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UGA has been putting out some impressive defenders lately.
I'm all in on Davis or Nakobe.
2022 Draft Big Boards, Position Rankings & Mocks
- Thread starter boozeman
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I'm all in on Davis or Nakobe.
Simpleton
DCC 4Life
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Yea, I mean having 3 picks in the top 15 is going to make you better unless your GM is a complete moron, but Hurts is not a true threat. He can keep games competitive and teams average because he can make plays with his legs, but that only lasts so long and eventually you have to start winning consistently with your arm.
He's shown no signs of being able to do that and their path to wins is basically a 67%/33% pass/run split from Hurts, giving him easy throws/reads on ~20 attempts per game, and relying on their defense to make a few plays.
That's fine if you want to win 8 games but it isn't going to make you a true contender.
What's happening right now is actually the perfect storm where he looks somewhat competent at times as a run/pass threat, they're staying somewhat competitive and building just enough measure of hope to ensure that they stick with him for another year or two.
Simpleton
DCC 4Life
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@Iamtdg you have access to Athletic articles right?
Any chance you could post this?
'The kid is a damn baller.' Inside the 2022 Senior Bowl roster construction, with key names to know
Any chance you could post this?
'The kid is a damn baller.' Inside the 2022 Senior Bowl roster construction, with key names to know
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‘The kid is a damn baller.’ Inside the 2022 Senior Bowl roster construction, with key names to know
Bruce Feldman Nov 11, 2021
Kicking off two days of marathon Zoom sessions, Jim Nagy came dressed for the occasion. The 47-year-old executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl sat in his office wearing a blue “Gonna Go Have a Cold One” t-shirt honoring Kenny Pickett while a dozen of Nagy’s colleagues from all over the country were logged in to dissect Pitt’s star quarterback — and hundreds of other 2022 NFL Draft hopefuls.
“I feel like this is a good place to start,” Nagy said with a smile about the QB whose postgame comments after beating Clemson last month made him something of a folk hero. Pickett is one of three senior quarterbacks, along with Liberty’s Malik Willis and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, that Nagy feels comfortable about being among their first wave of invites to January’s Senior Bowl.
“Does any have any opposition to those guys having first-wave invites?” Nagy asks.
His staff, comprised of a group with 120 total years of NFL scouting experience, offers no objections.
The rest of the evaluation process for the other five quarterback spots, and every other position on the field, will be more spirited, and the subject of more than 14 hours of Zoom discussion in the first week of November in which The Athletic was allowed to be a fly on the … screen. Dissecting prospects is based on, among other things, physical skill set, make-up, background and medical history.
Quarterbacks, continued
In the mix for the other quarterback slots are two underclassmen who will be eligible to play in the game because they are expected to graduate in time. The most intriguing aspect of the hour-long QB portion of the zoom was the subject of a trio of late risers, all transfer portal products who vaulted onto the radar this fall.
Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe, a former no-star recruit who began his career at FCS Houston Baptist before transferring into Conference USA, has put up eye-popping numbers. He now leads the nation with 37 touchdown passes against just six interceptions. Andy Dengler, an area scout for the Senior Bowl, rattles off Zappe’s stats and background to the group, pointing out that he always works from the shotgun, and that he reviewed four of Zappe’s games this season and noted that he only had two balls batted down despite only measuring in at “60-01,” essentially a hair taller than 6-foot.
“He does have a way of changing levels and finding lanes to throw,” Dengler says.
Before joining Nagy’s staff this year, Dengler had spent 23 years with the Jacksonville Jaguars, including the previous eight years as the franchise’s assistant director of player personnel.
“Andy is one of the best evaluators I’ve ever been around,” Nagy later says. “He’s a credit to the profession. We’re lucky to have him. He’s better than half the GMs in the league.”
Dengler, like many in the profession, is a protégé of the late Duke Babb, a legendary football scout. “He’d challenge you on how you graded players and he held you accountable,” Dengler says. Babb was a stickler when it came to attention to detail. Dengler learned to study things like knee bend (“the better the knee-bender, the better the player”) and how a guy recovers when he gets out of position.
“Look at the speed turn if he’s out of position,” he says. When it comes to Zappe, Dengler sees an above-average athlete with an above-average arm.
The back-and-forth begins.
“He’s not as mobile as Gardner Minshew, and he’s a little bit shorter,” he tells the group. “My biggest problem with him, is for having an above-average arm, at times he throws kind of an inaccurate ball on timing and anticipation. I do like his savvy. He can move the chains. I saw him as a backup. I don’t know if he’s got a strong enough arm to be a starter but I think he’d be an effective backup in the league.”
Nagy: “You think he’s safely draftable, right, Andy?”
“Yes. I’d put him late fourth, early fifth. His arm and anticipation and his height hold me back from grading him any higher.”
Nagy: “I see the Minshew comp too. Not only the player — he is — but also the senior year, coming out of nowhere, too.”
Dengler: “This guy came from a small school, but at least he’s put up consistent numbers. Gardner really didn’t do that. This guy has made a big jump but he put up huge numbers at Houston Baptist, too.”
Nagy: “I haven’t seen him throw live. The arm is good enough?”
“Good enough,” says Ryan Jones, who spent 16 years as a scout for the New York Giants. “Just good enough. This guy really knows the system. He distributes the ball really well. He relies on timing a lot. He’s a throw-first guy, but he can move the chains with his feet. He’s a fourth-round guy. He wouldn’t embarrass himself at the Senior Bowl but his deficiencies would show up — lack of arm strength. But I tell you what: If you put the guy in there at that drive at the end, he’ll find a way to move the chains.”
Nagy: “I kinda feel like if we brought him, he’s the kind of guy who might win MVP of the game. Has some gamer to him.”
Jones: “Yes. He has moxie. Some poise.”
Nagy: “The other thing that puts him over the edge with him is talking to his coordinator. They say he’s like genius-level football. So I anticipate the process being really good for him, once he gets with coaches. There are gonna be quarterback coaches wanting this guy in their room.”
Fresno State’s Jake Haener (via Washington) is listed right below Zappe, who, like Zappe, has risen up the Senior Bowl’s board as an undersized quarterback.
“I loved the kid,” says West Coast-based Brian Zeches, a second-generation NFL scout who had spent eight years working in the league. “You see him against UCLA. He’s getting the shit knocked out of him. He’s hanging in there. He takes them down to win the game. He’s a little guy. There is some scuttlebutt that he might come back for another year. I don’t think he has the arm strength to go in the third or fourth round, but he’s definitely a guy that is fun to watch. He’s a dang good football player.”
In the report Zeches wrote for Nagy, he describes Haener as “a rich man’s Taylor Heinicke,” referencing the former Old Dominion QB who has started six games this season for Washington, a franchise the scout just came from.
“When Heineke was playing well, he was shedding off pressure, getting away from people and making plays. This kid is a playmaker. He will shed off the rush and somehow find the open guy to get a 15-yard play to get them a first down. Watch the end of the UCLA game — that’s perfectly what he is.
“UCLA blitzed him every dang play. He takes heat and slides around a little bit and then puts the ball right on the money. He hangs in there and he is accurate as hell. Watching the San Diego State game — every ball was right friggin’ on the money. Guys don’t have to reach for it. It’s a matter of how much people like him.”
Nagy: “Those are two really good traits that you’re hitting on — throwing under duress throws and accuracy. When you watch college quarterbacks, you rarely see them making under duress, NFL-type throws and complete the ball accurately. Like Andy said about Zappe, there’s so many pitch-and-catch offenses now where it’s just easy. To me, this guy makes real NFL throws.”
Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker, at 6-foot-4 and 218 pounds, has better size than both of the quarterbacks listed above him on the Senior Bowl’s board. His height isn’t an issue but his play in 2020 at VirginiaTech was underwhelming (nine touchdowns, five interceptions).
“I never thought he’d be a guy for us based off how he played for Tech in the past,” Nagy tells the group, “but man, he’s cleaned up a lot. At the game in Tuscaloosa? He handled that environment real well. He’s got a live arm in pregame. He can really get it out there.
“The guys I talked to at Tennessee — it was all positive stuff: good kid, good family. He’s taken leadership of that team. He wasn’t even the starter coming into the year. It was Joe Milton from Michigan. Hooker (21 touchdown passes, two interceptions) ended up beating out Milton, and that offense looks totally different with him in there. He will be in the mix.”
Running backs
Last year, the Senior Bowl had a stacked group at running back, led by first-rounder Najee Harris, but there is another stud from Alabama to headline this year’s crop.
“Brian Robinson Jr. is a no-brainer for me,” Nagy says. “He’s really stepped up. Two years ago people in that building said he was better than Najee. Local kid. He’s run hungry all year. Powerful, hard-running guy. Violent runner. He is what the league wants now: that big, 225-pound guy. And he’s got legit juice. He’s not a 1-speed big back.
“He’s the only guy we have at that priority level.”
Under-the-radar backs have shined in the NFL in recent years. Aaron Jones (UTEP), Devin Singletary (FAU) and James Robinson (FCS Illinois State), who ran for over 1000 yards as a rookie in 2020 and made the NFL’s top 100 players, have emerged as the kinds of talent scouts are always digging for. One of those off-the-grid backs who is a hot topic on the Zoom is FIU’s D’vonte Price, though aside from running for 165 yards on five carries in the season-opener against Long Island University, he’s put up relatively modest stats in 2021.
“He’s a great-looking kid,” Dengler says. “Big thighs. One thing about him is, he gets no help. His O-line is bad. It’s a bad-looking crew up front. He really caught the ball out of the backfield in warmups. I liked his movement skills. The problem is, he’s just getting no open real estate this year. I like the make-up of this kid. He was dialed in.”
In 2020, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Price had four 100-yard rushing performances in the Panthers’ five games.
“I was watching him over the summer,” Nagy says. “This guy has a pull-away gear for a big back.”
Another longtime former Jaguars scout, Mark Ellenz, Jacksonville’s old director of college scouting, evaluated Price. “The O-Line sucks,” he says. “But he’s big and athletic with leg drive and balance. I like his vision; (he) has burst through the hole; (he) has top-end speed. I think his ball skills are above average. He is a willing pass protector. He just needs to be more consistent with his anchor, but (he) has physical tools to be a starter in the league.”
Nagy: “This guy would be a four-down player. Has the size and speed to cover on (special) teams. I think he’s a cool player. You don’t hear a lot of buzz about the guy. But everybody (in the NFL scouting community) wants to see this guy in the game.”
The other small school back that has sparked a lot of interest among the Senior Bowl scouts comes from the same conference (the Missouri Valley Conference) as Robinson: South Dakota State’s Pierre Strong. But there seems to be some skepticism about Strong too.
“I talked to an area scout who thought he was more of a free agent,” says one of the scouts after Nagy brings up Strong.
“I think the guy is a good back, based on what I’ve seen in terms of patience, feel, vision,” Nagy responds. “I think his tape is good. We liked James Robinson but we got bad feedback from the league: ‘Nah, he’s more of a PFA (priority free agent), which is what he ended up being, but I think this guy is a better player than James Robinson. I think he’s the most natural running back in this class out of all the seniors.”
Fullbacks and tight ends
Nagy navigates the group through all the QB and running backs before the staff takes its first “pee break,” about 90 minutes into discussions. Fifteens minutes later, it’s time to move on to other positions. One of the players who generates some of the most effusive praise of the morning is Baylor’s Abram Smith.
“This is my sleeper,” announces Steve Kazor, the most senior staffer digitally present, and someone who has spent 50 years working in football, the last 30 in the NFL. Kazor spent the past 14 years on the Rams’ staff where he scouted around three dozen free agent players who ended up making the active roster. Kazor has been everywhere and seems to know everyone in football. He was the special teams coach on the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl team. He was also the guy who helped Hal Mumme get his first college head coaching job at Iowa Wesleyan, which helped launch the Air Raid offense.
Kazor has been tracking Abram Smith “for a lot of years,” he says. “He ran for 5,000 yards in Abilene. He played running back the first year at Baylor. Then they had some injuries and (they) asked him to play linebacker and he started there for two years. Had eight tackles in the Big 12 championship game. You older guys might remember this name — this guy reminds me of (former Giants RB) Ottis Anderson.
“He just doesn’t go down. He’s 5-11, 217. Tough guy, really smart. Picked up the playbook really fast, they told me. Very patient runner. Doesn’t have a lot of juke in space. Really good hip explosion in pass protection. Great family. I put in my notes: They’re 7-1 now but without him, they’re probably 4-4. You might even play him at linebacker for a couple of days at the Senior Bowl.”
Nagy: “That’s what I’m saying. He’s a true three-way player. The Seahawks are playing with Nick Bellore. He’s been to the Pro Bowl as a fullback but he also played a linebacker, which is what he was at CMU. He was also an ace special teams player. They say this dude is an absolute badass; nobody messes with him. (He’s a) tone-setter for the program. A guy you want in your locker room. Holds other kids accountable. He hit 20-something on the GPS. I think he’ll test fine.”
The other X-factor player the scouts gush about is the son of former Pitt legend Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Michigan State’s Connor Heyward, a former running back.
Dengler: “He’s a tough matchup. You underestimate this guy. He’s kinda fleshy on the hoof but he really catches the ball. He’s got some really good instincts. The eyeball test is not gonna be good, but everything else is. His issue: Is he gonna have enough length in pass protection on the edge? I like the make-up of this guy; the more you see, the more you like. I think he’s late fifth-round pick.”
Ellens: “He is not a pretty body. But then in the game he made a couple of really nice catches. You look at him and think there’s no way he can run, but he can run a little bit.”
Nagy: “You get to this time of the year, as we all know, and backs start dropping like flies. This guy might have some running back flexibility in a pinch if you start hemorrhaging running backs. He might be able to do it. He’s done it; he’s a pretty good athlete. I think he’s kind of a cool player.”
Wide Receivers
The receiver group also appears less than robust compared to recent years, but beyond a few touted underclassmen there are several players who have emerged as breakout guys.
Rutgers’ Bo Melton does not rank among the Big Ten’s top 10 receivers, but the former high school track star seems to have ideal timing in the NFL’s eyes.
“This guy is held back by the helmet sticker,” says Ryan Jones. “He’s a four-year starter. He didn’t even tap into really playing until the new staff got there. They get him the ball now. He returns kicks. He’ll interview well down here. Remember (former Penn State WR-KR) KJ Hamler? He’s a little lesser an athlete than Hamler; but has big play ability.”
Dengler: “He looked better on the hoof than I thought he would.”
Nagy: “I like him with the ball in his hands and that’s a real transferrable skill the league’s looking for that. I’m not saying he’s Deebo Samuel.”
Cincinnati’s Alec Pierce, listed at 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, is another prospect whose stock has taken off because of his intriguing athleticism.
“He’s got a volleyball and track background,” says Dengler. “They moved him to linebacker in the spring of his freshman year. He’s muscled up now. He looks like a SAM linebacker. He’s gonna test off the charts; he will have a few concentration drops. He’s got an innate ability to drive back to the ball; I just like the make-up of this kid. I think in the end he might go late in the second.”
Kazor: “He took over the Notre Dame game. Good blocker too. He was feisty and got a little nasty in him. They even use him in motion like the Rams do to block the backside end.”
Bearcats’ Alec Pierce is getting a lot of love. Photo: Katie Stratman / USA Today
Offensive Line
To Nagy, the Senior Bowl helps offensive linemen more than it helps any other position. It certainly did that last winter for Quinn Meinerz, a Division III player from Wisconsin-Whitewater who was drafted by the Denver Broncos as a top 100 pick. According to Nagy, one “huge riser” on their board this year is Chattanooga lineman Cole Strange.
“Cole Strange frigging kills people,” he tells the group. “He’s old school. No gloves. No shit on his arms. Got the old school cross-bar face mask. When I put on that Kentucky game, I was like holy shit! He’s getting a ton of love, as he should. He’s a really good player.”
Northwestern center Sam Gerak, whose father, John, played five seasons in the NFL, is rising on their board. “He’s not gonna pass the eyeball test for some people,” says Ellenz. “He’ll be in the 295 (pound) range, but he’s really high character kid. He’s taken the MCATs already. (He’s) gonna be a doctor … from a really good family, super intelligent.
“Might have some issues with big noses over the top of him but I watched in the Michigan game: A few times he got shoved back by the O but he’s able to reset. He is quick and engages well. He can really move laterally and help the guards. He runs well and is efficient in space. I think this guy can be a starting center. I don’t know if he’ll ever be a guard.
“Against Duke, they picked off a ball and he ran down the DB across the field and pushed him out of bounds and I think he hurt his shoulder and they sat him out a game.”
The flip side of the banter kicks in when another more prominent O-line prospect’s name comes up.
“He’ll be overhyped,” says one of the scouts. “Just an adequate athlete. Doesn’t have a lot of lower body strength. I don’t see natural strength with this guy.”
Nagy: “He’s got a couple of agents living in his ear. I don’t know why this guy would leave school. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Regardless of position, a favorite game scouts at all levels play is seeking a comp. Maybe it’s more about confirmation bias, but it helps trying to asses how a guy fits (or doesn’t) in a system or in a style of play that may be in vogue. In the Senior Bowl discussions it also can factor into how they think certain players may handle a very different environment from what they’re used to competing in.
Two years ago, Nagy was reluctant to invite Trey Pipkins, an offensive tackle from NAIA Sioux Falls. “We thought he’d get exposed here,” Nagy later says. “He probably would’ve had his lunch eaten here that week.” Instead, the 6-foot-6, 309-pound Pipkins flew largely underneath the scouting radar and ended up being picked in the third round by the Chargers. Nagy views North Dakota’s Matt Waletzko as a similar prospect.
“He’s really raw but is much further along than Pipkins was,” he says. “He’s still strength deficient, but he is 6-7, 301 pounds, with 36-inch arms. He can really bend. He comes out of his stance low. He’s light on his feet.”
That type of length with those kinds of tools makes Waletzko a compelling project. Nagy has been impressed by the improvement he’s seen on film from last year where he was on the ground too often. He put the FCS O-lineman on their cutline and tried to vet him out through the feedback he got after the meeting from his sources around the NFL. Turns out, Waletzko’s got a lot of fans in the league.
“He’s nine for nine on the calls I’ve had with the teams,” Nagy says.
Defensive line
The briefest discussion on a player in the two days surrounded arguably the biggest guy on the board: Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis.
“He’s as good as player as I’ve seen in this class,” Nagy says. “I don’t think we need to belabor the point. He’s playing more consistently this year. He’s a dominant player.”
The one-time three-star recruit has blossomed into an All-American in Athens. His stock is so high and the hype has swelled so much —Davis is getting Heisman buzz — that there’s a hint of concern that he might’ve played his way out of the Senior Bowl. Does he have anything more to prove to NFL teams?
Two years ago Javon Kinlaw came to Mobile and had an impressive week and became the No. 14 overall player taken. Another very hyped SEC defensive lineman, Raekwon Davis from Alabama, backed out of the game right before he was supposed to arrive and he lasted until the No. 56 pick.
It also probably won’t hurt with Davis that it’ll feel like half the guys playing that week in Mobile will come from Kirby Smart’s program.
Like Davis, Phil Mathis was overshadowed coming out of high school by other D-linemen, like Texas’ Marvin Wilson and Georgia’s Aubrey Solomon, two five-star D-tackles in that 2017 class. Mathis, though, has also seen his stock rocket up in 2021. Mathis had 1.5 sacks in his first three seasons combined but has 5.5 this year. Nagy saw him as an early Day 3 talent before this year but not anymore. The 6-foot-4, 320-pound Mathis has made a huge jump.
“I really like this guy,” says Kazor. “I watched him at Texas A&M. He’s a really physical guy, athletic, explosive. The thing that really impressed me is he has that hip snap. When he takes on double teams, he doesn’t get moved at all. He stalemates double-teams very easily and can penetrate. I’ve watched four games on him. One live. His patience and accelerations on his twists are dynamic.
“I’ve seen him play everything: nose, at 3, a shade and a 4i. He comes off the ball very easily and he creates a new line of scrimmage. I liked his motor and his re-direction. He’s more of a power guy than a twitch guy and he has really good hands. They had him at 312 (pounds). I said if he’s 312, I’m 165.”
The film is good. Getting to eyeball Mathis up close in person, as Nagy has this year, paints an even better picture.
“We’ve all seen this dude during pregame; he is wired up, lathered up and ready to go,” he says. “It’s pretty cool to see.”
Gauging want-do and commitment often can be a vexing thing. Maturity sometimes plays a big part. With huge D-linemen, these issues can be the difference between a dominant force and a dud who can’t make it out of training camp.
Kentucky’s Marquan McCall doesn’t get the publicity that Davis or Mathis have gotten but scouts love the Detroit native’s potential.“This is a big, explosive man with some real talent,” Nagy says.
Listed by the Wildcats as 6-foot-3 and 379 pounds, McCall is thought to have much more upside than a Wildcat D-linemen who went in the late rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft. However, an ankle injury at midseason sidelined him for about a month, and NFL scouts are watching closely to see what kind of shape he is in when he returns.
“His biggest problem is that he’s an inconsistent worker and has trouble controlling his weight,” Dengler says. “He has burst and can spin off blocks. Not always locked in. He’s gotta be 350, 355. Can he control his weight? So he’s not always yo-yoing. This is the first year he’s finally figured it out — how to prepare, how to train. It’ll be interesting to see what he looks like when he comes back from his injury. What has he been doing in the down time? That’ll be a big indicator for me how he plays if he does come back later in the season from a conditioning standpoint.”
Western Kentucky’s DeAngelo Malone, the 2019 Conference USA defensive player of the year, has a different kind of weight issue. Before last season with of the uncertainty stemming from the pandemic, WKU shut everything down and Malone returned home to Atlanta. The defensive end the coaches hoped could work his way up to 230 pounds lost weight instead. He came back to campus at 209.
The scouts love how fluid Malone can move, how he can drop into coverage, his open hips and his burst.
“He’s on the come too,” says Dengler. “He just dropped a ton of weight last year. But he just moves so easy, Jimmy. He just brings a ton of versatility. You can move him around and I like the make-up of this player.”
“When I worked in Seattle (with the Seahawks) we would’ve loved this guy,” Nagy says. “In Seattle, he would’ve been the ideal SAM for us.”
Jones said Malone was up to 237 pounds when WKU played at Army in mid-September, and that he was also very sound in terms of alignment and assignment against the Black Knights system.
Malone reminds Nagy a little of Bruce Irvin, a former Seahawks first-rounder (No. 15 in 2012). Jones said he evaluated Irvin when he was coming out of West Virginia: “This guy’s got some of Bruce Irvin but he’s taller than Bruce and longer.”
Dengler: “This guy is a better dropper and brings more positionally.”
Perhaps the most interesting discussion about a D-lineman happens about an hour into the position. It surrounds a former hyped high school recruit who was more productive in 2020 than he has been this year.
“With this guy, we’re gonna have to weed through some stuff,” says Nagy. Staff at the player’s program have called the player “a cancer,” he adds.
“We made some calls. They want him gone. They don’t want him back. When a staff calls a kid a cancer, schools don’t usually throw that around. This guy has future starter talent, right? Someone may take a shot at him late. If it’s getting around that this guy is a “cancer,” does that drop him out of the draft or are we doing them a solid to bring him here to see how big of a turd is he? Thoughts?”
“I think you’d be helping out the NFL to investigate this guy a little more,” replies one of the scouts.
“If he’s that big of a turd, do we want to reward the kid?”
That conversation will have to continue.
Quay Walker (middle) and the Georgia D remind scouts of the golden defenses of Miami in the early 2000s. Photo: Dale Zanine / USA Today
Linebackers
The closest thing to a certainty in the 2021 college football season has been the dominance of the Georgia defense. One of the best windows into what makes this Dawgs defense so special comes midway through the second day’s eight-hour session. Former five-star recruit Nakobe Dean may be the guy college football media raves about most, but the love fest from the Senior Bowl folks about Channing Tindall and Quay Walker is eye-opening.
“These next two guys are Georgia players and they speak to why that defense is so dang good,” Nagy begins. “They weren’t starters last year.”
Walker is a 245-pounder with an 80-plus inch wingspan. “He looks good on tape,” Nagy says, “but holy shit, when you get up on him in pregame this guy is a friggin dude. We’ve watched him a lot.”
Ellenz: “He’s a starting inside linebacker. He’s big, athletic and fast. Very good laterally; will physically take on blocks; has speed to close. Not sure how instinctive he is. Will take false steps. But he’s too big and fast and athletic to not go Day Two.”
Another scout points out that Walker was a high school defensive end and is still learning the inside backer position. “He is a bad mismatch for backs that try to pick him,” says Kazor.
A fourth scout said that the 2019 tape of Walker showed him often over pursuing and gave him concern about his instincts. Last year, he didn’t play with his hands much, but now, the scout says, Walker’s slowed down and reading guards better and using his hands a lot better, and while Dean is rushing the passer, they’ve got Walker locking up tight ends in coverage. “No one is gonna bully him at tight end.”
Nagy has an additional good source on all things Georgia. One of his younger scouts, Matt Kelly, volunteered on the Bulldogs recruiting staff a few years ago. The 28-year-old Kelly is an Air Force Academy alum, a former student linebackers coach for the Falcons, and later slept on a buddy’s coach for a year to help out on Kirby Smart’s staff.
“All he wants to do is scout the NFL,” Nagy says. “He’s very smart, detailed and very organized. He’s wired perfectly and so resourceful. He’s made himself invaluable here.”
Kelly’s feedback on Walker: “Quay is a super quiet kid. We just to joke that if there was one guy on the team that we didn’t want to get hit by, it’s Quay Walker.”
Nagy circles back to his take on Bobby Wagner coming out of Utah State a decade ago. “I was way off on him,” he says of the linebacker, who has been a six-time first-team All Pro. “I struggled on Bobby’s instincts and hammered him too hard. But Bobby ran 4.48. It didn’t matter if he’d been a tick slow processing it, he got there. I think this guy similar. There’s some range stuff that is really impressive.”
Tindall is “a dark alley guy,” according to one of the scouts, as in he’s the guy you’d want by your side if you had to walk down a dark alley. “He’s probably gonna run faster than Quay. He’s not as tall but still big. 235 pounds.”
Ellenz: “My top MIKE linebacker. Good athlete. Very explosive. Goes sideline to sideline. Strikes with force; can uncoil into blocks; can run with the tight end vertically and with backs coming out of the backfield. Second round is his floor. He will blow up with the combine. Has MIKE /WILL flex. This dude can roll and he crushes dudes.”
Nagy: “I love this defense.”
Ellenz: “Their defense rivals the Miami early 2000 crews.”
Nagy: “Some of those Alabama teams might have more first round picks but this crew is so hungry. They rotate everyone except the safeties. Even the corners come off the field. When they get on the field, it’s like a coach’s dream. They play their asses off. Every kid flies around. It’s special.”
Nagy closes with something UGA assistant Will Muschamp told him. “His tone of voice was interesting. He said if you saw our Tuesday post-practice run period, we could charge admission. He called it a blood letting.”
Another linebacker favorite of the scouts albeit a player far more out of the spotlight of the college football media is Wyoming’s Chad Muma. A former safety, Muma is listed at 6-foot-3, 227 pounds, although Zeches, the West Coast scout, said he looks bigger.
“I freakin’ love this guy,” Zeches says. The caliber of tackling in college football is really suspect in Zeches’ eyes, and that’s part of why he’s so high on Muma. “He plays big and stout. Has some burst and acceraleation; plays with good instincts. Laterally, he’s pretty good. I liked the Logan Wilson kid that Cincinnati took (third round in 2020); I like this kid better. And that’s a compliment, not a knock on Logan.”
Ellenz saw Muma play live at Northern Illinois and says the Cowboys head coach came up to him and told him this guy is off the charts regarding his intangibles. They also said he was 240. “This kid runs people down. He’s fast. He’s chasing down wide receivers. He’s got a little more length than that kid. He’s taller, longer.”
Off of 2020 tape, Nagy said he liked Wilson a little better, but basing it off Muma’s film from this season, he’s not so sure.
“I reached out to Logan about him,” Nagy says. “He told me the minute this kid showed up on campus he knew how to work. He was all about football. He said he’s gonna test off the charts. There are not a lot of holes in this kid. I think Logan’s success will actually help this kid. Logan went in the third, and he’s playing well. Teams will say we waited too long on the other guy.”
One other non-Power 5 defensive player the staff likes but doesn’t love as a prospect illustrates the balancing act with Nagy’s job. NFL teams seem to be higher on the player than they are. Nagy doesn’t think the guy is a natural defensive player, and that he misses too many tackles.
“But,” he says, “if the league wants to see him, we’ll invite him. This isn’t our roster. It’s for them. They say he would go on Day Two but I don’t see that.”
Defensive backs
As deep as the defensive line crop is, the secondary is just as thin. “This safety class flat out stinks,” says Nagy.
There are some hyped prospects at big programs who have been disappointing upon further review. Among them a corner with ideal measurables but falls apart on film. One of the scout observes that the guy “looks the part” and is a really good athlete but that he doesn’t like his competitiveness.
Nagy is more blunt: “I think he’s fool’s gold. You put on the tape. I think the guy stinks.”
A third scout who has watched the player at practice and had been impressed with his athleticism has come away underwhelmed studying him in games. “You just don’t see the explosiveness,” he says. “He’s playing to protect himself, especially this year.”
Nagy: “He’s gonna protect himself into the seventh round.”
Among the wow prospects at corner are two Group of 5 players. There is UTSA’s Tariq Woolen, who measured at 6-foot-3 1/2 and 206 pounds with 33 1/4 inch arms, and there is Marcus Jones from Houston. Kazor was tipped off on Woolen three years ago by the Rams D-line coach, who had coached at UTSA.
“The Woolen kid’s gonna run low 4.3s,” says Nagy. “He hits 23 (MPH) consistently on the GPS. I’ve had GMs reach out to make sure we’re gonna bring this guy. He has rare, rare tools. Physical guy who will strike you. They’ve cleaned him up in the offseason and he knows what to look at, too. Ascending player.”
Nagy on Jones: “That guy is a damn baller, man. Better athlete than I thought he was. Dude has true nickel movement—burst, change of direction, closing. Physical. Can play outside/inside. Is gonna be a hell of a return guy. Has seven total touchdowns. He is a slam dunk for our game. Gives us flexibility at wideout. I asked the coaches about that. They said he would love it if we tapped him on the shoulder to go play some wideout.”
Jones had a walk-off kick return for touchdown to win a game in the last minute for Houston.
“From my Patriots background, I’ve seen a lot of shorter cornerbacks excel in the NFL,” says Nagy. “I don’t think he’s getting out of Day Two.”
One of the last prospect discussed wasn’t anywhere near their board a few months ago, which actually isn’t that uncommon for the Senior Bowl. Last year’s game featured 16 players who weren’t even on the Senior Bowl’s preseason watch list.
“We start fresh in the fall,” Nagy says. “We’re prepared for one-year wonders. A lot of it now is because of the transfer portal. Kinda like this kid at Washington State.”
The kid, Jaylen Watson, is an Augusta, Ga. native who ended up in the Pac-12 after going to California’s Ventura College. He signed with USC in 2019 but never enrolled, and then played four games at Washington State in 2020. At almost 6-foot-2 and 188 pounds with a 32 1/4-inch arms, his length is attractive.
“He looks big as hell on tape, bigger than those measurables say,” Nagy says. “He’s getting some Day Two love in the league. He kind of came out of nowhere. I reached out to a buddy of mine on their staff and he really likes the kid. Really intriguing dude.”
The evaluation process with Watson and the rest of the board will continue. But the Zoom is over at 5:12 p.m. CT.
“Over eight hours with just one pee break,” Nagy says triumphantly to his staff. “I feel good with where we’re at. I hope the last couple of days have been fun talking about football. I want to get these guys right. I want have at least three or four sets of eyeballs on each guy and make sure we have the right guys. I think it’s time to go eat a cheeseburger.”
The next phase of the Senior Bowl process is to conduct formal calls with half the league to make sure they’re onto the right guys. Of course, there’s always gonna be some wild cards. Last year, Nagy had a priority grade on an Illinois cornerback named Nate Hobbs. When Nagy did his calls with the NFL teams, though, nobody seemed interested. They had a PFA grade on him.
When the draft came around the Raiders picked him in the fifth round and now the guy is starting for them. “There could be a little bit of sandbagging if they think they’re in a sleeper,” he concedes. But the approach is to not invite anyone they don’t want to see.
“I’m not gonna let my ego get in the way. The game isn’t for me. It’s for them. These guys know that we’re doing it for them.”
Bruce Feldman Nov 11, 2021
Kicking off two days of marathon Zoom sessions, Jim Nagy came dressed for the occasion. The 47-year-old executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl sat in his office wearing a blue “Gonna Go Have a Cold One” t-shirt honoring Kenny Pickett while a dozen of Nagy’s colleagues from all over the country were logged in to dissect Pitt’s star quarterback — and hundreds of other 2022 NFL Draft hopefuls.
“I feel like this is a good place to start,” Nagy said with a smile about the QB whose postgame comments after beating Clemson last month made him something of a folk hero. Pickett is one of three senior quarterbacks, along with Liberty’s Malik Willis and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, that Nagy feels comfortable about being among their first wave of invites to January’s Senior Bowl.
“Does any have any opposition to those guys having first-wave invites?” Nagy asks.
His staff, comprised of a group with 120 total years of NFL scouting experience, offers no objections.
The rest of the evaluation process for the other five quarterback spots, and every other position on the field, will be more spirited, and the subject of more than 14 hours of Zoom discussion in the first week of November in which The Athletic was allowed to be a fly on the … screen. Dissecting prospects is based on, among other things, physical skill set, make-up, background and medical history.
Quarterbacks, continued
In the mix for the other quarterback slots are two underclassmen who will be eligible to play in the game because they are expected to graduate in time. The most intriguing aspect of the hour-long QB portion of the zoom was the subject of a trio of late risers, all transfer portal products who vaulted onto the radar this fall.
Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe, a former no-star recruit who began his career at FCS Houston Baptist before transferring into Conference USA, has put up eye-popping numbers. He now leads the nation with 37 touchdown passes against just six interceptions. Andy Dengler, an area scout for the Senior Bowl, rattles off Zappe’s stats and background to the group, pointing out that he always works from the shotgun, and that he reviewed four of Zappe’s games this season and noted that he only had two balls batted down despite only measuring in at “60-01,” essentially a hair taller than 6-foot.
“He does have a way of changing levels and finding lanes to throw,” Dengler says.
Before joining Nagy’s staff this year, Dengler had spent 23 years with the Jacksonville Jaguars, including the previous eight years as the franchise’s assistant director of player personnel.
“Andy is one of the best evaluators I’ve ever been around,” Nagy later says. “He’s a credit to the profession. We’re lucky to have him. He’s better than half the GMs in the league.”
Dengler, like many in the profession, is a protégé of the late Duke Babb, a legendary football scout. “He’d challenge you on how you graded players and he held you accountable,” Dengler says. Babb was a stickler when it came to attention to detail. Dengler learned to study things like knee bend (“the better the knee-bender, the better the player”) and how a guy recovers when he gets out of position.
“Look at the speed turn if he’s out of position,” he says. When it comes to Zappe, Dengler sees an above-average athlete with an above-average arm.
The back-and-forth begins.
“He’s not as mobile as Gardner Minshew, and he’s a little bit shorter,” he tells the group. “My biggest problem with him, is for having an above-average arm, at times he throws kind of an inaccurate ball on timing and anticipation. I do like his savvy. He can move the chains. I saw him as a backup. I don’t know if he’s got a strong enough arm to be a starter but I think he’d be an effective backup in the league.”
Nagy: “You think he’s safely draftable, right, Andy?”
“Yes. I’d put him late fourth, early fifth. His arm and anticipation and his height hold me back from grading him any higher.”
Nagy: “I see the Minshew comp too. Not only the player — he is — but also the senior year, coming out of nowhere, too.”
Dengler: “This guy came from a small school, but at least he’s put up consistent numbers. Gardner really didn’t do that. This guy has made a big jump but he put up huge numbers at Houston Baptist, too.”
Nagy: “I haven’t seen him throw live. The arm is good enough?”
“Good enough,” says Ryan Jones, who spent 16 years as a scout for the New York Giants. “Just good enough. This guy really knows the system. He distributes the ball really well. He relies on timing a lot. He’s a throw-first guy, but he can move the chains with his feet. He’s a fourth-round guy. He wouldn’t embarrass himself at the Senior Bowl but his deficiencies would show up — lack of arm strength. But I tell you what: If you put the guy in there at that drive at the end, he’ll find a way to move the chains.”
Nagy: “I kinda feel like if we brought him, he’s the kind of guy who might win MVP of the game. Has some gamer to him.”
Jones: “Yes. He has moxie. Some poise.”
Nagy: “The other thing that puts him over the edge with him is talking to his coordinator. They say he’s like genius-level football. So I anticipate the process being really good for him, once he gets with coaches. There are gonna be quarterback coaches wanting this guy in their room.”
Fresno State’s Jake Haener (via Washington) is listed right below Zappe, who, like Zappe, has risen up the Senior Bowl’s board as an undersized quarterback.
“I loved the kid,” says West Coast-based Brian Zeches, a second-generation NFL scout who had spent eight years working in the league. “You see him against UCLA. He’s getting the shit knocked out of him. He’s hanging in there. He takes them down to win the game. He’s a little guy. There is some scuttlebutt that he might come back for another year. I don’t think he has the arm strength to go in the third or fourth round, but he’s definitely a guy that is fun to watch. He’s a dang good football player.”
In the report Zeches wrote for Nagy, he describes Haener as “a rich man’s Taylor Heinicke,” referencing the former Old Dominion QB who has started six games this season for Washington, a franchise the scout just came from.
“When Heineke was playing well, he was shedding off pressure, getting away from people and making plays. This kid is a playmaker. He will shed off the rush and somehow find the open guy to get a 15-yard play to get them a first down. Watch the end of the UCLA game — that’s perfectly what he is.
“UCLA blitzed him every dang play. He takes heat and slides around a little bit and then puts the ball right on the money. He hangs in there and he is accurate as hell. Watching the San Diego State game — every ball was right friggin’ on the money. Guys don’t have to reach for it. It’s a matter of how much people like him.”
Nagy: “Those are two really good traits that you’re hitting on — throwing under duress throws and accuracy. When you watch college quarterbacks, you rarely see them making under duress, NFL-type throws and complete the ball accurately. Like Andy said about Zappe, there’s so many pitch-and-catch offenses now where it’s just easy. To me, this guy makes real NFL throws.”
Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker, at 6-foot-4 and 218 pounds, has better size than both of the quarterbacks listed above him on the Senior Bowl’s board. His height isn’t an issue but his play in 2020 at VirginiaTech was underwhelming (nine touchdowns, five interceptions).
“I never thought he’d be a guy for us based off how he played for Tech in the past,” Nagy tells the group, “but man, he’s cleaned up a lot. At the game in Tuscaloosa? He handled that environment real well. He’s got a live arm in pregame. He can really get it out there.
“The guys I talked to at Tennessee — it was all positive stuff: good kid, good family. He’s taken leadership of that team. He wasn’t even the starter coming into the year. It was Joe Milton from Michigan. Hooker (21 touchdown passes, two interceptions) ended up beating out Milton, and that offense looks totally different with him in there. He will be in the mix.”
Running backs
Last year, the Senior Bowl had a stacked group at running back, led by first-rounder Najee Harris, but there is another stud from Alabama to headline this year’s crop.
“Brian Robinson Jr. is a no-brainer for me,” Nagy says. “He’s really stepped up. Two years ago people in that building said he was better than Najee. Local kid. He’s run hungry all year. Powerful, hard-running guy. Violent runner. He is what the league wants now: that big, 225-pound guy. And he’s got legit juice. He’s not a 1-speed big back.
“He’s the only guy we have at that priority level.”
Under-the-radar backs have shined in the NFL in recent years. Aaron Jones (UTEP), Devin Singletary (FAU) and James Robinson (FCS Illinois State), who ran for over 1000 yards as a rookie in 2020 and made the NFL’s top 100 players, have emerged as the kinds of talent scouts are always digging for. One of those off-the-grid backs who is a hot topic on the Zoom is FIU’s D’vonte Price, though aside from running for 165 yards on five carries in the season-opener against Long Island University, he’s put up relatively modest stats in 2021.
“He’s a great-looking kid,” Dengler says. “Big thighs. One thing about him is, he gets no help. His O-line is bad. It’s a bad-looking crew up front. He really caught the ball out of the backfield in warmups. I liked his movement skills. The problem is, he’s just getting no open real estate this year. I like the make-up of this kid. He was dialed in.”
In 2020, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Price had four 100-yard rushing performances in the Panthers’ five games.
“I was watching him over the summer,” Nagy says. “This guy has a pull-away gear for a big back.”
Another longtime former Jaguars scout, Mark Ellenz, Jacksonville’s old director of college scouting, evaluated Price. “The O-Line sucks,” he says. “But he’s big and athletic with leg drive and balance. I like his vision; (he) has burst through the hole; (he) has top-end speed. I think his ball skills are above average. He is a willing pass protector. He just needs to be more consistent with his anchor, but (he) has physical tools to be a starter in the league.”
Nagy: “This guy would be a four-down player. Has the size and speed to cover on (special) teams. I think he’s a cool player. You don’t hear a lot of buzz about the guy. But everybody (in the NFL scouting community) wants to see this guy in the game.”
The other small school back that has sparked a lot of interest among the Senior Bowl scouts comes from the same conference (the Missouri Valley Conference) as Robinson: South Dakota State’s Pierre Strong. But there seems to be some skepticism about Strong too.
“I talked to an area scout who thought he was more of a free agent,” says one of the scouts after Nagy brings up Strong.
“I think the guy is a good back, based on what I’ve seen in terms of patience, feel, vision,” Nagy responds. “I think his tape is good. We liked James Robinson but we got bad feedback from the league: ‘Nah, he’s more of a PFA (priority free agent), which is what he ended up being, but I think this guy is a better player than James Robinson. I think he’s the most natural running back in this class out of all the seniors.”
Fullbacks and tight ends
Nagy navigates the group through all the QB and running backs before the staff takes its first “pee break,” about 90 minutes into discussions. Fifteens minutes later, it’s time to move on to other positions. One of the players who generates some of the most effusive praise of the morning is Baylor’s Abram Smith.
“This is my sleeper,” announces Steve Kazor, the most senior staffer digitally present, and someone who has spent 50 years working in football, the last 30 in the NFL. Kazor spent the past 14 years on the Rams’ staff where he scouted around three dozen free agent players who ended up making the active roster. Kazor has been everywhere and seems to know everyone in football. He was the special teams coach on the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl team. He was also the guy who helped Hal Mumme get his first college head coaching job at Iowa Wesleyan, which helped launch the Air Raid offense.
Kazor has been tracking Abram Smith “for a lot of years,” he says. “He ran for 5,000 yards in Abilene. He played running back the first year at Baylor. Then they had some injuries and (they) asked him to play linebacker and he started there for two years. Had eight tackles in the Big 12 championship game. You older guys might remember this name — this guy reminds me of (former Giants RB) Ottis Anderson.
“He just doesn’t go down. He’s 5-11, 217. Tough guy, really smart. Picked up the playbook really fast, they told me. Very patient runner. Doesn’t have a lot of juke in space. Really good hip explosion in pass protection. Great family. I put in my notes: They’re 7-1 now but without him, they’re probably 4-4. You might even play him at linebacker for a couple of days at the Senior Bowl.”
Nagy: “That’s what I’m saying. He’s a true three-way player. The Seahawks are playing with Nick Bellore. He’s been to the Pro Bowl as a fullback but he also played a linebacker, which is what he was at CMU. He was also an ace special teams player. They say this dude is an absolute badass; nobody messes with him. (He’s a) tone-setter for the program. A guy you want in your locker room. Holds other kids accountable. He hit 20-something on the GPS. I think he’ll test fine.”
The other X-factor player the scouts gush about is the son of former Pitt legend Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Michigan State’s Connor Heyward, a former running back.
Dengler: “He’s a tough matchup. You underestimate this guy. He’s kinda fleshy on the hoof but he really catches the ball. He’s got some really good instincts. The eyeball test is not gonna be good, but everything else is. His issue: Is he gonna have enough length in pass protection on the edge? I like the make-up of this guy; the more you see, the more you like. I think he’s late fifth-round pick.”
Ellens: “He is not a pretty body. But then in the game he made a couple of really nice catches. You look at him and think there’s no way he can run, but he can run a little bit.”
Nagy: “You get to this time of the year, as we all know, and backs start dropping like flies. This guy might have some running back flexibility in a pinch if you start hemorrhaging running backs. He might be able to do it. He’s done it; he’s a pretty good athlete. I think he’s kind of a cool player.”
Wide Receivers
The receiver group also appears less than robust compared to recent years, but beyond a few touted underclassmen there are several players who have emerged as breakout guys.
Rutgers’ Bo Melton does not rank among the Big Ten’s top 10 receivers, but the former high school track star seems to have ideal timing in the NFL’s eyes.
“This guy is held back by the helmet sticker,” says Ryan Jones. “He’s a four-year starter. He didn’t even tap into really playing until the new staff got there. They get him the ball now. He returns kicks. He’ll interview well down here. Remember (former Penn State WR-KR) KJ Hamler? He’s a little lesser an athlete than Hamler; but has big play ability.”
Dengler: “He looked better on the hoof than I thought he would.”
Nagy: “I like him with the ball in his hands and that’s a real transferrable skill the league’s looking for that. I’m not saying he’s Deebo Samuel.”
Cincinnati’s Alec Pierce, listed at 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, is another prospect whose stock has taken off because of his intriguing athleticism.
“He’s got a volleyball and track background,” says Dengler. “They moved him to linebacker in the spring of his freshman year. He’s muscled up now. He looks like a SAM linebacker. He’s gonna test off the charts; he will have a few concentration drops. He’s got an innate ability to drive back to the ball; I just like the make-up of this kid. I think in the end he might go late in the second.”
Kazor: “He took over the Notre Dame game. Good blocker too. He was feisty and got a little nasty in him. They even use him in motion like the Rams do to block the backside end.”
Bearcats’ Alec Pierce is getting a lot of love. Photo: Katie Stratman / USA Today
Offensive Line
To Nagy, the Senior Bowl helps offensive linemen more than it helps any other position. It certainly did that last winter for Quinn Meinerz, a Division III player from Wisconsin-Whitewater who was drafted by the Denver Broncos as a top 100 pick. According to Nagy, one “huge riser” on their board this year is Chattanooga lineman Cole Strange.
“Cole Strange frigging kills people,” he tells the group. “He’s old school. No gloves. No shit on his arms. Got the old school cross-bar face mask. When I put on that Kentucky game, I was like holy shit! He’s getting a ton of love, as he should. He’s a really good player.”
Northwestern center Sam Gerak, whose father, John, played five seasons in the NFL, is rising on their board. “He’s not gonna pass the eyeball test for some people,” says Ellenz. “He’ll be in the 295 (pound) range, but he’s really high character kid. He’s taken the MCATs already. (He’s) gonna be a doctor … from a really good family, super intelligent.
“Might have some issues with big noses over the top of him but I watched in the Michigan game: A few times he got shoved back by the O but he’s able to reset. He is quick and engages well. He can really move laterally and help the guards. He runs well and is efficient in space. I think this guy can be a starting center. I don’t know if he’ll ever be a guard.
“Against Duke, they picked off a ball and he ran down the DB across the field and pushed him out of bounds and I think he hurt his shoulder and they sat him out a game.”
The flip side of the banter kicks in when another more prominent O-line prospect’s name comes up.
“He’ll be overhyped,” says one of the scouts. “Just an adequate athlete. Doesn’t have a lot of lower body strength. I don’t see natural strength with this guy.”
Nagy: “He’s got a couple of agents living in his ear. I don’t know why this guy would leave school. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Regardless of position, a favorite game scouts at all levels play is seeking a comp. Maybe it’s more about confirmation bias, but it helps trying to asses how a guy fits (or doesn’t) in a system or in a style of play that may be in vogue. In the Senior Bowl discussions it also can factor into how they think certain players may handle a very different environment from what they’re used to competing in.
Two years ago, Nagy was reluctant to invite Trey Pipkins, an offensive tackle from NAIA Sioux Falls. “We thought he’d get exposed here,” Nagy later says. “He probably would’ve had his lunch eaten here that week.” Instead, the 6-foot-6, 309-pound Pipkins flew largely underneath the scouting radar and ended up being picked in the third round by the Chargers. Nagy views North Dakota’s Matt Waletzko as a similar prospect.
“He’s really raw but is much further along than Pipkins was,” he says. “He’s still strength deficient, but he is 6-7, 301 pounds, with 36-inch arms. He can really bend. He comes out of his stance low. He’s light on his feet.”
That type of length with those kinds of tools makes Waletzko a compelling project. Nagy has been impressed by the improvement he’s seen on film from last year where he was on the ground too often. He put the FCS O-lineman on their cutline and tried to vet him out through the feedback he got after the meeting from his sources around the NFL. Turns out, Waletzko’s got a lot of fans in the league.
“He’s nine for nine on the calls I’ve had with the teams,” Nagy says.
Defensive line
The briefest discussion on a player in the two days surrounded arguably the biggest guy on the board: Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis.
“He’s as good as player as I’ve seen in this class,” Nagy says. “I don’t think we need to belabor the point. He’s playing more consistently this year. He’s a dominant player.”
The one-time three-star recruit has blossomed into an All-American in Athens. His stock is so high and the hype has swelled so much —Davis is getting Heisman buzz — that there’s a hint of concern that he might’ve played his way out of the Senior Bowl. Does he have anything more to prove to NFL teams?
Two years ago Javon Kinlaw came to Mobile and had an impressive week and became the No. 14 overall player taken. Another very hyped SEC defensive lineman, Raekwon Davis from Alabama, backed out of the game right before he was supposed to arrive and he lasted until the No. 56 pick.
It also probably won’t hurt with Davis that it’ll feel like half the guys playing that week in Mobile will come from Kirby Smart’s program.
Like Davis, Phil Mathis was overshadowed coming out of high school by other D-linemen, like Texas’ Marvin Wilson and Georgia’s Aubrey Solomon, two five-star D-tackles in that 2017 class. Mathis, though, has also seen his stock rocket up in 2021. Mathis had 1.5 sacks in his first three seasons combined but has 5.5 this year. Nagy saw him as an early Day 3 talent before this year but not anymore. The 6-foot-4, 320-pound Mathis has made a huge jump.
“I really like this guy,” says Kazor. “I watched him at Texas A&M. He’s a really physical guy, athletic, explosive. The thing that really impressed me is he has that hip snap. When he takes on double teams, he doesn’t get moved at all. He stalemates double-teams very easily and can penetrate. I’ve watched four games on him. One live. His patience and accelerations on his twists are dynamic.
“I’ve seen him play everything: nose, at 3, a shade and a 4i. He comes off the ball very easily and he creates a new line of scrimmage. I liked his motor and his re-direction. He’s more of a power guy than a twitch guy and he has really good hands. They had him at 312 (pounds). I said if he’s 312, I’m 165.”
The film is good. Getting to eyeball Mathis up close in person, as Nagy has this year, paints an even better picture.
“We’ve all seen this dude during pregame; he is wired up, lathered up and ready to go,” he says. “It’s pretty cool to see.”
Gauging want-do and commitment often can be a vexing thing. Maturity sometimes plays a big part. With huge D-linemen, these issues can be the difference between a dominant force and a dud who can’t make it out of training camp.
Kentucky’s Marquan McCall doesn’t get the publicity that Davis or Mathis have gotten but scouts love the Detroit native’s potential.“This is a big, explosive man with some real talent,” Nagy says.
Listed by the Wildcats as 6-foot-3 and 379 pounds, McCall is thought to have much more upside than a Wildcat D-linemen who went in the late rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft. However, an ankle injury at midseason sidelined him for about a month, and NFL scouts are watching closely to see what kind of shape he is in when he returns.
“His biggest problem is that he’s an inconsistent worker and has trouble controlling his weight,” Dengler says. “He has burst and can spin off blocks. Not always locked in. He’s gotta be 350, 355. Can he control his weight? So he’s not always yo-yoing. This is the first year he’s finally figured it out — how to prepare, how to train. It’ll be interesting to see what he looks like when he comes back from his injury. What has he been doing in the down time? That’ll be a big indicator for me how he plays if he does come back later in the season from a conditioning standpoint.”
Western Kentucky’s DeAngelo Malone, the 2019 Conference USA defensive player of the year, has a different kind of weight issue. Before last season with of the uncertainty stemming from the pandemic, WKU shut everything down and Malone returned home to Atlanta. The defensive end the coaches hoped could work his way up to 230 pounds lost weight instead. He came back to campus at 209.
The scouts love how fluid Malone can move, how he can drop into coverage, his open hips and his burst.
“He’s on the come too,” says Dengler. “He just dropped a ton of weight last year. But he just moves so easy, Jimmy. He just brings a ton of versatility. You can move him around and I like the make-up of this player.”
“When I worked in Seattle (with the Seahawks) we would’ve loved this guy,” Nagy says. “In Seattle, he would’ve been the ideal SAM for us.”
Jones said Malone was up to 237 pounds when WKU played at Army in mid-September, and that he was also very sound in terms of alignment and assignment against the Black Knights system.
Malone reminds Nagy a little of Bruce Irvin, a former Seahawks first-rounder (No. 15 in 2012). Jones said he evaluated Irvin when he was coming out of West Virginia: “This guy’s got some of Bruce Irvin but he’s taller than Bruce and longer.”
Dengler: “This guy is a better dropper and brings more positionally.”
Perhaps the most interesting discussion about a D-lineman happens about an hour into the position. It surrounds a former hyped high school recruit who was more productive in 2020 than he has been this year.
“With this guy, we’re gonna have to weed through some stuff,” says Nagy. Staff at the player’s program have called the player “a cancer,” he adds.
“We made some calls. They want him gone. They don’t want him back. When a staff calls a kid a cancer, schools don’t usually throw that around. This guy has future starter talent, right? Someone may take a shot at him late. If it’s getting around that this guy is a “cancer,” does that drop him out of the draft or are we doing them a solid to bring him here to see how big of a turd is he? Thoughts?”
“I think you’d be helping out the NFL to investigate this guy a little more,” replies one of the scouts.
“If he’s that big of a turd, do we want to reward the kid?”
That conversation will have to continue.
Quay Walker (middle) and the Georgia D remind scouts of the golden defenses of Miami in the early 2000s. Photo: Dale Zanine / USA Today
Linebackers
The closest thing to a certainty in the 2021 college football season has been the dominance of the Georgia defense. One of the best windows into what makes this Dawgs defense so special comes midway through the second day’s eight-hour session. Former five-star recruit Nakobe Dean may be the guy college football media raves about most, but the love fest from the Senior Bowl folks about Channing Tindall and Quay Walker is eye-opening.
“These next two guys are Georgia players and they speak to why that defense is so dang good,” Nagy begins. “They weren’t starters last year.”
Walker is a 245-pounder with an 80-plus inch wingspan. “He looks good on tape,” Nagy says, “but holy shit, when you get up on him in pregame this guy is a friggin dude. We’ve watched him a lot.”
Ellenz: “He’s a starting inside linebacker. He’s big, athletic and fast. Very good laterally; will physically take on blocks; has speed to close. Not sure how instinctive he is. Will take false steps. But he’s too big and fast and athletic to not go Day Two.”
Another scout points out that Walker was a high school defensive end and is still learning the inside backer position. “He is a bad mismatch for backs that try to pick him,” says Kazor.
A fourth scout said that the 2019 tape of Walker showed him often over pursuing and gave him concern about his instincts. Last year, he didn’t play with his hands much, but now, the scout says, Walker’s slowed down and reading guards better and using his hands a lot better, and while Dean is rushing the passer, they’ve got Walker locking up tight ends in coverage. “No one is gonna bully him at tight end.”
Nagy has an additional good source on all things Georgia. One of his younger scouts, Matt Kelly, volunteered on the Bulldogs recruiting staff a few years ago. The 28-year-old Kelly is an Air Force Academy alum, a former student linebackers coach for the Falcons, and later slept on a buddy’s coach for a year to help out on Kirby Smart’s staff.
“All he wants to do is scout the NFL,” Nagy says. “He’s very smart, detailed and very organized. He’s wired perfectly and so resourceful. He’s made himself invaluable here.”
Kelly’s feedback on Walker: “Quay is a super quiet kid. We just to joke that if there was one guy on the team that we didn’t want to get hit by, it’s Quay Walker.”
Nagy circles back to his take on Bobby Wagner coming out of Utah State a decade ago. “I was way off on him,” he says of the linebacker, who has been a six-time first-team All Pro. “I struggled on Bobby’s instincts and hammered him too hard. But Bobby ran 4.48. It didn’t matter if he’d been a tick slow processing it, he got there. I think this guy similar. There’s some range stuff that is really impressive.”
Tindall is “a dark alley guy,” according to one of the scouts, as in he’s the guy you’d want by your side if you had to walk down a dark alley. “He’s probably gonna run faster than Quay. He’s not as tall but still big. 235 pounds.”
Ellenz: “My top MIKE linebacker. Good athlete. Very explosive. Goes sideline to sideline. Strikes with force; can uncoil into blocks; can run with the tight end vertically and with backs coming out of the backfield. Second round is his floor. He will blow up with the combine. Has MIKE /WILL flex. This dude can roll and he crushes dudes.”
Nagy: “I love this defense.”
Ellenz: “Their defense rivals the Miami early 2000 crews.”
Nagy: “Some of those Alabama teams might have more first round picks but this crew is so hungry. They rotate everyone except the safeties. Even the corners come off the field. When they get on the field, it’s like a coach’s dream. They play their asses off. Every kid flies around. It’s special.”
Nagy closes with something UGA assistant Will Muschamp told him. “His tone of voice was interesting. He said if you saw our Tuesday post-practice run period, we could charge admission. He called it a blood letting.”
Another linebacker favorite of the scouts albeit a player far more out of the spotlight of the college football media is Wyoming’s Chad Muma. A former safety, Muma is listed at 6-foot-3, 227 pounds, although Zeches, the West Coast scout, said he looks bigger.
“I freakin’ love this guy,” Zeches says. The caliber of tackling in college football is really suspect in Zeches’ eyes, and that’s part of why he’s so high on Muma. “He plays big and stout. Has some burst and acceraleation; plays with good instincts. Laterally, he’s pretty good. I liked the Logan Wilson kid that Cincinnati took (third round in 2020); I like this kid better. And that’s a compliment, not a knock on Logan.”
Ellenz saw Muma play live at Northern Illinois and says the Cowboys head coach came up to him and told him this guy is off the charts regarding his intangibles. They also said he was 240. “This kid runs people down. He’s fast. He’s chasing down wide receivers. He’s got a little more length than that kid. He’s taller, longer.”
Off of 2020 tape, Nagy said he liked Wilson a little better, but basing it off Muma’s film from this season, he’s not so sure.
“I reached out to Logan about him,” Nagy says. “He told me the minute this kid showed up on campus he knew how to work. He was all about football. He said he’s gonna test off the charts. There are not a lot of holes in this kid. I think Logan’s success will actually help this kid. Logan went in the third, and he’s playing well. Teams will say we waited too long on the other guy.”
One other non-Power 5 defensive player the staff likes but doesn’t love as a prospect illustrates the balancing act with Nagy’s job. NFL teams seem to be higher on the player than they are. Nagy doesn’t think the guy is a natural defensive player, and that he misses too many tackles.
“But,” he says, “if the league wants to see him, we’ll invite him. This isn’t our roster. It’s for them. They say he would go on Day Two but I don’t see that.”
Defensive backs
As deep as the defensive line crop is, the secondary is just as thin. “This safety class flat out stinks,” says Nagy.
There are some hyped prospects at big programs who have been disappointing upon further review. Among them a corner with ideal measurables but falls apart on film. One of the scout observes that the guy “looks the part” and is a really good athlete but that he doesn’t like his competitiveness.
Nagy is more blunt: “I think he’s fool’s gold. You put on the tape. I think the guy stinks.”
A third scout who has watched the player at practice and had been impressed with his athleticism has come away underwhelmed studying him in games. “You just don’t see the explosiveness,” he says. “He’s playing to protect himself, especially this year.”
Nagy: “He’s gonna protect himself into the seventh round.”
Among the wow prospects at corner are two Group of 5 players. There is UTSA’s Tariq Woolen, who measured at 6-foot-3 1/2 and 206 pounds with 33 1/4 inch arms, and there is Marcus Jones from Houston. Kazor was tipped off on Woolen three years ago by the Rams D-line coach, who had coached at UTSA.
“The Woolen kid’s gonna run low 4.3s,” says Nagy. “He hits 23 (MPH) consistently on the GPS. I’ve had GMs reach out to make sure we’re gonna bring this guy. He has rare, rare tools. Physical guy who will strike you. They’ve cleaned him up in the offseason and he knows what to look at, too. Ascending player.”
Nagy on Jones: “That guy is a damn baller, man. Better athlete than I thought he was. Dude has true nickel movement—burst, change of direction, closing. Physical. Can play outside/inside. Is gonna be a hell of a return guy. Has seven total touchdowns. He is a slam dunk for our game. Gives us flexibility at wideout. I asked the coaches about that. They said he would love it if we tapped him on the shoulder to go play some wideout.”
Jones had a walk-off kick return for touchdown to win a game in the last minute for Houston.
“From my Patriots background, I’ve seen a lot of shorter cornerbacks excel in the NFL,” says Nagy. “I don’t think he’s getting out of Day Two.”
One of the last prospect discussed wasn’t anywhere near their board a few months ago, which actually isn’t that uncommon for the Senior Bowl. Last year’s game featured 16 players who weren’t even on the Senior Bowl’s preseason watch list.
“We start fresh in the fall,” Nagy says. “We’re prepared for one-year wonders. A lot of it now is because of the transfer portal. Kinda like this kid at Washington State.”
The kid, Jaylen Watson, is an Augusta, Ga. native who ended up in the Pac-12 after going to California’s Ventura College. He signed with USC in 2019 but never enrolled, and then played four games at Washington State in 2020. At almost 6-foot-2 and 188 pounds with a 32 1/4-inch arms, his length is attractive.
“He looks big as hell on tape, bigger than those measurables say,” Nagy says. “He’s getting some Day Two love in the league. He kind of came out of nowhere. I reached out to a buddy of mine on their staff and he really likes the kid. Really intriguing dude.”
The evaluation process with Watson and the rest of the board will continue. But the Zoom is over at 5:12 p.m. CT.
“Over eight hours with just one pee break,” Nagy says triumphantly to his staff. “I feel good with where we’re at. I hope the last couple of days have been fun talking about football. I want to get these guys right. I want have at least three or four sets of eyeballs on each guy and make sure we have the right guys. I think it’s time to go eat a cheeseburger.”
The next phase of the Senior Bowl process is to conduct formal calls with half the league to make sure they’re onto the right guys. Of course, there’s always gonna be some wild cards. Last year, Nagy had a priority grade on an Illinois cornerback named Nate Hobbs. When Nagy did his calls with the NFL teams, though, nobody seemed interested. They had a PFA grade on him.
When the draft came around the Raiders picked him in the fifth round and now the guy is starting for them. “There could be a little bit of sandbagging if they think they’re in a sleeper,” he concedes. But the approach is to not invite anyone they don’t want to see.
“I’m not gonna let my ego get in the way. The game isn’t for me. It’s for them. These guys know that we’re doing it for them.”
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You freaking owe me one. That article was a beast.
NoDak
Hotlinking' sonofabitch
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If we get him, we get him. If we don't, we don't. I'm not gonna pine after anybody. And certainly not 5 months before the draft. Things will change over and over from now until then. There will be a good player there for us. I think this front office has earned the benefit of the doubt draftwise lately.
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Yeah when you have a good team you don't really care nearly as much about the draft at this point in the season. Last year was a different story.
Simpleton
DCC 4Life
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Thanks, much appreciated.You freaking owe me one. That article was a beast.
Simpleton
DCC 4Life
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Yea I have no doubt we can find a good player at 28 or whatever, Davis would be sweet though.
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I'm pining for the big badass dominant DT.
But you are right, they have done well lately.
It feels like we stole something getting Ceedee and Micah in the last two drafts.
Angrymesscan
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BPA Baby!!!
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Kayvon Thibodeaux or Aidan Hutchinson at No. 1? Dane Brugler’s 2022 NFL mock draft, version 1.0
Dane Brugler 5h ago
I wouldn’t call the 2022 NFL Draft a bad draft.
There are plenty of first-round-caliber players, and the depth at certain positions will stretch well into Day 3 on draft weekend. However, something that has been echoed by evaluators around the NFL is the lack of elite-level talent at the top. Most drafts don’t have 10 prospects considered no-brainers for the top-10 picks, but this year’s class doesn’t have more than one or two, according to feedback from some NFL scouts.
Maybe hindsight will prove that opinion to be silly. Maybe there is a T.J. Watt or Aaron Donald or Patrick Mahomes in this class — players who weren’t considered slam-dunk top-10 picks pre-draft but obviously proved that assessment wrong in retrospect.
Despite the perceived lack of top-tier talent, 10 players must go in the top 10, starting with an interesting decision for the Detroit Lions, who currently own the No. 1 overall pick. The volatility at the top of draft boards from team to team will be the story of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The next five months will be a fun, fascinating process.
Q&A WITH DANE BRUGLER: Leave a question for our draft guru
(Notes: The draft order is based on current standings. An asterisk represents draft-eligible underclassmen who haven’t officially declared for the draft.)
1. Detroit Lions — Aidan Hutchinson, edge, Michigan
The winless Lions need a long-term answer at quarterback, weapons at wide receiver and help at every level of the defense. This draft class doesn’t have a quarterback or pass-catching option worthy of a top-five pick, but there are several defensive players worth considering at No. 1. While Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux is the favorite to be drafted first, Hutchinson, who grew up just outside of Detroit, checks every box for the Lions as they rebuild the roster.
Athleticism? Hutchinson was No. 2 on Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List for a reason and will test well at the combine. Production? Hutchinson set the Michigan single-season sack record (13 sacks and counting) and currently ranks No. 2 in college football with 68 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. Intangibles? This is what truly sets Hutchinson apart. His competitive makeup is rare and raises the level of his teammates. If you included the players from this past April’s draft in the 2022 class, Hutchinson might not be drafted in the top 10. But he embodies a lot of the traits that head coach Dan Campbell craves and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a team like Detroit settles on Hutchinson at the top of its board.
2. Houston Texans — Kayvon Thibodeaux, edge, Oregon*
Although he isn’t in the same prospect tier as Myles Garrett, Chase Young or the Bosa brothers, Thibodeaux is a disruptive pass rusher due to his upfield burst and quick feet. He is a strong run defender and should continue to improve as a pass rusher as his rush moves evolve. Thibodeaux reminds me of a stronger, longer version of Harold Landry. The Texans will also be in the quarterback market this off-season, but hard to see them drafting one this early.
3. Jacksonville Jaguars — Evan Neal, OT, Alabama*
Surrounding Trevor Lawrence with the support system to flourish should be priority No. 1 for Jaguars. Left tackle Cam Robinson is currently playing on the franchise tag, and neither Jawaan Taylor nor Walker Little are established starters. Neal has played at a high level at three different positions (right guard, right tackle, left tackle) in his three seasons in Tuscaloosa and offers a unique blend of size, strength and flexibility.
4. New York Jets (from Seattle) — Derek Stingley Jr., CB, LSU*
With a defense that ranks last in the NFL and an offensive line that still has weak spots, the Jets need plenty of help. With two picks in the top five, the Jets are in a position to address both areas. After an All-American freshman season and solid sophomore year, Stingley played in only three games in 2021 before foot surgery put him on the shelf. The interviews and medicals are the unknown aspects of his projection right now, but his talent warrants this pick.
5. New York Jets — Ikem Ekwonu, OT, NC State*
The Jets have addressed the offensive line in the first round in each of Joe Douglas’ first two drafts as general manager, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he keeps the streak going. Similar in ways to a “smaller” version of Mekhi Becton, Ekwonu is a freakishly explosive blocker for his size (6-foot-4, 322 pounds) with the raw power and movement skills to execute outside zone with ease. He can play tackle or guard interchangeably and would give the Jets a long-term answer at right tackle.
6. New York Giants — Devin Lloyd, LB, Utah
The Giants saw first-hand what a versatile linebacker with explosive traits can do for your defense when they met the division-rival Dallas Cowboys with rookie stud Micah Parsons. Lloyd isn’t quite on Parsons’ level, but his blend of instincts and speed helps him impact the game in multiple ways. Linebacker might not be the top need for the Giants, but adding defensive playmakers is never a bad idea.
7. New York Giants (from Chicago) — Tyler Linderbaum, OC, Iowa*
Since the merger in 1970 only once has a center been drafted in the top 10 — and that is only if you include Pro Football Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews, who was drafted as an “interior blocker” ninth overall in 1983. But in this class, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Linderbaum this high, especially to a team like the Giants who need to add tough, athletic blockers in the trenches.
8. Philadelphia Eagles — Kyle Hamilton, DS, Notre Dame*
Based on talent, Hamilton is one of the best this draft class has to offer. But his draft projection is going to be interesting because not every team will value his hybrid skill set. With his athletic range and diagnose skills, Hamilton frustrates quarterbacks because of the different ways he impacts the game. He has missed the second half of Notre Dame’s season due to a minor knee injury, so the medical evaluations will be important.
9. Philadelphia Eagles (from Miami) — George Karlaftis, edge, Purdue*
With Derek Barnett likely headed elsewhere in free agency and Brandon Graham coming off an injury (and about to turn 34), the Eagles will be looking for pass rusher help this offseason. Karlaftis might not have elite length or twitch, but his persistent power and skilled hand work allow him to be disruptive.
10. Carolina Panthers — Kenny Pickett, QB, Pittsburgh
Flash back six years ago: Pickett, then a high school junior, committed to play quarterback at Temple for head coach Matt Rhule. Pickett re-opened his recruitment once bigger programs showed interest and chose Pitt, but this time around, Rhule might decide Pickett’s next destination. To fix its hole at quarterback, Carolina has unsuccessfully tried the former first-round pick route with Teddy Bridgewater in 2020 and Sam Darnold and Cam Newton this season. Unless they lure Aaron Rodgers to Charlotte this offseason, using a first-round pick of their own on a promising quarterback like Pickett might be the Panthers’ best option.
11. Atlanta Falcons — Travon Walker, edge, Georgia*
The Falcons need to get better on the defensive line, and one of the possible answers is right down the road. Walker, who grew up just south of Atlanta, has remarkable fluidity for a 275-pound athlete and has been one of the Bulldogs’ most valuable defenders this season. He is long and powerful to set a hard edge and shows the bully strength and quickness to be disruptive as a pass rusher. Falcons’ defensive coordinator Dean Pees values versatility up front and Walker has the skill set to line up at multiple positions.
12. Minnesota Vikings — Andrew Booth Jr., CB, Clemson*
With Patrick Peterson and Bashaud Breeland playing on one-year deals, the Vikings could be in the market for a starting cornerback. Booth has is a long athlete with controlled hip movement and the ability to find the football. His tape from this past weekend against South Carolina will get NFL teams excited.
13. New Orleans Saints — Garrett Wilson, WR, Ohio State*
The first wide receiver off the board in this mock, Wilson has only average size (6-0, 186), but his body control is special, and his athletic instincts help him separate before and after the catch. He would be an immediate weapon for whoever is lining up at quarterback in New Orleans next season. Ohio State has basically been a minor-league feeder system for the Saints, and that continues in this scenario.
14. Philadelphia (from Indianapolis) — Nakobe Dean, LB, Georgia*
I know, I know, the Eagles don’t draft linebackers in the first round (or at least they haven’t since 1979). But maybe Jonathan Vilma 2.0 can change their minds. Dean is an athletic pursuit player and blitzer with excellent diagnose skills to key and attack. His football character will make him an immediate fit wherever he is drafted in April.
15. Cleveland Browns — David Ojabo, edge, Michigan*
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a wide receiver like Treylon Burks or Chris Olave here, but Ojabo might be too enticing to pass up for Cleveland. The Nigerian and Scotland native is remarkably disruptive for a player who is still a football novice. Ideally, the organization would like to bring back Jadeveon Clowney, which would give Ojabo a chance to be a sub-package rusher as a rookie as he realizes his sky-high potential.
16. Pittsburgh Steelers — Sam Howell, QB, North Carolina*
If this is Ben Roethlisberger’s final season in Pittsburgh, will the Steelers look towards the draft? Or add a free agent to compete with Mason Rudolph in the short term? General manager Kevin Colbert has traveled to see Howell multiple times this fall, and he might be their top option available at this point in the draft. In addition to his arm strength and accuracy, Howell gives the Steelers much-needed athleticism at the quarterback position.
17. Denver Broncos — Jordan Davis, NT, Georgia
A dominant run defender, Davis is a massive human (6-6, 360 pounds) with range (might run sub-5.00 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and the upper-body power to stack the point of attack, toss blockers and find the football. He has a low ceiling as a pass rusher but is able to create push by bullying interior blockers into the pocket.
18. Las Vegas Raiders — Trevor Penning, OT, Northern Iowa
Finding an upgrade at right tackle needs to be a top priority for the Raiders this offseason. As long as they plan to keep Alex Leatherwood at guard, general manager Mike Mayock might look to find their new right tackle in the draft. Penning, who has experience at left and right tackle, is a “small school” prospect, but he has the traits to start in the NFL next season. At 6-7 and 329 pounds, he has impressive movement skills, length (35-inch arms) and competitive play style.
19. Washington Football Team – Matt Corral, QB, Ole Miss*
Taylor Heinicke has been a great story, but enough for Washington to bypass drafting a quarterback? Probably not if they view someone like Corral as the long-term answer. He doesn’t have ideal size, and his post-snap processing is still in the development phase, but Corral is an instinctive athlete with NFL-level arm talent and playmaking skills. General manager Martin Mayhew spent time in Oxford this month to see Corral, who would be a comfortable fit with Scott Turner’s style of play-calling.
20. Los Angeles Chargers — Kaiir Elam, CB, Florida*
Even with positive play from rookie Asante Samuel Jr., the Chargers’ cornerback depth chart will need some work this offseason. Although you wish his tape showed more plays on the football, Elam has the intriguing traits that should land him in Round 1.
21. Miami Dolphins (from San Francisco) — Charles Cross, OT, Mississippi State*
It feels like the offensive line has been a trouble area for the Dolphins since the Dan Marino era. Cross is still very young and needs to continue and get stronger and cut down on the penalties, but his movement patterns and handwork are outstanding foundation traits.
22. Buffalo Bills — Kenyon Green, OT/G, Texas A&M*
Green to Buffalo is one of my favorite team-prospect fits in this mock draft because of his versatility to interchangeably play guard or tackle. He plays with above-average balance before and after contact with the functional strength to sustain his blocks. His position flexibility gives the Bills starter-quality depth across the offensive line.
23. Detroit Lions (from Los Angeles) — Treylon Burks, WR, Arkansas*
The Lions’ most productive wide receiver is Kalif Raymond, who currently ranks 79th in the NFL in receiving yards. Burks is a unique talent who creates mismatches with his combination of size and athleticism. Detroit could address quarterback here with Liberty’s Malik Willis or Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder if it evaluates either as a worthy long-term option.
24. Cincinnati Bengals — Ahmad Gardner, CB, Cincinnati*
If the Bengals look to bolster their cornerback depth chart in the draft, they will have a few options in their own back yard. Gardner is a tall, long athlete who can flip his hips and stay on top of routes. Shifty route-runners will give him trouble at times, but he has been a lockdown player in college with zero touchdowns allowed on his watch.
25. Dallas Cowboys — Cameron Thomas, edge, San Diego State*
The Cowboys drafted three front-seven defenders in the top 100 last season and might be in the market for more pass rush in next year’s first round. Whether lined up inside or outside, Thomas has been nearly unblockable this season for the Aztecs, currently leading college football with 72 pressures (just ahead of Michigan’s Hutchinson and Alabama’s Will Anderson). His lateral quickness, nose for the football and non-stop hustle are traits that will translate to the NFL.
26. Kansas City Chiefs — Drake London, WR, USC*
The Chiefs don’t lack for speed at wide receiver, but could use more size on the outside. A former basketball player at USC, London plays like a power forward with his ability to high-point and play above the rim. He is fluid with his ball adjustments to snatch and get upfield, showing the toughness to finish through contact and break tackles.
27. Tennessee Titans — Jameson Williams, WR, Alabama*
One of the most explosive weapons this draft has to offer, Williams has blazing route speed with the ability to separate due to his 90-degree cuts that don’t require a gear down. His athleticism would add another dimension to the Titans’ offense.
28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — DeMarvin Leal, DL, Texas A&M*
A toolsy, productive player, Leal, who currently leads the Aggies with 12.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks, has true inside-outside versatility on the defensive line. He is stout vs. the run with his physical hands and rushes with impressive body control for a 290-pounder. Although he needs to be more consistent, Leal’s highlights and traits give off Jonathan Allen vibes.
29. New England Patriots — Chris Olave, WR, Ohio State
Wide receiver isn’t a glaring need for the Patriots, especially considering Bill Belichick has only drafted one wide receiver in the first round since he became New England’s head coach in 2000. But Olave is the type of prospect who can change plans if he is available. A smooth athlete, Olave is already on an NFL level with his route transitions and catch-point skills.
30. Green Bay Packers — Darian Kinnard, OT/G, Kentucky
The Packers’ offensive line is holding up well considering they are without several injured starters. But there is no such thing as too much depth, and Kinnard will eventually break into the starting lineup, either at tackle or guard.
31. Baltimore Ravens — Daniel Faalele, OT, Minnesota
Would Baltimore draft a Gopher in back-to-back first rounds? It’s possible if the Ravens target an offensive tackle late — for a humongous human, as Faalele is a verified 6-foot-8 and 379 pounds with 35-inch arms and 11-inch hands. He is relatively new to football and is still learning how to get the most out of his unique skills, but he moves surprisingly well for his size and his anvil hands thump defenders into tomorrow.
32. Arizona Cardinals — Roger McCreary, CB, Auburn
McCreary has average size (6-0, 187) with sub-30 inch arms, but he is a quick-twitch athlete who can line up inside or outside and play sticky coverage. He has produced several impressive tapes this season (Penn State, Arkansas, Alabama) that could push him into the first round.
Beyond the first round
Day 2 selections for teams that currently do not own a first-round pick:
Second Round
Seattle Seahawks — Nicholas Petit-Frere, OT, Ohio State*
Petit-Frere needs to develop his play strength and keep his weight centered, but he has big-man twitch and the movement skills of a long-term NFL starter.
Chicago Bears — David Bell, WR, Purdue*
The Bears have their speed receiver in Darnell Mooney, and Bell would give them a polished route-runner who can get open and win the catch point.
Indianapolis Colts — Bernhard Raimann, OT, Central Michigan
A native of Austria, Raimann moved from tight end to left tackle during the pandemic and has blossomed into a Day 2 prospect due to his reactionary quickness and awareness.
San Francisco 49ers — Logan Hall, DL, Houston
A defensive lineman with inside-outside versatility, Hall needs to improve his hand exchange, but he is alert, nimble and the motor is always revving.
Third round
Los Angeles Rams — Jamaree Salyer, OT/G, Georgia
The starting left tackle for the Bulldogs, Salyer is more of a guard than a tackle with his physical hands and mobility, but he offers the versatility to provide depth at multiple spots on the offensive line.
Dane Brugler 5h ago
I wouldn’t call the 2022 NFL Draft a bad draft.
There are plenty of first-round-caliber players, and the depth at certain positions will stretch well into Day 3 on draft weekend. However, something that has been echoed by evaluators around the NFL is the lack of elite-level talent at the top. Most drafts don’t have 10 prospects considered no-brainers for the top-10 picks, but this year’s class doesn’t have more than one or two, according to feedback from some NFL scouts.
Maybe hindsight will prove that opinion to be silly. Maybe there is a T.J. Watt or Aaron Donald or Patrick Mahomes in this class — players who weren’t considered slam-dunk top-10 picks pre-draft but obviously proved that assessment wrong in retrospect.
Despite the perceived lack of top-tier talent, 10 players must go in the top 10, starting with an interesting decision for the Detroit Lions, who currently own the No. 1 overall pick. The volatility at the top of draft boards from team to team will be the story of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The next five months will be a fun, fascinating process.
Q&A WITH DANE BRUGLER: Leave a question for our draft guru
(Notes: The draft order is based on current standings. An asterisk represents draft-eligible underclassmen who haven’t officially declared for the draft.)
1. Detroit Lions — Aidan Hutchinson, edge, Michigan
The winless Lions need a long-term answer at quarterback, weapons at wide receiver and help at every level of the defense. This draft class doesn’t have a quarterback or pass-catching option worthy of a top-five pick, but there are several defensive players worth considering at No. 1. While Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux is the favorite to be drafted first, Hutchinson, who grew up just outside of Detroit, checks every box for the Lions as they rebuild the roster.
Athleticism? Hutchinson was No. 2 on Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List for a reason and will test well at the combine. Production? Hutchinson set the Michigan single-season sack record (13 sacks and counting) and currently ranks No. 2 in college football with 68 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. Intangibles? This is what truly sets Hutchinson apart. His competitive makeup is rare and raises the level of his teammates. If you included the players from this past April’s draft in the 2022 class, Hutchinson might not be drafted in the top 10. But he embodies a lot of the traits that head coach Dan Campbell craves and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a team like Detroit settles on Hutchinson at the top of its board.
2. Houston Texans — Kayvon Thibodeaux, edge, Oregon*
Although he isn’t in the same prospect tier as Myles Garrett, Chase Young or the Bosa brothers, Thibodeaux is a disruptive pass rusher due to his upfield burst and quick feet. He is a strong run defender and should continue to improve as a pass rusher as his rush moves evolve. Thibodeaux reminds me of a stronger, longer version of Harold Landry. The Texans will also be in the quarterback market this off-season, but hard to see them drafting one this early.
3. Jacksonville Jaguars — Evan Neal, OT, Alabama*
Surrounding Trevor Lawrence with the support system to flourish should be priority No. 1 for Jaguars. Left tackle Cam Robinson is currently playing on the franchise tag, and neither Jawaan Taylor nor Walker Little are established starters. Neal has played at a high level at three different positions (right guard, right tackle, left tackle) in his three seasons in Tuscaloosa and offers a unique blend of size, strength and flexibility.
4. New York Jets (from Seattle) — Derek Stingley Jr., CB, LSU*
With a defense that ranks last in the NFL and an offensive line that still has weak spots, the Jets need plenty of help. With two picks in the top five, the Jets are in a position to address both areas. After an All-American freshman season and solid sophomore year, Stingley played in only three games in 2021 before foot surgery put him on the shelf. The interviews and medicals are the unknown aspects of his projection right now, but his talent warrants this pick.
5. New York Jets — Ikem Ekwonu, OT, NC State*
The Jets have addressed the offensive line in the first round in each of Joe Douglas’ first two drafts as general manager, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he keeps the streak going. Similar in ways to a “smaller” version of Mekhi Becton, Ekwonu is a freakishly explosive blocker for his size (6-foot-4, 322 pounds) with the raw power and movement skills to execute outside zone with ease. He can play tackle or guard interchangeably and would give the Jets a long-term answer at right tackle.
6. New York Giants — Devin Lloyd, LB, Utah
The Giants saw first-hand what a versatile linebacker with explosive traits can do for your defense when they met the division-rival Dallas Cowboys with rookie stud Micah Parsons. Lloyd isn’t quite on Parsons’ level, but his blend of instincts and speed helps him impact the game in multiple ways. Linebacker might not be the top need for the Giants, but adding defensive playmakers is never a bad idea.
7. New York Giants (from Chicago) — Tyler Linderbaum, OC, Iowa*
Since the merger in 1970 only once has a center been drafted in the top 10 — and that is only if you include Pro Football Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews, who was drafted as an “interior blocker” ninth overall in 1983. But in this class, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Linderbaum this high, especially to a team like the Giants who need to add tough, athletic blockers in the trenches.
8. Philadelphia Eagles — Kyle Hamilton, DS, Notre Dame*
Based on talent, Hamilton is one of the best this draft class has to offer. But his draft projection is going to be interesting because not every team will value his hybrid skill set. With his athletic range and diagnose skills, Hamilton frustrates quarterbacks because of the different ways he impacts the game. He has missed the second half of Notre Dame’s season due to a minor knee injury, so the medical evaluations will be important.
9. Philadelphia Eagles (from Miami) — George Karlaftis, edge, Purdue*
With Derek Barnett likely headed elsewhere in free agency and Brandon Graham coming off an injury (and about to turn 34), the Eagles will be looking for pass rusher help this offseason. Karlaftis might not have elite length or twitch, but his persistent power and skilled hand work allow him to be disruptive.
10. Carolina Panthers — Kenny Pickett, QB, Pittsburgh
Flash back six years ago: Pickett, then a high school junior, committed to play quarterback at Temple for head coach Matt Rhule. Pickett re-opened his recruitment once bigger programs showed interest and chose Pitt, but this time around, Rhule might decide Pickett’s next destination. To fix its hole at quarterback, Carolina has unsuccessfully tried the former first-round pick route with Teddy Bridgewater in 2020 and Sam Darnold and Cam Newton this season. Unless they lure Aaron Rodgers to Charlotte this offseason, using a first-round pick of their own on a promising quarterback like Pickett might be the Panthers’ best option.
11. Atlanta Falcons — Travon Walker, edge, Georgia*
The Falcons need to get better on the defensive line, and one of the possible answers is right down the road. Walker, who grew up just south of Atlanta, has remarkable fluidity for a 275-pound athlete and has been one of the Bulldogs’ most valuable defenders this season. He is long and powerful to set a hard edge and shows the bully strength and quickness to be disruptive as a pass rusher. Falcons’ defensive coordinator Dean Pees values versatility up front and Walker has the skill set to line up at multiple positions.
12. Minnesota Vikings — Andrew Booth Jr., CB, Clemson*
With Patrick Peterson and Bashaud Breeland playing on one-year deals, the Vikings could be in the market for a starting cornerback. Booth has is a long athlete with controlled hip movement and the ability to find the football. His tape from this past weekend against South Carolina will get NFL teams excited.
13. New Orleans Saints — Garrett Wilson, WR, Ohio State*
The first wide receiver off the board in this mock, Wilson has only average size (6-0, 186), but his body control is special, and his athletic instincts help him separate before and after the catch. He would be an immediate weapon for whoever is lining up at quarterback in New Orleans next season. Ohio State has basically been a minor-league feeder system for the Saints, and that continues in this scenario.
14. Philadelphia (from Indianapolis) — Nakobe Dean, LB, Georgia*
I know, I know, the Eagles don’t draft linebackers in the first round (or at least they haven’t since 1979). But maybe Jonathan Vilma 2.0 can change their minds. Dean is an athletic pursuit player and blitzer with excellent diagnose skills to key and attack. His football character will make him an immediate fit wherever he is drafted in April.
15. Cleveland Browns — David Ojabo, edge, Michigan*
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a wide receiver like Treylon Burks or Chris Olave here, but Ojabo might be too enticing to pass up for Cleveland. The Nigerian and Scotland native is remarkably disruptive for a player who is still a football novice. Ideally, the organization would like to bring back Jadeveon Clowney, which would give Ojabo a chance to be a sub-package rusher as a rookie as he realizes his sky-high potential.
16. Pittsburgh Steelers — Sam Howell, QB, North Carolina*
If this is Ben Roethlisberger’s final season in Pittsburgh, will the Steelers look towards the draft? Or add a free agent to compete with Mason Rudolph in the short term? General manager Kevin Colbert has traveled to see Howell multiple times this fall, and he might be their top option available at this point in the draft. In addition to his arm strength and accuracy, Howell gives the Steelers much-needed athleticism at the quarterback position.
17. Denver Broncos — Jordan Davis, NT, Georgia
A dominant run defender, Davis is a massive human (6-6, 360 pounds) with range (might run sub-5.00 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and the upper-body power to stack the point of attack, toss blockers and find the football. He has a low ceiling as a pass rusher but is able to create push by bullying interior blockers into the pocket.
18. Las Vegas Raiders — Trevor Penning, OT, Northern Iowa
Finding an upgrade at right tackle needs to be a top priority for the Raiders this offseason. As long as they plan to keep Alex Leatherwood at guard, general manager Mike Mayock might look to find their new right tackle in the draft. Penning, who has experience at left and right tackle, is a “small school” prospect, but he has the traits to start in the NFL next season. At 6-7 and 329 pounds, he has impressive movement skills, length (35-inch arms) and competitive play style.
19. Washington Football Team – Matt Corral, QB, Ole Miss*
Taylor Heinicke has been a great story, but enough for Washington to bypass drafting a quarterback? Probably not if they view someone like Corral as the long-term answer. He doesn’t have ideal size, and his post-snap processing is still in the development phase, but Corral is an instinctive athlete with NFL-level arm talent and playmaking skills. General manager Martin Mayhew spent time in Oxford this month to see Corral, who would be a comfortable fit with Scott Turner’s style of play-calling.
20. Los Angeles Chargers — Kaiir Elam, CB, Florida*
Even with positive play from rookie Asante Samuel Jr., the Chargers’ cornerback depth chart will need some work this offseason. Although you wish his tape showed more plays on the football, Elam has the intriguing traits that should land him in Round 1.
21. Miami Dolphins (from San Francisco) — Charles Cross, OT, Mississippi State*
It feels like the offensive line has been a trouble area for the Dolphins since the Dan Marino era. Cross is still very young and needs to continue and get stronger and cut down on the penalties, but his movement patterns and handwork are outstanding foundation traits.
22. Buffalo Bills — Kenyon Green, OT/G, Texas A&M*
Green to Buffalo is one of my favorite team-prospect fits in this mock draft because of his versatility to interchangeably play guard or tackle. He plays with above-average balance before and after contact with the functional strength to sustain his blocks. His position flexibility gives the Bills starter-quality depth across the offensive line.
23. Detroit Lions (from Los Angeles) — Treylon Burks, WR, Arkansas*
The Lions’ most productive wide receiver is Kalif Raymond, who currently ranks 79th in the NFL in receiving yards. Burks is a unique talent who creates mismatches with his combination of size and athleticism. Detroit could address quarterback here with Liberty’s Malik Willis or Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder if it evaluates either as a worthy long-term option.
24. Cincinnati Bengals — Ahmad Gardner, CB, Cincinnati*
If the Bengals look to bolster their cornerback depth chart in the draft, they will have a few options in their own back yard. Gardner is a tall, long athlete who can flip his hips and stay on top of routes. Shifty route-runners will give him trouble at times, but he has been a lockdown player in college with zero touchdowns allowed on his watch.
25. Dallas Cowboys — Cameron Thomas, edge, San Diego State*
The Cowboys drafted three front-seven defenders in the top 100 last season and might be in the market for more pass rush in next year’s first round. Whether lined up inside or outside, Thomas has been nearly unblockable this season for the Aztecs, currently leading college football with 72 pressures (just ahead of Michigan’s Hutchinson and Alabama’s Will Anderson). His lateral quickness, nose for the football and non-stop hustle are traits that will translate to the NFL.
26. Kansas City Chiefs — Drake London, WR, USC*
The Chiefs don’t lack for speed at wide receiver, but could use more size on the outside. A former basketball player at USC, London plays like a power forward with his ability to high-point and play above the rim. He is fluid with his ball adjustments to snatch and get upfield, showing the toughness to finish through contact and break tackles.
27. Tennessee Titans — Jameson Williams, WR, Alabama*
One of the most explosive weapons this draft has to offer, Williams has blazing route speed with the ability to separate due to his 90-degree cuts that don’t require a gear down. His athleticism would add another dimension to the Titans’ offense.
28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — DeMarvin Leal, DL, Texas A&M*
A toolsy, productive player, Leal, who currently leads the Aggies with 12.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks, has true inside-outside versatility on the defensive line. He is stout vs. the run with his physical hands and rushes with impressive body control for a 290-pounder. Although he needs to be more consistent, Leal’s highlights and traits give off Jonathan Allen vibes.
29. New England Patriots — Chris Olave, WR, Ohio State
Wide receiver isn’t a glaring need for the Patriots, especially considering Bill Belichick has only drafted one wide receiver in the first round since he became New England’s head coach in 2000. But Olave is the type of prospect who can change plans if he is available. A smooth athlete, Olave is already on an NFL level with his route transitions and catch-point skills.
30. Green Bay Packers — Darian Kinnard, OT/G, Kentucky
The Packers’ offensive line is holding up well considering they are without several injured starters. But there is no such thing as too much depth, and Kinnard will eventually break into the starting lineup, either at tackle or guard.
31. Baltimore Ravens — Daniel Faalele, OT, Minnesota
Would Baltimore draft a Gopher in back-to-back first rounds? It’s possible if the Ravens target an offensive tackle late — for a humongous human, as Faalele is a verified 6-foot-8 and 379 pounds with 35-inch arms and 11-inch hands. He is relatively new to football and is still learning how to get the most out of his unique skills, but he moves surprisingly well for his size and his anvil hands thump defenders into tomorrow.
32. Arizona Cardinals — Roger McCreary, CB, Auburn
McCreary has average size (6-0, 187) with sub-30 inch arms, but he is a quick-twitch athlete who can line up inside or outside and play sticky coverage. He has produced several impressive tapes this season (Penn State, Arkansas, Alabama) that could push him into the first round.
Beyond the first round
Day 2 selections for teams that currently do not own a first-round pick:
Second Round
Seattle Seahawks — Nicholas Petit-Frere, OT, Ohio State*
Petit-Frere needs to develop his play strength and keep his weight centered, but he has big-man twitch and the movement skills of a long-term NFL starter.
Chicago Bears — David Bell, WR, Purdue*
The Bears have their speed receiver in Darnell Mooney, and Bell would give them a polished route-runner who can get open and win the catch point.
Indianapolis Colts — Bernhard Raimann, OT, Central Michigan
A native of Austria, Raimann moved from tight end to left tackle during the pandemic and has blossomed into a Day 2 prospect due to his reactionary quickness and awareness.
San Francisco 49ers — Logan Hall, DL, Houston
A defensive lineman with inside-outside versatility, Hall needs to improve his hand exchange, but he is alert, nimble and the motor is always revving.
Third round
Los Angeles Rams — Jamaree Salyer, OT/G, Georgia
The starting left tackle for the Bulldogs, Salyer is more of a guard than a tackle with his physical hands and mobility, but he offers the versatility to provide depth at multiple spots on the offensive line.
Simpleton
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There are a good number of base 3-4 DE/interior pass-rusher types this year who I'd love where ever we pick in the first. Leal would be my top choice but I'd love Cameron Thomas even if we were picking at like 21-23, I've watched him closely over the last month and he gives off some "homeless man's" JJ Watt vibes.
Travon Walker and Logan Hall would make some sense too, although they seem more like an early/mid-2nd to me.
Jordan Davis would be my top choice overall but unless we end up missing the playoffs I highly doubt he'll be there.
Travon Walker and Logan Hall would make some sense too, although they seem more like an early/mid-2nd to me.
Jordan Davis would be my top choice overall but unless we end up missing the playoffs I highly doubt he'll be there.
Simpleton
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Do you think he projects as a LT?
I'd be more than happy to go OL in the first but I think it'd have to be a guy who projects as a future LT and I don't think Kinnard is it. Penning would make a lot of sense, I just don't think he would fit on the inside while Smith is still around.
Ideally I'd want a guy who could play LG and transition to LT in the next 2-3 years, although I'd be willing to settle for a guy who can play RT in the meantime and allow us to move off of Collins next offseason (Penning). Then in 2-3 years you'd be looking at Penning/Steele as your starting OT's.
I might be able to be talked into Kinnard but he seems like an OG/RT only and I'm not sure he'd be the clear and obvious BPA over someone like Thomas.
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No...he is not at all. But I also think that guys like Cross and Penning go way higher than people think. All in all, I don't see the SDSU kid as a lock first round end.
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