So, with the Senior Bowl around the corner I wanted to take a look at how Saleh’s last Senior Bowl experience impacted their draft picks. Many of you probably know the 49ers coaches the “South” Team when they had the #2 overall pick in 2019. 1st: Nick Bosa, DE (Not Senior Bowl Eligible) 2nd: Deebo Samuel, WR (49ers’ “South” Team) 3rd: Jalen Hurd, WR (Attended Senior Bowl, DNP/Injured) 4th: Mitch Wishnowsky, P (Raiders’ “North” Team) 5th: Dre Greenlaw, LB (Raiders’ “North” Team) 6th: Kaden Smith, TE (Not Senior Bowl Eligible) 6th: Justin Skule, OT 6th: Tim Harris, CB The meat of the 49ers draft, 4 picks from rounds 2-5 were all Senior Bowl players. It really helps to get to know these guys in a practice setting and get hands on experience. Considering the Jets have nearly double the picks in those rounds than the 49ers did that year, I would put money on as many as 5-7 Senior Bowl participants being Jets in 2022. Watch for reports for big performers from the event this coming week, both in practices and the game.
I’d imagine we’re looking at taking one of the running backs (Abram Smith, Jerome Ford, Tyler Badie) as they’re all different but could be good fits as well as one of the tightends (McBride, Kolar, Ruckert). I like Dotson as well and Pierce, Dubbs and Shakir were on my mid round selections for receivers.
My gut instinct is if a guy is playing in the Senior Bowl, he's been playing in college 4 or 5 years. Which I view as a negative. All the 'stars' seem to come out early at 21, 22 yrs old. The Senior Bowl may be good feeding grounds for tier 2 players, which every team needs (and the Jets totally lacked just 2 years ago). Round 4-5-6 type guys. Good, solid players, but none super stars. Am I way off on this?
For 1st round picks it can be that way a lot, but the Jets have 7 picks in Rounds 2-5. There are tons of good players in the NFL who didn’t become stars by their Junior year/Redshirt Sophomore year of College, whether it was scheme, lack of talent around them, position changes, or just different developmental rates. Chris Lindstrom Eric McCoy Terry McLaurin Tony Pollard Elgton Jenkins Bobby Okereke Khari Willis Hunter Renfrow Montez Sweat Deebo Samuel These are all good to very good players who were in that 2019 Senior Bowl alone, and there are plenty more who are viable players and depth pieces
Interesting topic, thanks for the write up. I would also be shocked if we don't target one of the TE's. McBride seems like a great fit as a reliable if not spectacular TE. I don't know much about this TE class overall but McBride just strikes me as a natural athlete. He has experience playing high level basketball which tends to translate well to the TE position given their knack for boxing out and good hands. He's also a lean 260 which is good. He's not a guy who's packing on bad weight just to be big enough to play the position. Also seems to be a great blocker.
Plus someone who stuck it out and got a degree is probably more grown up and mature vs these kids coming out early and getting into non-stop trouble!
Considering how short NFL careers are for the overwhelming majority of players, I think a draft pick's age is way overblown.
Maybe...but most kids graduate HS and enter college around 18-19 yrs old. Add 4 yrs at college brings them to 22-23 yrs old, and some take 5 yrs to graduate. I would guess the avg age of the kids playing in the Senior Bowl is somewhere between 22 & 23 yrs old. Then add 6 more months to the start of the regular season. Sam D was 21 when he started playing. I imagine anyone we draft from the Senior Bowl will be at least 23. How old was Maye when we drafted him? Like 25? He may be a unique case though.
Since when? Unless kids have gotten a lot dumber, most kids are 17-18 when they graduate, not 19. That has them at 21-22, not 22-23. When I graduated high school, I was 17 and when I graduated college, I was 21. Only players who were redshirted would be older.
Is it fair to say kids who stay in for the full 4 or 5 yrs and play in the Senior Bowl are older than the kids who skate after their sophomore yr? Jesus.
Yes, that's fair. Sorry you took offense that I was trying to help correct a misunderstanding on your part about the ages of players.
Aren’t you nitpicking here a bit NC? He’s talking about Senior Bowl prospects, so guys who have been in college 4-5 years. I graduated High School at 17 too but let’s be honest 90% of people graduate at 18. If 90% of Senior Bowl participants have played 4-5 years, that means 90% of Senior Bowl participants would be 4-5 years older than 18… which is 22-23, with the occasional 21 year old in there. I’d bet dollars that there are more 5 year players at the Senior Bowl than 4 year players who also happened to graduate high school at age 17. Most states have earlier Birthday Cutoff days for school entry (September vs NY’s December) so for the majority of the US outside of NY, it’s not as common. The most common ages for this year’s Senior Bowl prospects at the start of the 2022 NFL Season would be as follows: 1. 22 2. 23 3. 21
I bet the Jets come away with Devin Lloyd this year. I just feel it. I think LB is more important to Saleh’s scheme than many of us think… There are breadcrumbs I think you can follow. 1. Saleh was a LB Coach leading up to DC. 2. Ulbrich was an NFL LB, then LB Coach leading to DC. 3. 49ers promoted DeMeco Ryans to DC. 4. Ryans was an NFL LB, then LB Coach leading to DC. 5. The core of the Carroll defense was Bobby Wagner. The core of the Saleh defense in SF was Fred Warner. 6. Devin Lloyd is playing for the Jets Coaching Staff in the Senior Bowl, and gets them hands on experience with him. 7. Lloyd is team captain, and has been frequently noted to have big time leadership traits. All Saleh and Douglas preferences. 8. Daniel Jeremiah mocked him into the Giants in the top 10. I really don’t care about the team fit in the mock, I know a lot of people got upset with him giving the Jets McDuffie etc. but what’s more important is the caliber of player that Jeremiah perceives him to be. For example, my takeaway for him mocking Treylon Burks to the Falcons at 8 is less about Burks to the Falcons, and more about viewing him as a top 10 type of player in this draft.
How about Brian Robinson as a late day 2 / early day 3 pick? Not too many carries on the clock and we need a short yardage bruiser https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/brian-robinson-jr/yNFJ1qZFFP He will be at the Senior Bowl, so we should be able to get a good look at him
I don’t think he’s a scheme fit for the Jets, I think they need a big guy but he needs to be able to utilize zone blocking better than Robinson. Robinson is probably a Day 3 only guy, and I don’t think he has the horizontal and lateral movement skills
Perhaps, but I don't think so. I disagree with your stat of 90% of people graduate from high school at 18. High school classes graduate in early-to-mid-June. There are a lot of people born after that in June and July through December. I think the cutoff age is typically Oct. 1 for starting school at 6, but that's still around 1/3 of the year, so if anything, I think it would be more 66 2/3% to 33 1/3%. What I was trying to correct was that people are 19 when they graduate. Unless they've failed a grade, I've never heard of anyone being 19 when they graduate from high school. Don't Sr. Bowl participants have to have played 4 years, hence the name "Sr. Bowl"? Thus, yes, most would be 21, but some could be 20. Even if they redshirted a year, that would make them 21 and 22, not 23 or 24. Even for those who graduated from high school at 18, being in college for 5 years, would make them 23, not 24. I"m certain that there is a percentage who missed a year with an injury or redshirted, and then played 4 years, so they would be older, but I think that would be a minority of the players, not 90%. I could be wrong. I would be totally surprised if your numbers are correct. The reason I think this is important, is that fans and teams often put a premium on taking a younger player in the draft who is 21 or younger. Those who are 23 or 24 are looked down upon. Remember Maye? He was 24 when the Jets drafted him, and it hurt him with getting a 2nd contract. Teams want to get as many years service from their draft picks as they can. If 90% if the players who participated in the Sr. Bowl were 23 or 24, I don't think NFL teams would be as interested in the Sr. Bowl, since they are older players and likely not going to be able to give their team 10 years or more. Teams would have to start replacing those players after their first contract was up. I think the figures for common ages of Sr. Bowl prospects would be: 1. 21 2. 22 3. 23 or at least: 1. 22 2. 21 3. 23 I googled the ages of the Sr. Bowl participants, but could find no source that listed their ages or percentages.
The age may be overblown, but it just affected the Jets and Marcus Maye this past year. Maye was 24 when the Jets drafted him. They were reluctant to give him a 2nd contract because he was asking for more than he was worth due to the fact that he was older, and it was now or never getting paid big money. So age is a factor for both teams and players. Average NFL careers are short enough. Why would teams seek to make that even shorter? That makes their work that much harder. They invest time and money into developing the players they draft, and they want to get as many years of service as they can out of them before they have to replace them.
I definitely think there's a strong possibility that the Jets will draft either Lloyd or Dean. Both are great prospects, both are leaders, and high character types. Working with Lloyd may give him the inside track, but if he doesn't practice or play well or show the abilities that they're looking for, it could hurt him and they could opt for Dean instead.
