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Evaluation Week
The Senior Bowl is an important step in preparing for the draft.
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
This story originally appeared in Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine.
They call it the Senior Bowl, a collection of collegiate seniors invited to play in what amounts to an all-star football game. The event generally takes place the Saturday prior to Super Bowl week, with this time the South beating the North, 24-10, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in the Deep South of Mobile, Ala.
But do not get some archaic notion this is some sort of athletic reenactment of the Civil War or some exercise to determine just where the best football is played in the country. For this is far more than a game.
We're talking an entire week here in this New Orleans knockoff of a city, really part job interview for these young guys whose college eligibility has expired; part self-promotion of ability and character; part job fair for teams still looking to fill out coaching staffs and for out-of-work coaches trying to network back into employment; part recruiting landmine for agents shopping for new clients; and part civic endeavor laced with functions for the players, coaches, media and those locals with donation-sized wallets.
Former Cowboys defensive line coach John Blake was one of those networking for a new job, released recently from Butch Davis' staff at the University of North Carolina. Saw the likes of super agents Drew Rosenhaus and Jimmy Sexton, both looking for potential clients and protecting those recently signed. Let's see, saw former Cowboys head coach Chan Gailey at dinner one night, the Buffalo Bills top man and his staff coaching the South team. Saw former Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, now the defensive coordinator for the Bengals, whose staff was leading the North squad. Spoke with former Cowboys assistants Steve Hoffman and Gary Gibbs, now on the Kansas City Chiefs' staff. Saw former Cowboys offensive coordinator Norv Turner, still the Chargers head coach. Also present was former Cowboys scouting director Jeff Ireland, who followed Bill Parcells to the Miami Dolphins.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and COO Stephen Jones were right there with the team's staff of assistant coaches and scouts, Jerry with his general manager's hat on and Stephen with his personnel director's hat - Jones one of the only owners seen at the Senior Bowl early in the week.
And when it comes to head coaches, there was Minnesota's Leslie Frazier having lunch one day at Mama's with 49ers recently disposed head coach Mike Singletary; newly-named Raiders head coach Hue Jackson lunching at Saucy Q Bar B Q. Pete Carroll was there with his Seattle scouts and so, too, the Rams Steve Spagnuolo. And, of course, NFL Network was broadcasting live daily.
See, this Senior Bowl is a lot of things to a lot of people.
But to the Cowboys, and the other 31 teams who convene here every year, this is another step in the process of preparing for the NFL Draft, which no matter the state of NFL-NFL Players Association labor negotiations - since a lockout would delay the start of free agency, the trading period and organized offseason workouts - there will be a draft, scheduled for April 28-30.
"What's great about this week is they are playing football and playing football for NFL staffs, so they are going through the process of meetings and practice," said Cowboys first-year head coach Jason Garrett, attending his first Senior Bowl in charge of a team. "This looks like a practice we would have, the drills we would have, so you get a real good sense for what kind of player they are, how they compete, how they work and basically their skill level.
"We'll continue to go through the process at the Scouting Combine, which that's a different evaluation. And ultimately, then the film tells you the most. It's a very comprehensive process but this is an important part of it."
The sight to see kicking off Senior Bowl week has to be what they call the National Scouting Weigh-In, first thing Monday morning at the Mobile Convention Center Ballroom. Picture this, somewhere around 1,000 coaches, scouts, team officials, agents, media and whoever else might have a credential, seated in this ballroom facing a stage. And one by one players parade up to the stage, wearing only their Under Armour spandex briefs, first having their height measured and announced to all and then their weight.
Jeremy Beal, six-zero-two-three … 268, meaning 6-2 and 3/8ths, 268 pounds. This goes on and on and on, including for the caved-chested, missing-biceped kickers such as Alex Henery: six-zero-one-one … 178.
Even the Joneses were present, sitting right there next to Garrett, newly-named defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Cowboys scouting director Tom Ciscowski and the remainder of the assistants and scouts - all paying rapt attention to not only the numbers, but eye-balling the barely dressed players as they walk off stage and down the middle aisle of the ballroom.
"That's a little different," said Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder, who played his high school ball at nearby Colleyville (Texas) Heritage and ended up being voted Most Valuable Player of the actual game.
Then it's on to practice, an easy workout on Monday for each team, then full pads on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a scaled back practice on Thursday and a walk-through Friday prior to Saturday's game. To the coaches and scouts, and the players eventually find this out, performances in these practices are as important, if not more so, than in the actual game. Practice habits, competitiveness in practice, and ability to learn quickly are measured.
"What I like to see, though, is I like to really just get a feel for the whole team concept, looking at it individually and how they're competing with competition that you can measure, too," Jerry Jones said. "I like to see how they're adapting to professional coaching and professional concepts. And so it is good for me just to see these players in the broad concept of the whole field, the team. I get to see how they're operating, the energy, the speed, how they're practicing with the speed of the overall group.
"We will obviously have tape of every player. Everything they do out here, we'll have it and analyze it ad nausea before we're through in the next few months. But this experience is one that I wouldn't want to miss because it gives you the whole picture context."
The players, they catch on quickly. Every drill, every snap they get is critical to their overall evaluation heading into the draft. After all, this is the start of their job interview. Not only is everything performed in practice taped, but there is also a lot of note-taking going on. Then after practice these NFL staffs meet, basically going over all those notes and verbalizing the impressions these players make each and every workout.
So this lends to some pretty intense and competitive practices. Should have seen the three South quarterbacks - Ponder, TCU's Andy Dalton and Alabama's Greg McElroy by way of Southlake (Texas) Carroll High School - running this drill, just the three of them trying to throw fade passes into a huge plastic garbage can stationed in the corner of the end zone.
"Everything you do, every activity you have, on and off the field, you're just being judged, you're just being evaluated constantly, and it takes a while to get used to it," said McElroy, whose father, Greg Sr., was present, more as interested parent than Cowboys senior vice president of sales and marketing.
The participating coaching staffs get the benefit of working individually with the players on their respective teams, and also from the one-on-one interaction while teaching. But they also are there to facilitate the evaluations of the other 30 teams. So by request, they will move guys around and see if a particular corner can play safety or if a tackle can also play guard or if an undersized defensive end has standup linebacker ability, as took place in the 2005 game when some guy named DeMarcus Ware was coming out of Troy State as a defensive end but also lined up at outside linebacker in the game.
Take Boston College offensive tackle Anthony Castonzo and Wisconsin offensive tackle Gabe Carimi, both projected to be first-round draft choices. Each got work at guard, too, while Baylor offensive tackle Danny Watkins was told he'd be working solely at guard. Surprises to all three since guard was a foreign position to them.
"I played guard my freshman year in high school, so it's the first time I've played guard since then," Castonzo said. "A little different at this level than it was in high school.
"I was very surprised they put me at guard. I was like, well, OK, really? Whatever. It was just another thing to do."
The players discover, though, there is always something to do during Senior Bowl week, especially interviews. And we're not just talking interviews with members of the media, although there are plenty of those to do, the Senior Bowl public relations staff doing all it can to make the players available as much as possible.
Most taxing, however, are those after-practice interviews with team scouts, and then later during the day interviews with various members of the different organizations. And these guys can really grind during the interview sessions, knowing they must learn all they can about a guy who might be receiving millions after the draft.
"You're going to meet with pretty much every team - it's very much a non-stop activity, meetings all of the time," said McElroy, who was being pulled even more by the attending media since the Senior Bowl is in Crimson Tide country. "They're pulling you one way while you're trying to do another interview and there're always people who want a piece of you. But, it's a great feeling.
"You just try to have fun with it, enjoy it and take it all in."
And the questions?
"Nothing out of the ordinary," McElroy deadpanned. "Just, have you ever been arrested, do you have kids, all the usual things. But it's been fun, none of the questions have been too personal at this point.
"There is just no way to know who is going to ask what, so you just react on the spot."
So that is the Senior Bowl, an all-encompassing week of scrutiny for the players, an evaluation opportunity for NFL teams and a grand forum for those seeking employment or employers still searching for employees, all a little different than the NFL Scouting Combine, Feb. 23-March 1.
"Well, because you've got the pads on and you're playing football," Jerry Jones said of the most distinct difference. "At the combine, you're basically doing the kinds of skills and measuring the kinds of skills that it takes to be a player. But out here you're getting a sense for it. You'll see if a guy can step out here and be natural. You'll see if he looked comfortable out here running routes.
"Some of these guys, when they're in college, they're coached up. They know what the weekly game plan is, where they're practicing, where the other players are. It's a different thing when they don't know where they're going to be. I think all of that makes an interesting evaluation process."
And an interesting week, to say the least.
The Senior Bowl is an important step in preparing for the draft.
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
This story originally appeared in Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine.
They call it the Senior Bowl, a collection of collegiate seniors invited to play in what amounts to an all-star football game. The event generally takes place the Saturday prior to Super Bowl week, with this time the South beating the North, 24-10, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in the Deep South of Mobile, Ala.
But do not get some archaic notion this is some sort of athletic reenactment of the Civil War or some exercise to determine just where the best football is played in the country. For this is far more than a game.
We're talking an entire week here in this New Orleans knockoff of a city, really part job interview for these young guys whose college eligibility has expired; part self-promotion of ability and character; part job fair for teams still looking to fill out coaching staffs and for out-of-work coaches trying to network back into employment; part recruiting landmine for agents shopping for new clients; and part civic endeavor laced with functions for the players, coaches, media and those locals with donation-sized wallets.
Former Cowboys defensive line coach John Blake was one of those networking for a new job, released recently from Butch Davis' staff at the University of North Carolina. Saw the likes of super agents Drew Rosenhaus and Jimmy Sexton, both looking for potential clients and protecting those recently signed. Let's see, saw former Cowboys head coach Chan Gailey at dinner one night, the Buffalo Bills top man and his staff coaching the South team. Saw former Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, now the defensive coordinator for the Bengals, whose staff was leading the North squad. Spoke with former Cowboys assistants Steve Hoffman and Gary Gibbs, now on the Kansas City Chiefs' staff. Saw former Cowboys offensive coordinator Norv Turner, still the Chargers head coach. Also present was former Cowboys scouting director Jeff Ireland, who followed Bill Parcells to the Miami Dolphins.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and COO Stephen Jones were right there with the team's staff of assistant coaches and scouts, Jerry with his general manager's hat on and Stephen with his personnel director's hat - Jones one of the only owners seen at the Senior Bowl early in the week.
And when it comes to head coaches, there was Minnesota's Leslie Frazier having lunch one day at Mama's with 49ers recently disposed head coach Mike Singletary; newly-named Raiders head coach Hue Jackson lunching at Saucy Q Bar B Q. Pete Carroll was there with his Seattle scouts and so, too, the Rams Steve Spagnuolo. And, of course, NFL Network was broadcasting live daily.
See, this Senior Bowl is a lot of things to a lot of people.
But to the Cowboys, and the other 31 teams who convene here every year, this is another step in the process of preparing for the NFL Draft, which no matter the state of NFL-NFL Players Association labor negotiations - since a lockout would delay the start of free agency, the trading period and organized offseason workouts - there will be a draft, scheduled for April 28-30.
"What's great about this week is they are playing football and playing football for NFL staffs, so they are going through the process of meetings and practice," said Cowboys first-year head coach Jason Garrett, attending his first Senior Bowl in charge of a team. "This looks like a practice we would have, the drills we would have, so you get a real good sense for what kind of player they are, how they compete, how they work and basically their skill level.
"We'll continue to go through the process at the Scouting Combine, which that's a different evaluation. And ultimately, then the film tells you the most. It's a very comprehensive process but this is an important part of it."
The sight to see kicking off Senior Bowl week has to be what they call the National Scouting Weigh-In, first thing Monday morning at the Mobile Convention Center Ballroom. Picture this, somewhere around 1,000 coaches, scouts, team officials, agents, media and whoever else might have a credential, seated in this ballroom facing a stage. And one by one players parade up to the stage, wearing only their Under Armour spandex briefs, first having their height measured and announced to all and then their weight.
Jeremy Beal, six-zero-two-three … 268, meaning 6-2 and 3/8ths, 268 pounds. This goes on and on and on, including for the caved-chested, missing-biceped kickers such as Alex Henery: six-zero-one-one … 178.
Even the Joneses were present, sitting right there next to Garrett, newly-named defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Cowboys scouting director Tom Ciscowski and the remainder of the assistants and scouts - all paying rapt attention to not only the numbers, but eye-balling the barely dressed players as they walk off stage and down the middle aisle of the ballroom.
"That's a little different," said Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder, who played his high school ball at nearby Colleyville (Texas) Heritage and ended up being voted Most Valuable Player of the actual game.
Then it's on to practice, an easy workout on Monday for each team, then full pads on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a scaled back practice on Thursday and a walk-through Friday prior to Saturday's game. To the coaches and scouts, and the players eventually find this out, performances in these practices are as important, if not more so, than in the actual game. Practice habits, competitiveness in practice, and ability to learn quickly are measured.
"What I like to see, though, is I like to really just get a feel for the whole team concept, looking at it individually and how they're competing with competition that you can measure, too," Jerry Jones said. "I like to see how they're adapting to professional coaching and professional concepts. And so it is good for me just to see these players in the broad concept of the whole field, the team. I get to see how they're operating, the energy, the speed, how they're practicing with the speed of the overall group.
"We will obviously have tape of every player. Everything they do out here, we'll have it and analyze it ad nausea before we're through in the next few months. But this experience is one that I wouldn't want to miss because it gives you the whole picture context."
The players, they catch on quickly. Every drill, every snap they get is critical to their overall evaluation heading into the draft. After all, this is the start of their job interview. Not only is everything performed in practice taped, but there is also a lot of note-taking going on. Then after practice these NFL staffs meet, basically going over all those notes and verbalizing the impressions these players make each and every workout.
So this lends to some pretty intense and competitive practices. Should have seen the three South quarterbacks - Ponder, TCU's Andy Dalton and Alabama's Greg McElroy by way of Southlake (Texas) Carroll High School - running this drill, just the three of them trying to throw fade passes into a huge plastic garbage can stationed in the corner of the end zone.
"Everything you do, every activity you have, on and off the field, you're just being judged, you're just being evaluated constantly, and it takes a while to get used to it," said McElroy, whose father, Greg Sr., was present, more as interested parent than Cowboys senior vice president of sales and marketing.
The participating coaching staffs get the benefit of working individually with the players on their respective teams, and also from the one-on-one interaction while teaching. But they also are there to facilitate the evaluations of the other 30 teams. So by request, they will move guys around and see if a particular corner can play safety or if a tackle can also play guard or if an undersized defensive end has standup linebacker ability, as took place in the 2005 game when some guy named DeMarcus Ware was coming out of Troy State as a defensive end but also lined up at outside linebacker in the game.
Take Boston College offensive tackle Anthony Castonzo and Wisconsin offensive tackle Gabe Carimi, both projected to be first-round draft choices. Each got work at guard, too, while Baylor offensive tackle Danny Watkins was told he'd be working solely at guard. Surprises to all three since guard was a foreign position to them.
"I played guard my freshman year in high school, so it's the first time I've played guard since then," Castonzo said. "A little different at this level than it was in high school.
"I was very surprised they put me at guard. I was like, well, OK, really? Whatever. It was just another thing to do."
The players discover, though, there is always something to do during Senior Bowl week, especially interviews. And we're not just talking interviews with members of the media, although there are plenty of those to do, the Senior Bowl public relations staff doing all it can to make the players available as much as possible.
Most taxing, however, are those after-practice interviews with team scouts, and then later during the day interviews with various members of the different organizations. And these guys can really grind during the interview sessions, knowing they must learn all they can about a guy who might be receiving millions after the draft.
"You're going to meet with pretty much every team - it's very much a non-stop activity, meetings all of the time," said McElroy, who was being pulled even more by the attending media since the Senior Bowl is in Crimson Tide country. "They're pulling you one way while you're trying to do another interview and there're always people who want a piece of you. But, it's a great feeling.
"You just try to have fun with it, enjoy it and take it all in."
And the questions?
"Nothing out of the ordinary," McElroy deadpanned. "Just, have you ever been arrested, do you have kids, all the usual things. But it's been fun, none of the questions have been too personal at this point.
"There is just no way to know who is going to ask what, so you just react on the spot."
So that is the Senior Bowl, an all-encompassing week of scrutiny for the players, an evaluation opportunity for NFL teams and a grand forum for those seeking employment or employers still searching for employees, all a little different than the NFL Scouting Combine, Feb. 23-March 1.
"Well, because you've got the pads on and you're playing football," Jerry Jones said of the most distinct difference. "At the combine, you're basically doing the kinds of skills and measuring the kinds of skills that it takes to be a player. But out here you're getting a sense for it. You'll see if a guy can step out here and be natural. You'll see if he looked comfortable out here running routes.
"Some of these guys, when they're in college, they're coached up. They know what the weekly game plan is, where they're practicing, where the other players are. It's a different thing when they don't know where they're going to be. I think all of that makes an interesting evaluation process."
And an interesting week, to say the least.