[jwplayer jF5wU66N-sNi3MVSU]
Senior Bowl Releases Top 250: Five Mountain West Players Make Cut
Four teams and five players from the Mountain.
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
Senior Bowl recognizes the MW
The Senior Bowl is the best and most recognizable postseason bowl game for college seniors. The bowl game is doing something a bit different this time around and released its list of 250 seniors to be in the pool to pick from for its showcase event.
The Mountain West routinely gets players drafted in the NFL including 10 last year and in 2018, there were three taken in the first round. While the Senior Bowl is not the end all be all for the draft picks, because for one, this is only for seniors but it is a good indicator of players being on the radar of the NFL Draft.
This initial list has five Mountain West players.
- Air Force DE Jordan Jackson
- Boise State CB Avery Williams
- Colorado State WR Warren Jackson
- Colorado State DL Manny Jones (reportedly transferring)
- Hawaii WR Rico Bussey, Jr.
The inclusion of Jackson is a nice one since the service academies are able to push back or alter its commitment to its branch of government. This should lead to more from Air Force, Army, Navy, and other military-focused schools to get a chance at going pro.
Jackson was heading into his senior season and was named to MWWire’s preseason second-team heading into this year, and last year he was an honorable mention after his junior year.
Boise State’s Williams has a lot going for him as he is not only a great cornerback but he is an exceptional returner as well. Being a versatile player in which one player can be used in one or more positions is valuable.
The Rams Jackson is likely to be the highest taken player in the upcoming NFL Draft and he has already declared to move on and will not play whenever the Mountain West gets back to playing football nor will transfer.
He continues the tradition of players like Rashard Higgins and the more established Michael Gallup of Colorado State having wide receivers get drafted.
Jones has entered the portal so he may no longer be a Colorado State Ram. With the Rams having a subpar defense over the past few years but Jones is one of the few bright spots on that side of the ball.
He was on the path to be a potential first-team all-league player, and in his time he has nine sacks and 21.5 tackles for loss.
Bussey might seem like an odd choice but his time at North Texas was exceptional with 68 catches for 1,017 yards and 12 touchdowns back in 2018. He sat out last year by transferring from the Mean Green and worked alongside some really good wide receivers in Cedric Byrd, Jojo Smart and others.
This is not the final roster by any means as this list will be cut in half.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1365]
[protected-iframe id=”f7652191f99ba13728097498e8a79cd8-137729785-123448869″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/show/48681pqFq0kB9dhrtPPoNd” width=”100%” height=”232″ frameborder=”0″]