Tag: jim nagy

UCLA Bruins defensive end wows Senior Bowl execuative director

One UCLA linebacker earned some high praise from one of college football’s most important scouts.

The UCLA Bruins defense has been a force all season long, with several notable players emerging as top-tier players in the Big Ten. This week, one Bruin caught the eye of college football’s most important scout.

Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, analyzed UCLA defensive end Femi Oladejo after his breakout performance against Iowa.

Nagy, who previously worked as a regional scout for the Washington Commanders, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, and Kansas City Chiefs, praised Oladejo for his closing speed and positional versatility.

Referencing his two-sack and four-tackle performance in the Bruins’ win over Iowa, Nagy described Oladejo as one of the “best-looking physical specimens” entering the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.

To date, Oladejo has totaled 20 solo tackles and 3.5 sacks this year, and his numbers look to improve as the Bruins close out their season. Having caught the eye of college football’s kingmaker, Oladejo will continue to garner attention as the NFL Draft approaches next year.

Standout rookie OL impressed expert in Chiefs’ loss to Lions

Rookie OL Ethan Driskell put together an impressive performance in the #Chiefs’ preseason loss to the #Lions on Saturday.

The Kansas City Chiefs showed a ton of fight in their one-point loss to the Detroit Lions over the weekend, and experts have been pouring through film from the game to see which players stood out in the preseason exhibition.

Among the most impressive contributors in Kansas City’s most recent defeat was rookie offensive lineman Ethan Driskell, who astounded former NFL scout Jim Nagy with his performance against Detroit.

Nagy singled out one of Driskell’s most outstanding snaps this weekend to demonstrate just how much talent the Marshall product has, and what he could do for the Chiefs in 2024 if Brett Veach saves a spot for him on Kansas City’s 53-man roster.

Though Driskell went undrafted back in April, his dominating presence on the Chiefs’ offensive line in the preseason is a good sign for his future, whether he sticks with Kansas City or is forced to seek an opportunity elsewhere.

Expect to see the rookie lineman back in action when the Chiefs face the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday.

Eagles director of scouting Brandon Hunt to interview for Patriots GM role

The Eagles could be set to lose another key member of the front office personnel, as Adam Schefter reports that Brandon Hunt will interview for the Patriots lead personnel job (GM).

The Eagles could be set to lose another key front office personnel member, as Adam Schefter reports that Brandon Hunt will interview for the Patriots’ lead personnel job (GM).

Hunt was a homegrown talent for the Steelers and a Pittsburgh native who attended IUP and had been learning on the job under Kevin Colbert for almost 15 years.

Hunt officially joined Pittsburgh’s scouting department in 2010 and was named the pro scouting coordinator for Houston after Doug Whaley was hired as the general manager of the Buffalo Bills.

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The move to Philadelphia was essentially a trade of front-office personnel, with Andy Weidl joining the Steelers as Omar Khan’s assistant GM.

For New England, the interview process is a chance to balance the front office with proper titles after former head coach Bill Belichick did not have a traditionally titled general manager in his 24 seasons.

Krafts (ownership) hasn’t employed one since owning the team, and current senior personnel Eliot Wolf is the favorite to land the job.

Senior Bowl director says Saints made a ‘slam dunk’ in Round 1

Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy says the Saints made a “slam dunk” in the 2024 draft, picking the right tackle whose opponents said was the toughest player in practice:

Taliese Fuaga has a lot of fans. The New Orleans Saints picked the Oregon State right tackle in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, and it wasn’t a decision that shocked some of Fuaga’s biggest supporters. One of those movers and shakers around the NFL is Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy, who praised Fuaga in a conference call with local media.

“They drafted a guy who is going to be a Day 1 starter. Slam dunk,” Nagy told Nola.com’s Rod Walker after the Saints announced the pick. He added, “He’s a really nimble, big human being. And he’s a bully.”

Fuaga was voted the National Team practice player of the week at this year’s Senior Bowl — an award chosen by his opponents on the defensive line, who made that decision after clashing with him and every other offensive lineman on the National Team during the week.

His movement skills are obvious. Fuaga excelled in the same wide zone scheme that Klint Kubiak is bringing to New Orleans, having paired light feet with a mean streak at Oregon State. The Beavers enjoyed running behind him, and soon, so will the Saints.

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DJ Burns has the attention of the NFL during NC State’s Final Four run

While he leads NC State on their magical run to the Final Four the Senior Bowl Director and NFL general managers are noticing DJ Burns.

When people think of North Carolina State and the Final Four, they usually think of Jim Valvano and his run in 1983. In 2024, there is a new player that has become a star for the Wolfpack while also getting the country’s and even the NFL’s attention.

DJ Burns as been dominating college basketball with his size and footwork and evidently NFL front offices can’t help themselves but wonder.

Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy says the NFL has been watching the NC State star closely. He first suggested this during their Sweet Sixteen game, but after their latest upset over Duke, it appears the madness has left March and entered the NFL.

Burns is listed on the team’s site as being 6’9″ and 295 pounds. Nagy points out that he could be a lot of fun watching kick out and block but maybe he could play inside the defensive line.

The Vikings have needs at both offensive line and defensive line, just throwing it out into the universe.

Notre Dame football cornerback Cam Hart continues rising up draft boards

The Irish corner continues to impress NFL teams

As we all know by now, Notre Dame cornerback Cam Hart has been rising up NFL teams draft boards after an impressive performance at the combine.

Hart also participated in the Senior Bowl and the executive director of that game, Jim Nagy went to social media to rave about the Irish corner even more.

Nagy created a thread just to hype up Hart, saying that he’s “arguably (the) most talented true big corner in the draft.” He expanded on the impressive combine performance, Nagy noting that Hart “posted one of the most impressive AND least talked about combine performances.” High praise indeed.

It will be an interesting next month plus until the draft to see how much higher Hart can go on draft boards.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (Formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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2024 NFL Draft’s deepest positions are needs for the Lions

2024 NFL Draft’s deepest positions are needs for the Lions and GM Brad Holmes

The Detroit Lions have one of the more complete rosters but that doesn’t mean they don’t have needs. Joey Chestnut has to eat dinner after winning a hot dog eating competition, the same way the Lions need to continue to add quality players to their roster.

The positions that Brad Holmes and his staff are expected to be addressing are the interior offensive line, primarily center, as they expect to be without Frank Ragnow as he teeters on his future. The other is cornerback as the Lions pass defense this year was painful to watch at times.

Good news is coming from Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy as he claims the most talented position pools in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The name Quinyon Mitchell should sound familiar to Lions fans if they have been following national media mock drafts. He has been a popular name to be mocked to the Lions at the end of round one. Some analysts however don’t see him lasting that long as they have Mitchell as the top corner in the draft class. The cornerback group will have some names taken by the Lions in April’s draft, the question is only how soon.

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As for the interior offensive line and center positions, there was a new name attached to the Lions this week.

Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Medi mocked the West Virginia center to the Lions in his second mock draft of the cycle. Jeremiah stated “…this feels like Dan Campbell’s type of player. Frazier, a state-champion wrestler in high school, could step right in at guard and eventually move to center.”

Tons of talent being linked to the Lions, nothing out of the ordinary, but this time around it’s at the back end of the first round. Brad Holmes has this roster close, with the right picks in April they could be picking last in 2025.

Michigan wide receiver Roman Wilson solidified senior rise in Mobile

Roman Wilson set himself apart during the Senior Bowl process.

Heading into the 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl, former Michigan wide receiver Roman Wilson was viewed as a sleeper who needed a ton more draft hype. Wilson had modest production while at Michigan, saving his best for last as part of the Wolverine’s national championship run in 2023.

The diminutive pass catcher led the squad with 789 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on just 48 receptions, impressive numbers considering how fixating on the run game Michigan is offensively. 

During the first day, Wilson weighed in and it wasn’t a big surprise that he was on the smaller side. At 5’10 ½” and 186 pounds, he isn’t going to look like a dominant passing game weapon on the hoof. Then the pads got on and Wilson morphed into arguably the top wide receiver on either side in Mobile. Wilson played so well over the first two days, that he opted to shut it down and not practice the final couple of days or participate in the game. 

Throughout the week, Wilson was mentioned by pretty much every major media outlet as a big winner. The director of the Senior Bowl, Jim Nagy, even put a lofty Tyler Lockett comparison on Wilson during the week. The reason for that is his rare combination of vertical speed, competitiveness, and ability to track the ball down the field. 

Wilson wasn’t an unknown player to NFL scouts coming into the season. There were a ton of early day-three grades out there even before he had his breakout season for Michigan. Leaving the event, it’s hard to believe that Wilson won’t hear his name called in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL draft come April according to multiple scouts on site. 

The last big hurdle for his evaluation is complete at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, where Wilson is expected to test exceptionally well. Running in the 4.3s in the forty-yard dash is a number that has been thrown out there a ton. If he does, Wilson would have cemented what he started at the Senior Bowl: becoming a near-lock top 50 selection.

Senior Bowl director not blaming Mac Jones for Patriots fall-off

Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy doesn’t think Mac Jones was the problem in New England

New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones’ rapid decline from a Pro Bowl rookie to being inactive in the final game of the 2023 season is one of the great conundrums being debated ad nauseum.

Some are laying the blame at the feet of Jones, who threw more interceptions than touchdowns and got outplayed by backup Bailey Zappe. Others are pointing the finger at former Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the lack of offensive talent surrounding the former first-round draft pick.

Newly-hired Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo seems to think the answer is somewhere in the middle. However, Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy didn’t shy away from placing the onus on the Patriots for Jones’ struggles over the last two seasons.

“From the outside looking in, I see a guy that played at a really high level as a rookie and a guy that’s like, wired the right way, total gym rat, like football junkie, and there’s not many of those anymore. Ultra competitive,” said Nagy, when appearing on WEEI’s Gresh and Fauria, via Mike Kadlick. “How does that guy fall off? You know what I’m saying?

“Like to the point where now he probably has to go somewhere else and reset his career? You tell me what happened over the last two years. Like not many rookies come into the league and play the way Mac played, so. To me, what happened up there is not on Mac Jones.”

It’s hard to argue with Nagy considering the Patriots had one of the worst offensive skilled groups in the league in 2023. That comes a year after Belichick made longtime defensive coordinator Matt Patricia the offensive play-caller.

There have been plenty of bad decisions behind the scenes that have stunted Jones’ growth at quarterback. It’s one of the reasons why owner Robert Kraft ultimate decided to part ways with Belichick, after 24 years together.

That decision isn’t about saving Mac Jones as much as it’s about making sure the next guy and situation in New England doesn’t end the same exact way.

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Graham Barton will be playing center at the Senior Bowl

Duke left tackle Graham Barton will be playing center at the Senior Bowl, portending a likely position switch in the NFL

One of the top offensive tackles in the 2023 college football season will likely be moving to center in the NFL. Duke left tackle Graham Barton appears ready to make the move into the pivot. In fact, Barton will jumpstart the process during Senior Bowl week by playing center during the practices and the game itself.

In an interview on Sirius XM NFL Radio on Thursday, Senior Bowl president Jim Nagy brought up Barton and his pending trip to Mobile. Nagy indicated Barton will primarily play center during the Senior Bowl week.

“(Barton) is probably going to be repping a lot at center here,” Nagy said. “He did some of that early in his career at Duke, but he’s been a left tackle the past three years. I think he’s got a Pro Bowl-type feeling at center. He’ll get a lot of work there.”

Most draft analysts have previously pegged Barton for a move inside, and this is a good indication that the NFL also sees the talented Barton with a better future at center instead of tackle. He could very well be the first center selected in the 2024 NFL draft.