| Senior Bowl |
| --Game Day: Saturday, January 30 (4 ET) |
| January 26 -- North Practice Thoughts: |
| 
Kyle Wilson |
I’m starting to think Kyle Wilson from Boise State is going to be a riser in the draft this year. He continues to look phenomenal in coverage, and on more than one occasion I’ve heard scouts raving about his abilities. He seems to have all the instincts a good corner should have, and is especially quick with his feet.
Brandon Ghee, on the other hand, continues to leave me unimpressed. I liked his physicality this year at Wake Forest (and in fairness to Ghee, these practices have been mostly non-contact), but his coverage skills are not looking good. His feet are slow in the backpedal and he allows too much separation. I also didn’t like how stiff his hips look. I’ll be watching Ghee for more indicators of his coverage ability.
Mike Iupati once again looked like the best lineman for the North. His footwork in
drills and intensity at contact is really impressive. Ed Wang also looked good in individual drills,
but got beat a few times off the edge during team drills. Vladimir Ducasse’s draft stocks seems to have been rising lately, but I need convincing. With all the talk of Ducasse possibly playing left tackle, I need to see better lateral footwork to be certain. He plays with a short base and doesn’t slide his feet particularly well.
On another note, a phone call was overheard on the sidelines urging the recipient to get Freddie Barnes to the Senior Bowl. It has been confirmed that Barnes was in fact the player the man was talking about and Barnes has received an invitation to attend this week. We’ll keep you updated on the status of that as it unfolds.
--Justin Onslow
| 
Brandon Graham |
Brandon Graham was the most impressive defensive lineman for the North today. On one instance, he used his speed to get by Vladimir Ducasse around the right end, then on the very next play beat Zane Beadles around the left side. He showed explosiveness off the line and set up his moves well, using a spin move to the inside to get by Beadles later in the practice.
Also on the defensive side of the ball, Sean Weatherspoon was very impressive. In a pass-blocking drill for the running backs, he showed a good swim move and used his strength to push over running backs. Lonyae Miller looked awful in this drill and needed to hold to avoid being beat on four consecutive occasions. I also was not impressed with Rashawn Jackson; he's known for his blocking and projects as a fullback in the NFL, yet was unimpressive today. Joique Bell did a nice job in this blocking drill and showed nice vision and footwork in some runs later in practice. The Lions coaches seem to really like him.
I'm also not sold on Ducasse. D'Anthony Smith split a double-team of Ducasse and Mike Iupati, then beat Ducasse on a proceeding play around the left. He had poor snap instincts and looked slow in the footwork drills.
I was not impressed with any of the quarterbacks on this roster. Tony Pike looked very good to me yesterday, but was very bad in team drills today, and had trouble handling a snap from under center on one instance.
Justin Cole replaced O'Brien Schofield on the North team and cramped up at one point during practice. We'll give him a pass for now though since it's his first day in Mobile.
--Craig VanderKam
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