by Collin Lindsay of the Great Blue North Draft Report
There is a huge day on the college football post-season all-star schedule Tuesday with the East-West Shrine Game scheduled for the evening in Frisco, Texas, while the Senior Bowl practices get underway in the afternoon in Mobile. And both will be covered by the NFL Network with the Senior Bowl practices slated to start at 2:30 PM ET and 5 PM ET, while the Shrine Game kicks off at 7 PM ET. For the record, the Senior Bowl will also have practices at those times on Wednesday and Thursday with the actual game set for 2:30 PM ET on Saturday.
Most of the draft focus will be on Mobile where the Senior Bowl simply has the better prospects, although unfortunately a number of who would have been the game’s best prospects dropped out after initially accepting invitations including DEs David Bailey of Texas Tech and Miami’s Rueben Bain, both of whom are generally considered to be top 5-10 candidates for this year’s draft, along with Ahkeem Mesidor, Bain’s partner in crime with the Hurricanes. Of course, those two had a good excuse as they played in last week’s national championship loss to Indiana and can claim they needed a break. Even with the defection of Bailey, Bain, and Mesidor, though, a pretty good case can be made that the DEs are still strongest grouping in Mobile as TJ Parker of Clemson, LT Overton of Alabama, Missouri’s Zion Young, Gabe Jacas of Illinois, and Dani Dennis-Sutton of Penn State say they will be there. In fact, Parker, who was generally considered to be the top overall prospect for the upcoming draft coming into the season, could be a bit of a high-ceiling sleeper at #5 if he works out well this winter. The other guy we think the Giants might be really interested in as a potential second-round pick might be Florida DT Caleb Banks, who has something to prove in Mobile after missing all but two games this fall because of a foot injury. Meanwhile, other top prospects in Mobile this week who might really interest the Giants include Boise State OT Kage Casey and the Texas Tech duo of NT Lee Hunter and LB Jake Rodriquez, the defensive player of the year in college football this year. Of course, there will be something like 125 prospects in Mobile this week including good ones with solid third-day potential at just about every position. Here are the full rosters for the National and American teams in this week’s Senior Bowl.
Unfortunately, the East-West Shrine gathering in Frisco features mostly third-day prospects; however, the one guy who has really jumped off the page so far is 6-5, 330-pound Florida State DT Darrell Jackson, whom one would think could be another possibility early in the second round. The Shrine game should also feature a pretty good group of LBs including Jake Golday of Cincinnati, Taurean York of Texas A&M, Eric Gentry of USC, Lander Barton Utah, and Buffalo’s Red Murdock, who led DI in tackles this fall. The other group that kind of stands out among the Shrine participants are the interior offensive linemen including OGs DG Campbell of Texas, Brian Parker of Duke, Alabama’s Jaeden Roberts, Ar’maj Reed-Adams of Texas A&M, Josh Braun of Kentucky, and Georgia’s Micah Morris and Indiana C Pat Coogan. Here are the full Shrine rosters for the East and West teams.