Guest Writer Takes A Look At The Senior Bowl

One of our first regular readers Shane, has written a nice take on his view of this weekends Senior Bowl.  I sent out a request through our Phinphanatic Email group for an opinion on the players that stood out and disappointed.  Here are his thoughts.

The North dominated the game, but Lane Kiffin decided to go for it on 4th and 1 instead of a FG to go up by 9. They didn’t get it and the South marched down the field and scored a TD with the XP to win.

There were a few players that really stood out to me so here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Good – North
Sedrick Ellis – Ellis was a man-child. He could not be blocked, and in my opinion this weeks practices and the game may have elevated him past Dorsey as the top DT in the draft.

Chadd Henne – Looked good and had 2 TD passes although one was under thrown and Levelle Hawkins made a real nice adjustment to come back for it, Hawkins looked good in his route running, but doesn’t seem to have good leaping ability.

Trevor Laws – He really looked good as well. I don’t think he can get up to play NT, but should be a very solid DT in a 4-3.

Dan Conner – He looked like his normal self, always around the ball and made solid tackles, even had a pick off of a horrible pass by Colt Brennan (one of many bad passes he threw).

John David Booty’s – Stock rose.  He made some very good throws and showed he can throw pretty well on the run. He needs to work on his timing because while Trent Dilfer was praising him Mike Mayok was pointing out how he was throwing balls too late.

Terell Thomas – He broke up a few plays and looked pretty solid in both man and zone coverage’s.

Bruce Davis – A guy I was interested to see how he looked playing OLB, and I thought he did well. I think he had 4 tackles.

Gosder Cherilus and Carl Nicks – Stood out to me on the O Line making some nice blocks both in running and pass protection.

Bad – North

Adarius Bowman- He kept right up with his bad week of practice by showing iffy hands during the game. He had one that should have been called a TD, but he should have never bobbled the ball.

Keith Rivers – Looked bad in the game. He missed on a few arm tackles and got run over by Forte on the last drive down near the goal line.

Ugly – North

Joe Flacco –  Although he made two throws that not many people could make he needs a lot of work. He didn’t play that much, but his footwork is leaps and bounds behind Henne and Booty.

Good – South

Two players really stood out.

Matt Forte – Looked really good in both running and receiving, he reminds me of Laurence Moroney running the ball. He won the game MVP and it was well deserved.

Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie – (yes he is a cousin to Antonio) Looked really good and with Leovin McKelvin not playing stepped up as the best CB on the field yesterday. He had a pick and a couple pass break ups along with some solid tackling (which is the knock on him). He made himself some $$$$ yesterday. He also won defensive MVP for the game.

Erik Ainge – Actually looked pretty decent. Not sure how much he helped his stock, but after a bad week of practice he was definitely the best QB on the south roster.

Wesley Woodyard – He looked good and seemed to be around the ball every time he was in the game. He made a really good open field tackle on a misdirection play where he stayed home and broke it up.

Tashard Choice – This running back looked good as well. He’s got a little wiggle to him but runs hard as well. They also made mentioned about how he was a 3 time All Academic ACC. I have seen several Ga Tech games and he reminds me of Kevin Faulk.

Ben Moffitt – As always, he seemed to be around the ball, and when he ties someone up they don’t get away.

I hate this, but Andre Caldwell looked good, and he actually scored the winning TD on and end around with no time left on the clock.

Bad – South

Andre Woodson – Man was I wrong about this guy. I was all over his bandwagon last year and throughout this year, but he just doesn’t make quick decisions. This week he went from being the second QB picked to possibly a 3rd round pick and maybe the 6th QB taken.

The entire interior O line for the south. Ellis was a man-child going against whoever was in there.

Ugly – South

Colt Brennan –  Not only is he small and skinny, but has ZERO arm strength he went from being mentioned as a first round pick at one point to where he may not even be drafted. They ran a play that was a double move (hitch and go) and he under threw the receiver by 15 yards…it was bad.

Do you have thoughts on the game?  If so post them here and let us know your thoughts on the game, and how this might effect the Miami Dolphins draft.  Thanks again Shane for your thoughts!