Tag: 2021 Senior Bowl

Two ex-Giants added to 2021 Senior Bowl scouting staff

Two former New York Giants scouts, Ryan Jones and Chris Watts, have been added to the 2021 Senior Bowl scouting staff.

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The Reese’s Senior Bowl, which has become one of the top college sporting events in the nation, announced several changes and additions to their scouting staff on Wednesday.

“We are extremely excited about adding this group of proven talent evaluators to our Reese’s Senior Bowl team. It is hard to imagine there is a more experienced group of college scouts in the NFL than this one,” Jim Nagy, Reese’s Senior Bowl Executive Director, said in a statement.

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“Among our top priorities each year is to bring credibility and transparency to the player selection process and adding another well-connected group of scouts helps us accomplish that for our 2022 game. The pandemic restricted our overall scouting process last year, so we look forward to getting back on the road this fall for live game evaluations each week during the college season.”

Among those added to the Senior Bowl scouting staff was former New York Giants scout Ryan Jones.

Jones has 16 years of NFL experience as an area and regional scout for the New York Football Giants, including being a part of two Super Bowl Championships. Before joining the Giants, he served as a graduate assistant coach at Minnesota and went on to coach defensive backs at the University of New Hampshire and College of the Holy Cross. As a player, he was a captain and all-conference selection at New Hampshire and finished his career with 15 interceptions. Jones earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire and holds a master’s in administrative science from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Jones, who served as the Giants’ Northeast area scout, was with the team for 20 years before being fired in February of 2020.

Meanwhile, Chris Watts, another former Giants scout, was also among those added to the Senior Bowl scouting staff.

Watts spent the past 16 years in the National Football League as a member of the New York Giants scouting staff. His time with the Giants included three years as a college scouting intern, nine years as the club’s BLESTO combine scout, and the final five years as southwest area scout. Before joining the Giants, Watts spent two years as an offensive line graduate assistant at his alma mater, Langston University. He earned four letters in football and one in track at Langston, where he earned both his undergraduate degree in business administration-management in 1998 and master’s in education in 2006. Watts is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Watts, who initially joined the Giants as a training camp intern in 2005 before rising through the ranks, parted ways with the team back in May of this year. He was among the last remaining members of Jerry Reese’s scouting staff.

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Titans among 9 teams to draft 5 or more Senior Bowl players

The Titans heavily relied on their Senior Bowl scouting in the 2021 NFL draft.

When you look at the Tennessee Titans’ 2021 NFL draft class, there is a common thread with most of the players in it: they appeared in the 2021 Senior Bowl.

Thanks to limited opportunities to meet players in-person this offseason, the Senior Bowl was one of the only chances teams had for face-to-face meetings, making it more important than in years past.

The Titans weren’t the only team to heavily rely on the Senior Bowl, as eight other teams chose five or more players who participated in the event back in January.

Tennessee’s five picks who were at Senior Bowl week are as follows: right tackle Dillon Radunz, inside linebacker Monty Rice, wide receivers Dez Fitzpatrick and Racey McMath, and edge rusher Rashad Weaver.

Of those five players, only Radunz has a chance to be a starter right away, as he’ll compete for the starting right tackle job in training camp with Kendall Lamm and Ty Sambrailo.

The other four, Rice, Fitzpatrick, Weaver and McMath, are all expected to serve as depth in their first seasons with solidified starters ahead of them on the depth chart.

Tennessee will kick of its 2021 campaign on Sunday, September 12, when they host the Arizona Cardinals at Nissan Stadium.

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247Sports names KJ Britt as one of the MVPs of Senior Bowl

Former Auburn linebacker made a huge impression at the 2021 Senior Bowl and earned a MVP nod by 247Sports.

KJ Britt definitely made a great impression during his time in Mobile for the 2021 Senior Bowl.

On Saturday, it was announced that his fellow teammates had named him the best linebacker at the annual game and then, on Sunday, 247Sports named the former Auburn star as one of the MVPs of the game.

From the article:

Britt missed most of last season with a thumb injury, but showed no ill effects in Mobile.

“I like him a lot,” NFL.com analyst Chase Goodbread said. “He’s a leader, he’s an alpha on that Auburn defense. … I think the NFL, with him, they look at a guy who’s great downhill, who’s better downhill than maybe moving laterally, which is of course in high demand at the linebacker position in the NFL. So that’s an issue for him certainly, but Britt’s a guy, from a football character standpoint, they love him.”

As a junior in 2019, Britt recorded 69 tackles, 10 tackles for a loss and 2.5 sacks while also forcing one fumble.

Georgia football’s DJ Daniel named top CB at Senior Bowl practice

The 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl was played on Saturday, showcasing the top senior college football players from around the country. 

The 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl was played on Saturday, showcasing the top senior college football players from around the country.

Three Georgia Bulldogs took part in the event, which featured a week of practice before the game on Saturday, a National team 27-24 win.

Tight end Tre McKitty, defensive back Mark Webb and cornerback D.J. Daniel represented the Bulldogs with McKitty and Daniel earning honors as the top player at their respective position during practice.

Event president Jim Nagy said the awards were determined by the team’s receivers.

Daniel went on to have a solid game covering some of the most talented receivers in the country, which should help his draft stock ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft that is scheduled to take place from Thursday, April 29 to Saturday, May 1.

While at Georgia Daniel fought for playing time with highly rated draft prospects Eric Stokes and Tyson Campbell, but the Griffin, Ga., native played well when he was given the chance.

In 21 games played at Georgia, Daniel racked up 51 tackles, three tackles for a loss with nine passes defended.

 

 

This week former Bulldogs Brandon Boykin and Chris Burnette joined UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton to talk Dawgs, their new podcast and more! Listen here for lots of laughs!

2021 Senior Bowl: 5 standouts who could help the Jags from the American team

The Senior Bowl has come and gone, but there were several notables the Jags could draft from the American team like Kadarius Toney.

The Senior Bowl for the 2021 season has come and gone, and despite many hurdles, it proved to be a productive week. The process concluded Saturday (with a 27-24 win for the National team) after the actual all-star game was played, but the biggest evaluations come from the practices throughout the week.

The Jags have been known to select several stars from the Senior Bowl like Brandon Linder, D.J. Chark, Ben Bartch, and Gardner Minshew II. While there are new faces in the front office, fans shouldn’t expect that to change too much.

Now, with the process behind us, let’s look at some standouts who the Jags could have interest in as they have a wide range of needs to address this offseason:

10 standouts from the 2021 Senior Bowl that should be on Bears’ radar

The Senior Bowl featured some impressive performances. Here are the standouts that the Bears should be watching.

The Senior Bowl is officially in the books. Following a week of practices and meetings with scouts, the Senior Bowl culminated in a 27-24 win for the National Team.

There were several prospects that flashed and elevated their draft stock throughout the week, and there were a few that should certainly be of interest to the Bears.

The Bears have several needs to address this offseason, and there are some intriguing prospects that could certainly help them do that.

Here are 10 players that impressed this week during the Senior Bowl that should be on the Bears’ radar.

Demetric Felton among Senior Bowl’s top performers Jets could target

Jets Wire takes a look at the top performers from Saturday’s Senior Bowl that New York could target during April’s draft.

Following the completion of Saturday’s Senior Bowl, an entire week of evaluating prospects down in Mobile has finally come to an end. In the age of the pandemic, NFL teams were able to get in some in-person evaluation, in addition to interviewing some of the nation’s top seniors.

Let’s take a look at four top performers from Saturday’s game that the Jets could have their eyes on going forward.

Brian Flores definitely found a few Miami Dolphins at the Senior Bowl

Brian Flores definitely found a few Miami Dolphins at the Senior Bowl

The Miami Dolphins’ biggest scouting excursion of the 2021 offseason is in the books. Already. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic creating limitations for what the rest of the pre-draft process is going to look like for all 32 NFL teams and the NFL hopefuls looking to get drafted this spring, the 2021 Senior Bowl will be the only scouting event in the foreseeable future to have accommodated all 32 teams and a hoard of players. The week was considered a success as the Dolphins’ team emerged victorious on Saturday’s contest, 27-24. But the real fruits of this labor aren’t an exhibition game, they’re the scouting takeaways on who will be a future difference maker for your football team.

Dolphins head coach Brian Flores appears to have found a few.

“We had a really nice, good week with these young players. They really worked hard. A lot of them made really good impressions not only on our staff, but there were teams obviously from across the league,” said Flores after Saturday’s Senior Bowl contest.

“But we got to spend the most time with them. We saw them in meetings, saw them take things from the meetings to the walk-through to the practice…here were quite a few guys who we felt like could possibly help our team. We’re not going to dive into names of who those guys are, but there was a lot of talented players.”

The most popular candidates are Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith and running back Najee Harris — but there’s a very strong chance we see a large chunk of Miami’s 2021 NFL Draft class come from the Senior Bowl and not just their top of the draft prospects.

Miami will have such a disproportionate familiarity with the players in attendance this week that, amid all of the uncertainty elsewhere in the scouting space, this week’s lessons may well be heavily valued in the decision making process. For now, we can at least know that Brian Flores leaves Mobile with a list to cross reference with Chris Grier of who can help the team and the two have plenty of time to hash out the details.

2021 Senior Bowl defensive, special teams practice players of the week

See who the players think impressed on defense for both the National and American squads during this week of Senior Bowl practice.

Following a long week of practices at the Senior Bowl, players are gearing up to finally play in live action on Saturday. But before the game kicks off, there were some standouts during practice this week, and they garnered players of the week honors.

Players were voted on by the position group they competed against in practice.

So who did the players think impressed on defense for both the National and American squads? Let’s take a look at the defensive practice players of the week.

2021 Senior Bowl offensive practice players of the week

See who the players think impressed on offense for both the National and American squads during this week of Senior Bowl practice.

Following a long week of practices at the Senior Bowl, players are gearing up to finally play in live action on Saturday. But before the game kicks off, there were some standouts during practice this week, and they garnered players of the week honors.

Players were voted on by the position group they competed against in practice.

So who did the players think impressed on offense for both the National and American squads? Let’s take a look at the offensive practice players of the week.