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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.
Check out Draft Wire’s exclusive interview with UCLA prospect Demetric Felton
Speed and versatility are king in today’s NFL, and if your favorite team is looking for an offensive weapon who brings both to the table, UCLA’s Demetric Felton is the man for the job.
Felton recently spoke exclusively with Draft Wire about how he’s been spending his time during the COVID-19 quarantine, which NFL players he models his game after, and what’s next for him amid all the questions surrounding the 2020 college football season.
DF: It was difficult in the beginning. Everything was shut down. Thanks to the friends and family I have back home, I was able to work out in a friend’s garage. For the on-field work, I just had to hop the fence at my old high school (laughs).
I was doing that until about June 20th. That’s when I came back to UCLA. That’s when we were allowed to resume workouts as a team. I did some on-field workouts with a few NFL players as well.
DF: Personally, I did. I felt like I was more than capable of doing what I did last season. I thought I could have done even better. It felt good to be utilized. They gave me a chance to show everybody what I could really do.
DF: We run a mix. We spread things out but we also have some pro-style elements to our offense. We love to spread the ball out and give it to our weapons on the outside. We also run the ball in-between the tackles. We do some pro-style things. We’re pretty versatile on offense.
DF: I get this question a lot. I always just say that I’m a football player. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. I’m gonna produce wherever you put me at. I can play running back and run it up the middle. I can run routes out of the backfield. I can line up at receiver and do that as well. I’m a versatile offensive weapon. I just need the ball in my hands for me to make plays.
DF: When UCLA originally recruited me, it was actually as a receiver, even though I was playing running back at the time in high school.
I only started playing running back halfway through my junior year of high school. Before that, I was playing receiver. That experience made me extremely comfortable at both positions.
As a kid growing up, I played every position. I even played a little quarterback. I became used to simply making plays. A lot of my favorite players have produced in a similar type of role. I try to mimic that and use it within my game.
DF: I really enjoyed watching De’Anthony Thomas and Tavon Austin. I feel like those are two skill players that can play in the backfield or as a slot receiver. I always try to emulate those two guys. I appreciate their skill-sets. I see a lot of similarities in myself.
Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara tape. Both of those guys do a great job running through the tackles. They also catch the football at such a high level. That’s something I’ve been trying to perfect. I’ve taken a lot from those two guys right there.
DF: I guess that they would have a valid point. Size doesn’t matter if the defender can’t get his hands on you, though. I’m extremely dangerous with the ball in my hands. I’m not easy to bring down. You can turn on my tape and see that it speaks for itself.
DF: I’ve been playing a lot of Call of Duty (laughs). We play some Madden, as well, but it’s mostly Call of Duty. We’ve been going hard on that. I play with some guys that I grew up with, guys I attended high school with.
I also play with a bunch of my teammates at UCLA. I’ve definitely spent a little more time on there than usual. Its been a lot of fun since we haven’t been able to connect as easily with everything going on.
DF: This is probably a typical answer, but my favorite style right now are definitely the Jordan 1’s. I’ve been trying to step my game up and get myself a few more pairs of those. I’ve bought a couple of pairs throughout this quarantine (laughs). I just wear them around the house since I can’t go anywhere else (laughs).
DF: That’s crazy. That happens to me a lot as well. I was getting lucky during the beginning of quarantine. I was keeping up to date on some of the drops and I was able to get myself a few pairs. I’ve been striking out as of late, though. It’s so hard to get them on there.
DF: I hope we can play some sort of college football this season. Even if it’s just a few games in the spring, I would really enjoy that. I’m looking forward to getting a shot to play in the NFL.
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