This is Charlie Campbell’s Thursday 2018 Senior Bowl Practice Report for the South Team. Charlie is reporting live from Mobile, Ala., and he’ll describe what he sees at practice and whom certain prospects talk to all week.
The South team took the field of Ladd-Peebles Stadium for their second practice of the Senior Bowl. The Houston Texans coaching staff ran the practice and will coach them all week. The Texans staff had the players practicing in full pads. Here is a run down of the noteworthy players.
The South practice ended a half hour early and they spent a lot of time doing special teams, so the final Senior Bowl practice was not as noteworthy as some of the other sessions.
The South defensive line has gotten the better of their offensive counterparts for a lot of Senior Bowl week, and the one steady exception to that has been Georgia tackle/guard Isaiah Wynn. Wynn participated in the one-on-ones for a time including a physical battle with Alabama’s DaShawn Hand. Unfortunately for the South, Wynn left the Thursday practice early with what looked like a shoulder injury. It would be surprising if Wynn played in the Senior Bowl game on Saturday.
Clemson guard Taylor Hearn has struggled this week, and that continued on Thursday. Virginia defensive tackle Andrew Brown used speed to fire by Hearn for a win in the one-on-ones. Even though Hearn has good size, he doesn’t knock defenders off the ball. Hearn needs to redistribute body weight to turn some fat into muscle to make him more capable of blocking NFL defensive linemen. Hearn should have returned to Clemson, and he could use a redshirt year in the NFL.
UCF tight end Jordan Aikens was one of the more impressive players for the South on Wednesday. He ran good routes and made some difficult catches. On Thursday, Aikens continued to show he is a receiving threat, but he had some dropped passes on what should have been nice gains. Aikens is not a good blocker, so he is going to have to be a sure-handed receiving threat in order to carve out a role in the NFL.
LSU wide receiver D.J. Chark had a nice practice on Thursday. He ran some good routes to get separation from cornerbacks. San Diego State cornerback Kameron Kelly struggled to run with Chark as the Tiger wideout was able to get space from Kelly coming out of his breaks. Alabama cornerback Levi Wallace also was victimized by Chark as the quickness of Chark allowed him to get open on a dig route for a reception from Western Kentucky quarterback Mike White. Chark could be a mid-rounder who also has added value of being a special-teams contributor if he can returning duties.
Texas-San Antonio defensive end Marcus Davenport has had a mixed week showing his good physical talent while also illustrating that he is a work in progress for the NFL. Davenport had a sack in the team scrimmage, using speed to knife into the inside. However, he didn’t pull up and fell into the legs of Richmond quarterback Kyle Lauletta to knock down the signal-caller for a sack along with some other defenders. It was a mistake to hit the quarterback in practice and that resulted in some corrections from the Texans coaching staff. Davenport has to improve his technique and work on more pass-rushing moves.
