2014 Senior Bowl: Day 3 Recap

Day 3 of the week marks the final chance that the players are put through full pad practices. Thursday and Friday are walkthroughs and other obligations such as media and of course, visiting local hospitals among other charitable causes. Most teams have packed up and left for their home bases. Who won and lost the day? Here are some links to kick things off as usual.

Rob Rang spotlights some under the radar North prospects

Rang also hypes up the star defenders

Eric Galko grades the North and South

Greg Cosell of NFL Films fame joined Midday 180 and talked about David Fales potentially being a Titan.

Walterfootball has more of the rumor mill working in Mobile

Charlie Campbell has his take on the South and North

My Thoughts:

North

- Pittsburgh DL Aaron Donald is making tons of money this week. He has shown up and dominated the competition. It's not even close, either. It's been the Aaron Donald show every day.

- In the defensive linemen not named Aaron Donald corps, Minnesota's Ra'Shede Hageman continued his good form, showing good strength on bull rushes but his speed rush techniques need to be worked on a bit.

- Wisconsin LB Chris Borland also continued to impress as well. He's a speedy and instinctive run and chase 'backer who has some potential playing inside but outside is most ideal for him. Borland like many of his Wisconsin teammates, is very fundamentally sound.

- Speaking of Wisconsin, RB James White was good today in one on one blitz protection. He's also proven to be a capable receiver out of the backfield.

- Another Wisconsin prospect, WR Jared Abbrederis has shown everyone why he is the best receiver on either side. He's a very good route runner and will go through all of his assigned routes in a methodical fashion, baiting defensive backs to fall into a trap.

- Giving a run for his money though is Oregon WR Josh Huff. Huff has been very consistent in finding the splash plays but can't seem to string them together consistently.

- The three quarterbacks once again flashed their talents but yet another practice filled with maddening inconsistency. Stephen Morris was the worst offender of the bunch. He often could not settle his feet and looked locked on to a single receiver instead of going through his reads.Tajh Boyd struggled a lot with finishing his deep ball strikes with any force. He seems like a product of the Chad Morriss system. However, word has it that he's extremely coachable and a great teammate. Logan Thomas was well, Logan Thomas. He could get it there but it's a herculean task to get the ball where he wants it to go.

- Notre Dame OL Zack Martin has been a steady performer each day. He's rapidly changing many minds that he can't stick at tackle. I see him having a meteoric rise up the boards ala Lane Johnson a year ago.

South

- BYU LB Kyle Van Noy is a freak. Enough said

- Florida CB Jaylen Watkins continues to show out with Aaron Colvin sidelined with injury, Watkins could be the best corner in Mobile. He's the 2014 version of Lavar Edwards.

- ASU DL Will Sutton has shown a lot of what he could be once he drops the weight that ASU coaches asked him to put on. He's shown similar agility and quickness to current Jets DL Sheldon Richardson. Underrated athleticism.

- Auburn DE Dee Ford is simply a freak athlete. He continued his dominant form and could be a LaMarr Woodley type of rusher but with less coverage ability.

- As I said last night, some team will take and try to mold Tennessee DT Daniel McCullers into a space eating Vince Wilfork type of nose tackle.

- The South quarterbacks were a mixed bag just like their North counterparts. David Fales markedly improved after blundering his way through the first two days. Fales doesn't have a cannon arm but has just enough to get it there. He has shown a lot of ball placement skill, a credit to the SJSU offense forcing him to do so on lots of timing routes they love to run. The footwork is a little meh but can be coached out of him. Derek Carr, like Logan Thomas, looks the part but the mental part of his game is a disaster waiting to happen. Jimmy Garopollo had a mostly down day, overthrowing a wide open surefire touchdown and missing his targets completely. He's still an intriguing prospect however.

- Vanderbilt WR Jordan Matthews has been making steady improvements much like Abbrederis, knows how to run effective routes, often changing up his depth and speed of the routes. He definitely knows how to run the short and medium games.

Note: Since tomorrow is essentially an off day, I'll most likely have a winners and losers of the week post up sometime in the afternoon/evening. Thanks for following along, everyone!