednesday's West Team Practice Report - 1/14
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Wednesday's East Team Interviews - 1/14
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Wednesday's West Team Interviews - 1/14
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Tuesday's East Team Practice Report - 1/13
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Tuesday's West Team Practice Report - 1/13
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Tuesday's East Team Interviews - 1/13
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Tuesday's West Team Interviews - 1/13
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Monday's East Team Practice Report - 1/12
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Monday's West Team Practice Report - 1/12
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Monday's East Team Interviews - 1/12
2015 East-West Shrine Game: Monday's West Team Interviews - 1/12
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