2019 Senior Bowl Rumor Mill

This is Charlie Campbell’s Friday 2019 Senior Bowl Rumor Mill. Charlie is reporting live from Mobile, Ala., and he’ll describe what he sees at practice and whom certain prospects talk to all week. If you want to see other 2019 Senior Bowl Reports, click the link. Follow me @walterfootball for updates, and stay tuned all week for tons of 2019 Senior Bowl coverage.

2019 Senior Bowl: Friday Rumor Mill

By Charlie Campbell – @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 five of the 2019 Senior Bowl week.

I surveyed a number of team sources about which players really helped themselves this week. Here is the list from their responses:

– Mississippi State edge defender Montez Sweat (multiple sources)
– Louisiana Tech edge defender Jaylon Ferguson
– Wyoming edge defender Carl Granderson
– Maryland defensive end Byron Cowart
– Delaware safety Nasir Adderley
– Temple cornerback Rock Ya-Sin
– Miami cornerback Sheldrick Redwine
– Kentucky cornerback Lonnie Johnson
– Duke quarterback Daniel Jones
– Missouri quarterback Drew Lock
– Slippery Rock running back Wes Hills
– West Virginia wide receiver Gary Jennings
– Ohio State wide receiver Terry McLaurin
– South Carolina wide receiver Deebo Samuel
– Northern Colorado wide receiver Alex Wesley

The quarterbacks of the Senior Bowl are fortunate to have landed with two excellent quarterback head coaches in Kyle Shanahan and Jon Gruden. Both of them are going to give the quarterbacks a good preview for what is in store for them come training camp and their rookie seasons. The Oakland staff landed the top of the first-round candidates in Missouri’s Drew Lock and Duke’s Daniel Jones.

In speaking to Raiders coaches around halfway through the Senior Bowl week, they liked Lock the most. They said that Lock was picking things up faster than Jones, and they were a little surprised that Jones was not picking things up as fast as Lock was. They like Lock’s skill set and on-field confidence along with how he was picking up the playbook and concepts. While it is still a small sample size and some prospects fade while others close out the week strong, Lock was the most impressive quarterback to the Raiders’ staff.

This week, WalterFootball.com has heard about a number of high profile early-round prospects who have character concerns, including Jerry Tillery, Jachai Polite, Greedy Williams and Noah Fant. There are two other prospects who have come up as having significant off the field concerns. Those players are Utah safety Marquise Blair and Texas cornerback Kris Boyd. Some team sources really liked how Blair played at Utah, showing physicality and playing like his hair was on fire. Boyd has a decent skill set, but a lot of technical issues in coverage that hold him back.

However, teams are concerned about some of the habits that Blair and Boyd have. They are worried that both of them could have issues leading to suspensions because of that. Thus, Blair and Boyd have the potential to slide in the draft lower than where their talent level indicates they should go.

There have been some media comparisons to New Mexico State linebacker Terrill Hanks with Colts star rookie linebacker Darius Leonard, and there are some similarities. Both of them are good athletes with speed and come from small schools. However, team sources were much higher on Leonard this time a year ago than they are on Hanks. Leonard was consistently being graded in the second round, while Hanks received grades a round or two lower by many area scouts. Those scouts say they like Hanks, but Leonard really showed well in pass coverage during his college career and at the Senior Bowl. Conversely, Hanks has had issues in pass coverage. Part of that is from New Mexico State hurting him in the assignments they gave him, like having him play nickel corner which was not fair to Hanks because that is not putting him in a position for success or giving him snaps in typical linebacker coverage assignments. Even with that consideration, evaluators feel that Hanks definitely needs to improve his pass coverage to become a three-down starter.

Another concern teams have is Hanks’ ability to pick up their schemes. Sources have said that Hanks did not illustrate that he has a high football I.Q. during interviews at the Senior Bowl, so they think he may need time, patience and a lot of work to learn his scheme to become assignment-sound.





2020 Senior Bowl Home
2020 Senior Bowl Recap
2020 Senior Bowl: Rumor Mill
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Quarterbacks
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Running Backs
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Wide Receivers
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Tight Ends
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Offensive Linemen
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Defensive Linemen
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Linebackers
2020 Senior Bowl Weigh-In: Defensive Backs

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