The Senior Bowl announces the first prospects to accept invites and also a revamped interview schedule and structure for NFL teams
The Senior Bowl is starting to reveal the first few prospects who have accepted invites to play in the 2024 edition of the all-star game. There are several players committed to heading to Mobile, Alabama, in the first week of February to participate in one of the biggest events on the NFL draft calendar.
Some of the initial acceptances:
Kris Abrams-Draine, CB, Missouri
Cooper Beebe, OL, Kansas State
Jaheim Bell, TE/FB, Florida State
Jacob Cowing, WR, Arizona
Jalyx Hunt, LB, Houston Christian
Dylan Laube, RB, New Hampshire
Ricky Piersall, WR, Florida
Michael Pratt, QB, Tulane
Ben Sinnott, TE, Kansas State
Among the early acceptances, Kansas State offensive lineman Cooper Beebe is the biggest fish. Beebe is a potential top-50 overall pick and a prospect scouts want to see in the individual practice matchups. Abrams-Draine is another player with significant upward mobility entering the Senior Bowl.
In addition to the early acceptances, Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy announced the event is revamping the player/team interaction and interview process. From Nagy’s release on social media,
After consulting with numerous #NFL scouts, front office execs, & GMs the following upgrades will be implemented this year:
* Every Senior Bowl player will meet with every NFL team for a minimum of 10 minutes (Mon & Thurs).
* Similar to Combine format, every team will get 64 players upon request for an additional 15 minutes (Tues & Wed), meaning that teams will leave Mobile with 25 minutes of interview time with roughly half roster, which is significantly more time than at any all-star event to date.
* Quarterbacks will be removed from the 10-minute scheduled interviews (Mon & Thurs) in favor of new format where they will be on 40-minute rotations with pods made up of 5-6 teams (2 reps per club). Each QB pod will have game film & whiteboards available. Under this new setup, if teams also include QBs in their 15-minute requested interviews, they will get 55 minutes with QB prospects in Mobile.
* All specialists will be setup on 30-minute group Zoom calls with special teams coaches from all 32 NFL clubs. Logic here is that ST coaches are the ones essentially drafting these players in April so we want to connect our players with them as early as possible in pre-draft process. Specialists will also be available for the 15-minute requested interviews.
* All interviews will conclude by no later than 9:30 pm on Monday & Thursday and 9 pm on Tuesday & Wednesday so players have ample rest/recovery time each night.
It’s a welcome layer of organization and formality to the process, which has been somewhat chaotic in recent years.
