Introducing the Arrowhead Pride All-Senior Bowl team

After spending a few days watching live practices, talking to some prospects, rubbing elbows with scouts/draft analysts and watching hours of film in Mobile, Alabama, the Arrowhead pride Draft Team decided to have a little fun on the final day.

Craig Stout and I went a perfect three for three on morning breakfasts at The Ruby Slipper, finished our delicious breakfast and decided to make a watch guide for everyone for this weekend for the Reese's’ Senior Bowl. The Senior Bowl will be held on Saturday, January 26 at 1:30 p.m. Arrowhead Time and is televised on the NFL Network.

This is the All-Senior Bowl Team from the Arrowhead Pride Draft Team.

A full rundown of all the players will be located at the end of each section for quick reference following a brief description of the position groups as we saw them. The full list has players listed by position in depth chart form (for example, the top guy is the starter, followed by backups. The full list will also include the player’s school, jersey number, what team he is playing on, and the day we preliminary have them graded for).

Offense

Quarterback: The entire quarterback class was rather underwhelming for all the hype it received going into the week but Daniel Jones looked the most refined and had the best release of the bunch. Like the other quarterbacks, Jones struggled with accuracy plenty, but his ball-handling on play action and footwork was noticeably better than the rest of the cast. The second-best quarterback ended up being Drew Lock, pretty much by default. He has a lot to clean up before he’s ready for the NFL game, but he interviewed well and showed the ultimate upside enough to draw interest.

Running back: In contention for the least talented position overall, the running backs in Mobile didn’t impress on any level. Tony Pollard as a very intriguing skill set, often used a joker/slot receiver at Memphis, and showcased natural hands and above average route running for running back. Wes Hills was a late addition and called up after performing well in the NFLPA game the previous weekend, but he really struggled with the step up in competition on the first day. As the week went on, however, he was able to catch on quickly and found his footing shining in pass protection and receiving drills. An honorable mention is Bruce Anderson out of North Dakota State who left on the second day with an injury.

Wide receiver: A much more impressive group, Deebo Samuel leads this charge, showcasing just about every skill one wants out of a wide receiver. His ability to create separation in short areas, fast feet, and strong hand consistently really boosted his draft stock. Jakobi Meyers is an ex-QB that is still finishing his transition to wide receiver but shows good breaks and body control on his route stems. The guy that improved his stock the most this week is Terry McLaurin, who got an invite mostly to showcase his special teams prowess. McLaurin ended up stealing the show. Great releases, strong hands and quick breaks led to him making defenders looking silly all week.

Slot receiver: Penny Hart and Andy Isabella are essentially the same player, but they filled a need that nearly every NFL team has anymore. Slot receivers operating best with free releases showcasing good deep speed, incredibly quick feet and explosive breaks makes them incredibly difficult to stick within man coverage.

Tight end: Foster Moreau is a huge man—not just in his height, but his thickness and width paired with extremely smooth movement skills. Not incredibly sudden in his breaks, he still runs clean routes, uses his body to box out players and has powerful hands that meet the ball away from his frame. Josh Oliver is a more traditional tight end but has dynamic playmaking ability to challenge defenses over the top on any given play.

Offensive tackle: Chuma Edoga was under the radar coming in but picked up a ton of steam thanks to his great footwork, patient hands and ability to consistently drive defenders up the arc. Kaleb McGary is essentially the opposite of Edoga and instead wins with incredibly powerful hands that knock rushers off their path or move defenders in the run game. Andre Dillard is another smooth moving OT that has fantastic feet to mirror rushers but does need to learn to operate against length a little bit better.

Interior offensive line: Elgton Jenkins isn’t the most athletic guy but he is a powerhouse that holds up against bull rush like a brick wall and digs players out of the run lane routinely. Chris Lindstrom is similar in his powerful play but also showcases good athleticism to pull around the horn. Ben Powers, another powerful guard, gets his hands on defenders and is probably still driving them around right now. Garrett Bradberry is our first guy of a different mold—much more athletic and lighter in the trunk, he shows great quickness to slide laterally or flip his hips around all around defenders.

Pen to paper

Defense

EDGE: Montez Sweat leads off the entire Senior Bowl player list and along with looking the part, he was able to showcase a premier rush plan rep after rep and maximize his length and perform multiple counters. LJ Collier is the captain of the “All Chirp Team” but was able to back it up with great energy, extremely powerful hands, surprising cornering ability both on the edge and inside and the ability to maximize his length with great long arm moves. Oshane Ximines was a bit more up and down than the other two but had the best pure outside, speed rushes and shows the best ability to flatten and turn that corner up the arc. Jalen Jelks, similar to Ximines, flashed some great pass rush moves but also struggled to form a consistent pass rush plan.

Interior defensive line: Daylon Mack continues his all-star season dominance, as he is a completely immovable tank on the interior but has enough explosiveness to take a gap if a blocker is just sitting back preparing for his power. Khalen Saunders isn’t quite as powerful, but showcases surprising lateral agility, locates the QB/RB consistently, and counters off his rush to that location extremely fast. Kingsley Keke has to work on his ball get-off but once he’s moving, his explosive hands were audible even against pads and his ability to turn around blockers on the interior is phenomenal. Anthony Nelson told us in an interview he played exclusively on the edge at Iowa but got plenty of reps on the inside and he was fantastic with his ability to dip and slip under blocks on the inside.

Linebacker: Sutton Smith had a rough go as a pure EDGE on limited reps but his positional change to off-ball linebacker looked good. The most fluid mover in his transitions of the group and he showed improvement (coach-ability) every day. Terrill Hanks not only looks like a superhero, but his burst rivals that of Flash as well. Great physicality in coverage with the athleticism to chase anyone down. David Long makes the list essentially by being around the ball routinely and being just big enough for the NFL; linebacker along with running back were the two positions that were the least inspiring.

Cornerback: Rock Ya-Sin had the hardest matchup over and over with Samuel, but he had plenty of wins. Specifically working on his off-man coverage, as he told us an interview, Ya-Sin showed impressive speed turns and ball skills. Lonnie Johnson rivals McLaurin in terms of biggest riser based on his ability to press just about any wide receiver while using the sideline perfectly. Mark Fields is less physical than the other guys on this list but he looked very pro-ready and his ability to match and mirror was most impressive. Amani Oruwariye had some extremely impressive reps, showcasing why he is considered a potential first-round pick but his feet get lulled to sleep a bit too often.

Safety: Nasir Adderley had some issues in man coverage, but as the week went on he got more physical and a little bit better. He was extremely physical crashing down into box against the run and screens and made a great break on a pick. Darnell Savage became the vocal leader on the back end for the South team calling out alignment, coverage and even alerting for specific plays along with showing the best man cover skills at safety. Juan Thornhill started slowly but picked it up later in the week, not getting challenged much he’s looked fluid with disciplined eyes when playing on the back end.

Pen to paper

This is not a list of the best players at the Senior Bowl or who we think is going to be drafted the highest but rather our All-Senior Bowl team based on the performances we witnessed live or on film.

Use this as a watch guide for the Senior Bowl this weekend and just a quick primer on some players to keep an eye on moving forward.