The first practice of the West team in the East-West Shrine was held in St. Petersburg, Fla. inside Tropicana Field. The players practicing in shells: helmets, shoulder pads, and shorts.
The star of the West practice was Texas A&M nose tackle Daylon Mack. In the run scrimmage, Mack was exceptional. He started off by eating up a hole up the middle to stuff a run for no gain. He then fired a gap to get a tackle for a loss. In the pass rushing one-on-ones, Mack used a swim move to get the better of Pit’s Alex Bookser on a few reps. He bulled through college teammate Keaton Sutherland. Mack used his power to shed a block and then got to the quarterback for a sack in the team scrimmage.
Mack would flash some special ability for years with the Aggies, but he was a rotational player because of bad work ethic and his failure to stay on top of his conditioning to take on a lot of snaps. Mack still needs to improve his conditioning, but he showed that he has a good skill set with quickness, pad level, power and a strong base. This was an excellent start to the week for the heavy nose tackle.
There were two offensive tackles on the West team that blocked well and really helped themselves. One of them was Sioux Falls’ Trey Pipkins. The 6-foot-7, 307-pounder has good length and a nice build to him. He showed nice feet in the position drills while also using his size, length and strength to tie up edge rushers in the pass rushing one-on-ones. After practice, Pipkins was swarmed by team scouts, as they sought to interview him and get more information on his history. This was an excellent start to the week for Pipkins, and he could have mid-round potential in a weak offensive tackle draft class.
The other tackle that had a strong start to the week was San Diego State’s Ryan Pope. Pope (6-7, 315) is put together well with size and length. He did well blocking on the edge and shows right tackle potential for the NFL. Like Pipkins, Pope had a lot of team scouts speaking with him after practice. Pope and Pipkins are on their way to improving their draft grade with this start to the week.
Texas tight end Andrew Beck is a physical blocker and has some receiving H-back ability. As a result, some evaluators like the idea of moving him to fullback. Beck (6-3, 255) could be a big lead blocker and a receiving threat out of the backfield. Beck looks like a natural football player on the field.
Typically, the quarterback play at the East-West Shrine is underwhelming, and that was the case for a lot of the practices on Monday. One quarterback who really struggled was Fresno State’s Marcus McMaryion. In speaking with some scouts, they did not like what they saw from McMaryion and thought his skill set could have issues translating to the NFL. He is going to need to practice a lot better on Tuesday and Wednesday to start changing some minds.
Rice punter Jack Fox really boomed the ball well in the special teams portion. He showed good hang time, distance and placement. A number of evaluators liked what they saw out of Fox on Monday.
Sources say that Oregon tight end Kano Dillon has really turned off evaluators with his attitude. Dillon needs a personality make over in the interviews over the next few nights to help compensate for some teams being very down on bringing him into their locker rooms.
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.
