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Day 1 is in the books with the both practices concluded and the legendary "Underwear Olympics" completed. Both the North and South were in shells and shorts as expected on the first day of practice. The North team held their practice session at Ladd-Peebles while the South held theirs at Fairhope Stadium. The weigh ins are always fun in which schools fudge their numbers and who doesn't.
Executive Director Phil Savage was well, a savage on blasting those who willfully chose not to attend. It appears his message from last year got through to the prospects this year as only 15 declined to attend, down from 28 in the past couple of years. Only 3 of the 15 that declined chose to do so. Those prospects are Michigan State QB Connor Cook, Alabama C Ryan Kelly, and Oregon DE Deforest Buckner.
Links
The Miami Herald has a nice piece on budding QB superstar Carson Wentz from NDSU
The local big paper in Mississippi has some pretty good company that they put Dak Prescott in.
Walterfootball has some rumors about certain prospects that keeping the mill churning
Tajae Sharpe/WR/UMASS picking up where he left off at Shrine and catching everything.
— Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) January">https://twitter.com/TonyPauline/status/692116160091942913">January 26, 2016
Noah Spence with excellent balance and hips. #seniorbowlhttps://twitter.com/hashtag/seniorbowl?src=hash">#seniorbowl> https://t.co/xMZ9f7c7pt
&mdash">https://t.co/xMZ9f7c7pt">https://t.co/xMZ9f7c7pt— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) January">https://twitter.com/nfldraftscout/status/692075508876623878">January 26, 2016
Standouts of the players I saw today: Noah Spence, Jarran Reed, Harlan Miller, Braxton Miller, Kenneth Dixon, Carson Wentz
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) January">https://twitter.com/nfldraftscout/status/692142709394522113">January 27, 2016
My thoughts
- Baylor DE Shawn Oakman is one of those guys that you bring off the bus first to intimidate the opposing team. A physical specimen as expected. He makes Derrick Henry look like a high school kid.
- Oklahoma’s Eric Striker and LSU’s Deion Jones already had questions about their size but failed to answer any of those when both came in lower than projected. Both guys are just playmakers though so we shall see.
- Reports are that Noah Spence is well on his way to make a name for himself after dominating practice today in just shells. He could be a first round pick when it’s all said and done.
- The Titans need Carson Wentz to keep on blowing up this week to maximize their trade value for the top pick. He has the most upside and physical intangibles of any QB here.
- The QBs on both teams are light years better than last year’s crop while the receivers aren’t as good.
- NDSU OT Joe Haeg may get the Ali Marpet bump by the end of this week. Texas Tech OT Le’Raven Clark might be another candidate to do so as well.
- The North DB group looks deeper than I initially thought it would be. Lots of small school love to go around.
- UGA LB Jordan Jenkins just looks the part of a fearsome linebacker and he backed it up today. If he’s there in the second round, I wouldn’t give it a moment’s hesitation and draft him.
- ASU WR/RB D.J. Foster was recently added to the North roster, much to Pratt’s happiness. I’m interested to see how he does as well.
- Padded practices begin tomorrow and that’s where the real money is earned or lost. ESPNU has the rights to the contract over NFL Network.