2011 Senior Bowl

The 2011 Senior Bowl was played this past Saturday for the sole purpose of giving the Mustacheers a football game to watch now that the season is over.

After watching the game, here are a few of my thoughts:
Jake Locker, like has happened on so many Saturdays, made a few nice throws, overthrew multiple receivers and was on the losing team. It’s too bad he wasn’t able to do more this week. He needs the postseason process to go well and get people excited about his upside, because he continues to show people that he isn’t ready to play QB in the NFL. I’m sure the Combine will be a better process for him. However, he’ll still have to do the throwing drills and I’d be shocked if he’s not overthrowing guys there too.

Von Miller (LB, Texas A&M) lived up to the hype he generated in practice and looked good during the game. People are excited about how scheme-diverse he’ll is. He can play OLB or ILB in a 3-4, OLB in 4-3 and possibly DE in a 4-3 in certain situations. It seems like his best value would be rushing the passer, so I think a 3-4 team will take him early.

The North’s O-line had a disappointing effort in the game. Nate Solder (OT, Colorado) and Anthony Castonzo (OT, Boston College) were not that impressive but are thought to be among the highest –rated Tackles in the draft. Solder was clearly beaten on two plays. Once against Sam Acho (DE, Texas) that resulted in a strip of Locker and again by Von Miller that resulted in a tackle-for-loss. Castonzo missed his man when he was pulling and then was abused by Brooks Reed (DE, Arizona) for a sack.

Leonard Hankerson (WR, Miami) was impressive. He’s 6’2” and used his frame effectively a few times to make catches. He just looked like a quality receiver.

I liked the play of Kendric Burney (CB,UNC). He’s only 5’9” and doesn’t have great speed, but was a decent tackler and is quick to break on the ball. Mayock called him a prototypical Cover 2 corner.

It sounds like a lot of people are high on Cameron Jordan (DE, Cal) after this week. According to most reports he was dominant in practices during the week. I didn’t see much from him during the game though. When I watched him in The Big Game against Stanford this year he wasn’t all that impressive either. He did draw double-teams in that game, so that’s a positive. Maybe he’s just better in a one-on-one practice setting.

Ryan Kerrigan (DE, Purdue), Brooks Reed (DE, Arizona) and Colin McCarthy (LB, Miami) all have non-stop motors.