The Senior Bowl has really established itself as both a kicking-off point for the NFL draft season as well as serving as the draft’s most important tool. While the scouting combine provides a ton of data on the players in draft classes, it is the Senior Bowl where you see what players can do. The week’s worth of practice is capped off by a game to cement what front offices use to confirm what they saw on tape during the season.
Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy is wasting no time in highlighting some players who are on their watch list for the upcoming season and a notable Nittany Lion made the cut of quarterbacks.
Looking for fresh #NFLDraft content? Here’s a sneak peek at all P5 QBs our staff has already graded for 2023 @seniorbowl. Lots of recognizable names in new places next fall. Check in all summer for junior tape breakdowns on class of ‘23.#TheDraftStartsInMOBILE™️ pic.twitter.com/ICeE2EOEfy
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) April 28, 2022
This time last year [autotag]Sean Clifford[/autotag] was on the same list that Nagy has published but, obviously, with Clifford coming back thanks to the COVID exemption the NCAA granted, he is on it again. When deciding who to invite, the Senior Bowl usually takes requests from the NFL. This makes obvious sense when you consider it is the NFL that will be drafting these players.
Sean Clifford will be entering his sixth year on campus and this year more than ever he will be under a microscope. The first angle is the obvious one, which is the NFL has eyes on him. If he wants to pursue an NFL career then he needs to perform this year unlike any other year to date.
In the second part, he needs to make sure to keep his starting job for the whole year. If he can utilize the weapons around him that [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and the staff have built up then he should be able to do both things. The Blue-White Game had him look better than any other quarterback on the roster for now but it is just May and we have a long season ahead of us.
Obviously, you root for every player to continue a football dream, the nice part is it seems the team is still rallied around Sean Clifford as well.
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