Before getting into the notes, if you missed my latest show on Puck Sports be sure to check it out here (and please like the video on YouTube if you can):

Opening thought

I think the 1v1’s in the trenches have been disappointing through two days. We’ve had too many spin moves that aren’t counters, not enough pure wins off the edge and very little in terms of ‘wow’ moments from a much vaunted D-line group.

Nobody has rushed the edge like a Jermaine Johnson in 2022 and lit up the Senior Bowl this year. It’s all been a bit underwhelming. I have to say, I’m also not watching the offensive linemen and feeling like anyone jumps out as a ‘must draft’.

National team notes

— Mike Green had a frustrating, mixed day. On the plus side, he buried Josh Conerly Jr on one rep. The Oregon tackle, lining up on the right side, lost balance in the set and Green just ran straight through him. Aside from that though, Green maddeningly kept using an ineffective spin move in his 1v1 reps. When he did just rush the edge, as he did in his opening rep against Ozzy Trapilo, the tall left tackle just rode him out of the play. Jalen Travis also stoned Green with a fairly basic pass-pro set and engage. You want to see dynamic burst, quickness and bend in a pass rusher with Green’s size and he hasn’t shown it in the first two days. Yet I’m sure everyone will call him a ‘big winner’ because of the one rep where Conerly lost balance and was embarrassed.

— My annual, never-ending frustration with how people view ‘wins’ in the 1v1’s continued today with Grey Zabel. In his first rep, Ty Robinson attacked his left shoulder. To Zabel’s credit, he took away an attempted swim move. However, Robinson’s pure power and momentum had Zabel basically standing on the quarterbacks toes six yards behind the LOS. I’ve seen this rep described as a win online and the commentary team were again waxing lyrical.

You tell me. In any NFL game, how would this constitute a win? This is just over two seconds after the snap. The guy in the white shirt is the quarterback:

Again, these sessions are not about linemen staying in front of defenders and not being beat right off the snap against a swim/rip or speed rush. Robinson pushes the pocket here. If an interior defender does that in a game, it’s a win. I feel like we have these moments every year and it’s a shame. I have positive things to say about Zabel’s performance and I really like him as a prospect. But we have to be say what’s really happening. On the video I’m watching of the 1v1 footage, Yahya Black drives Jalen Rivers back into the QB and the guy behind the camera says, “that’s a win for Miami.” No, it really isn’t.

— In the scrimmages I thought Zabel did very well. Both he and Jared Monheim reached up to the second level very efficiently. He walled off when he needed to. I think technically Zabel needs a lot of work at center. His hands don’t always shoot inside but he’s also shown he can leverage at his height. I like him best at guard. In a rematch against Robinson, Zabel did a better job squaring up to the Nebraska defender and blocked his path to the quarterback. It also needs to be noted that they’re letting Zabel take way more reps than any lineman I’ve ever seen before at the Senior Bowl. Nobody is clocking to see often he jumps back into the line-up. Good for him I guess but they typically manage this.

— Monheim did very well in the scrimmages to the point I was starting to wonder if I’d completely botched my evaluation of his tape at USC. However, in 1v1’s he had a few struggles. Joshua Farmer, as he’s done for two straight days, bullied him back into the QB by attacking the left shoulder then just sealing his hands inside and driving Monheim backwards. Aeneas Peebles shrugged him off with ease to burst into the backfield on a different rep. In a rematch against Peebles, Monheim set nicely, gained leverage and finished. A nice recovery. I do think he could be an interesting day three center despite an up-and-down day.

— Farmer just keeps his feet moving all the time. It’s impressive. He’s a one-trick pony but he does it well. He doesn’t just bench-press you. He’ll engage and then churn and churn. The feet keep pumping, the arms are constantly working to hit the mark. He doesn’t have any speed rush to speak of but in virtually every rep he pushes the pocket. He did this to Marcus Mbow at right guard and then on the final rep of the session, he barged his way through Zabel. Mbow in a separate rep lined up at center and Femi Oladejo just ran by him like he was a traffic cone. We don’t need to see that again.

— Josh Conerly Jr had a difficult day. His first rep was a good battle with UCLA’s impressive Femi Oladejo with both players countering in a score-draw. It was a good battle. Oladejo has had a great couple of practises so far. He looks the part — 6-3, 261, 33.5 inch arms, 80 3/4 wingspan. He’s had some success working inside and out. He’s been of the better performers in Mobile so far. Back to Conerly, I’ve not seen a lot to suggest he’ll go in the top-20 this week.

— Junior Tafuna has some classic Utah power in his hands. He drove back Caleb Rogers when he lined up at center for a an easy bull-rush win. Rogers did have a win against Ty Robinson, delivering a good powerful jolt with his hands inside to knock Robinson off course.

— Wyatt Milum struggled at right guard. He looked half asleep on his first rep and then on his second, Darius Alexander had his lunch money with an effective swim move. That was despite Milum being half a second early off the snap. Ty Robinson made his life miserable too attacking the right shoulder and then accelerating through contact to reach the quarterback. I expected more from Milum this week.

— If Aireontae Ersery had a decent first day, he had a bit of a nightmare on day two. He kept oversetting to the outside, something the other tackles struggled with yesterday. Two defenders, including Darius Alexander, beat him inside because of this. It’s sloppy technique but perhaps speaks to his discomfort at right tackle. On Tuesday he lined up in his more natural left tackle spot. Today he just looked cumbersome.

— Landon Jackson doesn’t have any twitch. He’s too big and struggled to burst to the outside or counter. Ozzy Trapilo just took away the edge when they lined up against each other. Trapilo didn’t have the same success against Josaiah Stewart, who worked through contact and straightened to finish.

— Jalen Travis had a good rep to begin his day and also had the win against Mike Green but he was also walked back into the quarterback by David Walker. An easy power win.

American team

— My first thought was ‘please can you mix these 1v1’s up’? We saw enough of Miles Frazier vs Tim Smith on day one. The first rep they showed was Smith in an awkward position with his helmet buried into Frazier’s chest, driving him backwards before tossing the LSU lineman to the turf. Frazier had a great rep against RJ Oben at right tackle. His set was really smooth and he just sealed off the path to the QB immediately. They had a rematch later on and Frazier was called for a hold.

— Cam Jackson clearly decided he wanted to copy TJ Sanders and Kyle Kennard and came out wearing sweatpants. This needs to go in the bin. His first rep was good though, driving Jacob Beyer backwards. His second rep, against Clay Webb, was another productive bull-rush. Webb received coaching on his hand placement after the whistle.

— Walter Nolen’s first rep was against Clay Webb. The Jacksonville State blocker did a good job initially to stall Nolen but the Ole Miss pass-rusher span out of the block to dip inside. This was a really dynamic counter from Nolen. Jackson Slater had Nolen’s second rep. He was competitive and clung on even with the defensive tackle forcing him back before going with the same spin-counter. His third rep was more of the same, pushing the pocket into the quarterback. He turns his body on contact and makes it very difficult to get your hands inside. The best way to describe Nolen is ‘slippery’.

— Kyle Kennard’s first rep came against day-one standout Carson Vinson. Kennard tried to use a euro-step to get around the outside. It wasn’t the prettiest move and he didn’t slip the block but there was a suspicion of a hold in there. Vinson’s second rep was against Sai’vion Jones of LSU. He won initially until Jones disengaged. Kennard met Vinson again later on and the South Carolina defender bull-rushed him effectively into the backfield. Yesterday Vinson had an eye-catching day. Today was kind of average.

— Shemar Stewart went with a bull-rush on his first rep, driving Emory Jones backwards. It’s a bit weird that there’s still no word on why Ian Rapoport said Stewart wouldn’t practise due to injury and now he’s participated in the first two days. Stewart’s second rep was a bull-rush on Jonah Savaiinaea — driving him backwards into the quarterback. In scrimmages, he showed an outstanding burst to win with speed against Emory Jones for a sack/fumble. That’s what we’ve been waiting to see. It was the first glimpse of someone saying, “I’m a high draft pick.”

— TJ Sanders, minus the sweatpants today, had a rough outing. He was dumped on the floor by Willie Lampkin then given a second rep immediately, where Jacob Beyer stoned him. I’m not sure if he’s hurt because we didn’t see a lot of him and he was wearing a special helmet today. It was a disappointing watch, though.

— Deone Walker won his first rep against Garrett Dellinger, getting his hands in the right place and driving through contact. It’s hard not to comment again, though, on just how sloppy his frame looks with the overhanging gut and thin legs. Walker’s second rep was similar, driving back Miles Frazier before slapping him away to disengage. He had a really nice swim move on Clay Webb to penetrate in scrimmage. He showed good quickness for his size. There’s some talent there but he looks like he belongs in KFC not the NFL.

— Jared Ivey’s first rep wasn’t great. He was driven off his path to the quarterback too easily and couldn’t recover. He used a swipe-move on his second rep but it lacked juice against Garrett Dellinger.

— Jonah Savaiinaea’s first rep was at right guard against Tim Smith. He absolutely dominated him. He had a tougher go-around against Shemar Stewart on his second rep as mentioned earlier.

— Princley Umanmielen’s first rep came later in the drill and he looked really athletic trying to spin away from the initial contact. His second rep kicked inside to guard against Emory Jones and the LSU man just devoured him. We only saw two Umanmielen reps and one comes at defensive tackle? Really? Jones had a bounce-back day today. He had some good battles with Barryn Sorrell of Texas at right tackle both in the 1v1 drill and at the end at midfield with the whole team watching on. He also had a good scrimmage win on a running play against Walter Nolen, before burying Cam Jackson on the very next snap.

Where’s Armand Membou?

Apparently he is sick and has gone home. Dane Brugler calls it a ‘stomach flu’. I’m sceptical. He’s suddenly being mocked very early in round one and this has all the hallmarks of being pulled out of practise in a ham-fisted way by his representatives.

Quick-hitting notes on other positions

— I’ve been really impressed with Tez Johnson during the receiver 1v1’s. He’s creating continuous easy separation. He’s really light and small but he knows how to get open against the admittedly modest competition here.

— Kyle Williams’ release is excellent and he can drive off separation with a well-timed head-fake. He’s shown some suddenness. He did have one rep where he kind of ran a route into coverage, ceding an advantage to the DB.

— Harold Fanin Jr didn’t look as fluid moving as Mason Taylor and Elijah Arroyo. It was noticeable how they just look a lot more at ease running routes, cutting away from coverage and separating.

— Jaylin Noel is good out of his break and has a little bit of dynamism to him. On one rep against Azareye’h Thomas — who had tight coverage — he did a good job tracking the ball and made a difficult, twisting catch. For a taller corner, Thomas often does well to stick in a foot race.

— Jalen Milroe barely looks draftable. Without the ability to take off and use his legs, he’s being asked to sit in the pocket and be an orthodox QB. He can’t do it. He threw a horrendous interception during scrimmage straight to Jack Kiser. Even on a deep completion to Jack Bech the ball fluttered in the air. It’s astonishing that people spent time during the season suggesting he’d developed as a passer. That wasn’t true in the slightest. He can’t be taken in the first three rounds and frankly, I wouldn’t draft him at all. He’s a running quarterback who didn’t play all that well in college when needing to throw.

— On top of the pick, Kiser had a good day — reading his keys to fill gaps in the scrimmages. He might be a late rounder or UDFA but he’s competitive.

— Devin Neal looked fantastic. Superb cuts and change of direction. He’s one of the more underrated players in this class. Every time he took a rep your eyes were glued to him.

— Quincy Riley had a great rep sticking with Xavier Restrepo, then turning to play the ball. I’ve been a bit disappointed with Restrepo — I thought he’d shine in these 1v1’s. He’s just looked pretty ‘meh’.

— Maxwell Hairston had a really good rep against Arian Smith in 1v1 coverage. He can trail well, stick in the hip pocket and get his head around. Hairston has been one of the few bright spots at corner.

— Billy Bowman lacks size but he competes in coverage and he closes well. Another defensive back, Mac McWilliams, has also caught the eye. I’m eager to watch more of his tape.

— I didn’t think the Jaxson Dart/Riley Leonard/Seth Henigan/Jalen Milroe group showed that much at quarterback. I’ve not been able to watch coverage of the National team QB’s yet.