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Top Players from Senior Bowl Practices – 2022

Top Players from Senior Bowl Practices – 2022

Throughout the week, over 100 of the top prospects in the draft participated in the Senior Bowl practices. These practices are run by two NFL teams, this year the Jets and Lions, and offer a great opportunity for prospects to learn the format of an NFL practice, as well as get coached by real NFL coaches.

Now that practices are complete, the prospects are going through interviews and game plans for Saturday’s game. While there’s plenty that can be taken away from the game itself, most of the scouting comes from the practices.

We’ll take a look at some of the prospects who really performed well during the week of Senior Bowl practices.

Keep in mind there is some opinion here. A lot of players performed well, maybe even most players. After all, it’s an elite honor just to make it to this game. With that being said, let’s take a look at 12 players who really caught my eye this week.

 

Top Players from Senior Bowl Practices

Zion Johnson, Guard, Boston College

Zion Johnson might have been the biggest riser this week.

The 6’3″ 315 pound guard from BC is right at the cutoff of what might be considered short for guard, but showed that he has plenty of power. Check out the rep above against Travis Jones, who was the most physically dominant defensive tackle in practice.

The 2nd team All-American showed excellent footwork, strong hands, and a good anchor.

Zion also stayed after practice to work out at center, helping his versatility at the next level.

He entered the Senior Bowl as a 2nd-3rd round prospect, and has started getting 1st round discussion.

 

Eric Johnson, Defensive Tackle, Missouri State

Eric Johnson was a late addition to the Senior Bowl after dominating at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.

Many scouts didn’t even know his name when Senior Bowl practices began, but he’s bumped himself into a firmly draftable grade.

The 6’4″ 300 pound lineman showed excellent bend, mobility, and a good blend of speed and power.

Johnson consistently outperformed the other defensive linemen in his group, and made plenty of “wow” plays.

Interestingly, Johnson wasn’t particularly productive during his time at Missouri State. He had 34 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks this past season as a 6th year senior.

 

Dameon Pierce, Running Back, Florida

Dameon Pierce was nothing short of a Senior Bowl darling.

The 5’9″ 220 pound running back was lightly used throughout his time at Florida, amounting just 574 yards on the ground this past season despite averaging 5.7 yards per carry and scoring 13 times.

Pierce looked like a complete running back, with good route running, reliable hands, elite blocking, and a fast first step to hit the whole.

Pierce has a stout build with limited mileage, and I imagine plenty of teams moved him up into their list of top 10 running backs following his performance.

 

Trevor Penning, Offensive Tackle, Northern Iowa

1-on-1 drills favor the defensive linemen, and as a result it can be tough for offensive tackles to stand out positively.

That didn’t matter to Trevor Penning, who looked like a man amongst boys most of the time. Having played at an FCS school, Penning had no issues making the jump to Senior Bowl competition.

The 6’7″ 315 pound left tackle entered the week as a likely first round prospect, and did nothing but solidify his spot as a day 1 pick.

Penning showed a good get off from the line, good use of his length, and very impressive power. Unlike many big FCS linemen, he did a good job of not leaning too much, and showed refined technique more often than not.

 

Perrion Winfrey, Defensive Tackle, Oklahoma

Heading into the week scouts had a mixed bag of reporting on Winfrey. While there’s likely still some remaining concerns, his consistent power to disrupt offensive linemen was undeniable.

All 3 days we saw linemen fail to anchor against Winfrey and quickly lose distance.

Winfrey converts speed to power as well as any interior defensive lineman in the class, and uses his exceptionally long arms to his advantage with some impressive moves.

Footwork and hand placement looked more consistent for Winfrey than it did on tape, and his bend was really impressive for an interior defensive lineman.

 

Jermaine Johnson, Defensive End, Florida State

Jermaine Johnson was an absolute beast in his 1 year at Florida State, and dominated from Day 1 at the Senior Bowl.

The 6’5″ 260 pound edge rusher consistently won with his footwork, hand placement, speed around the edge, and impressive power.

Johnson gives 100% effort on every play, but showed that he’s much more than just an effort guy. The athleticism, power, and technique are all there with translatable traits.

Johnson likely won’t play in the Senior Bowl on Saturday, as he’s gotten such raving reviews from scouts that he’s fully solidified his spot in the first round of th edraft.

 

Travis Jones, Defensive Tackle, UConn

Travis Jones is a massively powerful defensive tackle who drove offensive linemen back on just about every rep. Despite playing at UConn, he has some absolute Alabama-level talent.

At 6’4″ 320+ pounds, Jones has an incredibly strong frame with an incredible club move to knock linemen completely over. He isn’t super bendy as you might expect, but you don’t need to bend around a lineman when you can consistently knock them over.

Jones shows good footwork and impressive use of his hands to get off blocks, and gives consistent effort to blow up run plays.

Despite playing at nose guard, he put up some pretty impressive stats with 48 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss through just 11 games this past year.

Jones moved up just one spot in my rankings since he was already among my top 5 defensive tackles, but shot up boards for some others who were sleeping on him.

 

Jesse Luketa, Linebacker/Defensive End, Penn State

Jesse Luketa was a bit overshadowed by some bigger names on the Penn State defense this past year, but he had a great year in his own right.

Having lined up at a variety of positions, Luketa really impressed coming off the edge on Day 3.

He’s best described as being “twitched up”, with exceptionally quick feet and deceptive counter moves.

He’s undersized to line up on the defensive line in the NFL, but showed elite athleticism that should bode well to continued versatility at the next level.

With his power and quickness, he’s quickly climbing up draft boards.

 

Andrew Stueber, Guard/Tackle, Michigan

Like most offensive linemen, Stueber certainly didn’t win every rep over the 3 days of practice.

Still, I came away very impressed with his power, mobility, and versatility. At 6’6″ 327 pounds, Stueber played right tackle and right guard in college, and saw significant time at both positions plus center at the Senior Bowl.

His hand placement was consistent, he showed better knee bend than I expected, and moved his feet well to recover when needed.

The Stueber-vs-Jones matchup was a fun one pitting power against power all week, with wins going each way. The tweet above is an impressive win for Stueber despite allowing low leverage.

Is he a potential first round prospect? No. But Stueber showed advanced technique that bodes well to early success in the NFL at multiple positions.

 

Boye Mafe, Defensive End, Minnesota

Boye Mafe is one of my favorite players in the draft, and he got some buzz going especially on Day 3 of practices.

Boye showed some improved hand usage and footwork, to combine with his great athletic traits and legitimate size as a 4-3 DE.

He consistently won with speed moves and bend around the edge, and showed the ability to contribute in pass and run protection.

In college, Mafe had somewhat modest production despite his traits. Part of this was due to the extremely slow-paced game the Gophers played, however, as he showed good effort and dealt with a number of chips and double teams.

 

Khalil Shakir, Wide Receiver, Boise State

I was very high on Shakir entering this week, having him as a top 10 WR draft prospect. He made a statement right away on Day 1, and continued his solid play throughout.

Shakir is agile in the open field, with advanced and deceptive route running skills that translate well to the NFL. He attacks the ball in the air with great body control, and has consistent hands to bring in tough catches.

Shakir dominated at Boise State, hauling in 1117 receiving yards through 12 games this past season, accounting for over 35% of his team’s total receiving yardage.

With his ball skills and route running, Shakir helped himself stand out despite having average height and top end speed.

 

Calvin Austin III, Wide Receiver, Memphis

Calvin Austin is someone I scouted pretty heavily before the Senior Bowl, and wasn’t overly impressed with mostly due to his size (5’7″ 173 pounds officially).

Memphis has produced some impressive skill position players these past few years, but I didn’t view Calvin Austin as a legitimate threat.

At the Senior Bowl he showed he has enough shiftiness to dominate NFL DB’s, not just college DB’s.

Austin’s agility underneath is hard to guard, and he has remarkable acceleration. His top end speed is also expected to be sub-4.4.

He consistently beat soft coverage and press, and is an impossible cover for a safety. Above you’ll see him break down Mario Goodrich, one of the more hyped up corners in college football this past year.

He went over 1000 yards receiving each of the past two seasons for Memphis, and showed why this week.

Honorable Mentions: Greg Dulcich (TE), Max Mitchell (OT), Myjai Sanders (DE), Christian Watson (WR), Sam Williams (DE), Devonte Wyatt (DT), Tariq Woolen (CB), Ed Ingram (G)

 

One other thing to mention is the quarterbacks. This Senior Bowl featured 6 of the top 7 quarterback prospects in the draft, including Kenny Pickett, Sam Howell, Malik Willis, Desmond Ridder, Carson Strong, and Bailey Zappe.

Senior Bowl practices can be tough for quarterbacks given their complete lack of chemistry with the receivers, and we saw plenty of that. None of the prospects looked particularly good.

If there was a winner among the group, it was almost certainly Malik Willis. He made plenty of inaccurate throws, but he also had some of the best “wow” plays at the event, and that’s what matters most to scouts given the practice format.

We’ll see if he can continue to shine in the game.

The Senior Bowl game will be played Saturday, February 5th at 2:30 ET.

You can find complete rosters here.

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