Here are the other Post-Senior Bowl positional reports: QB | RB | WR | TE
Every pre-Senior Bowl week, I do a preview scouting on each prospect attending. It’s a 30–60-minute review on each prospect (except OLs) of some of their background, looking over their college career outputs, and watching 15-20+ minutes of game tape and highlight reels, etc. It’s just the early stages of the scouting process. For many of the top names here we’ll preview again ahead of the NFL Combine and then do extensive work on many prospects after the Combine all the way through to August…on top of scouting them at the Senior Bowl week.
So, these positional preview scouting bytes…it’s a first reaction, a first handshake intro/greeting on them for us, so we can better watch/scout them all Senior Bowl week and beyond. After the Senior Bowl week, we’ll re-grade the group/update players who needed it coming out of the Mobile week, heading to the Combine week.
Here’s the post-event week grade reactions on these prospects (and some new ones added if they joined the Senior Bowl late/filled-in due to injury, etc.). The next scouting set of clues on these guys is in a few weeks at the NFL Combine.
TE Charlie Kolar, Iowa State (Post-SB scouting grade: B+)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: B+/A-
Estimate = 6’5”/255
SB Measurements: 6’6.2”/256, 10.0” hands, 34.5” arms
Post-SB Note: Got totally overlooked all week. It’s tough for TEs to stand out during the week but Kolar was taking a backseat to, what I think are, lesser talented TEs. Could be a flag…or could be typical out to lunch NFL assistant coaches. NFL coaches LOVE slower, stocky, plodding TEs…thus McBride and Likely were right up their alley.
Kolar killed the measurables/weight in – the tallest, thickest, longest armed, 2nd-largest hands TE in Mobile. If he can run in the 4.6s, low 4.7 worst case, he’ll be taken seriously at the NFL Combine.
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Pre-SB Note: Liked him from the first time I laid eyes on him in the summer of 2021. Has size. Moves well. Good-to-great hands. Like a better movement skill version of Pat Freiermuth…a potential ‘next Kelce’ type TE. The NFL Combine measurables will tell the tale of ‘B’ or ‘A’.
NFL Comp? = Travis Kelce and Dallas Goedert come to mind, for me…but with risk the NFL looks past him for more their favored type – slower, blocky, blocker-first type.
TE Isaiah Likely, Coastal Carolina (Post-SB scouting grade: B-)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: C/C-
Estimate = 6’3”/240
SB Measurements: 6’4.0”/241, 10.0” hands, 32.3” arms
Post-SB Note: Came in much bigger than I expected. He was right to get a prospect boost post-measurables, and then he was one of the better-looking TEs during the week. He should be ranked ahead of McBride in the mainstream.
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Pre-SB Note: Previewed him in the summer of 2021 as well. Every time I watch him, he reminds me of Ian Thomas…and Thomas was a solid NFL prospect but got buried upon the arrival of Matt Rhule. Not saying Thomas is a stud, but he’s capable. Likely is built the same…they kinda look like fullbacks, shorter-ish TEs with thick/linebacker like bodies and they move well enough but not totally graceful or blazing. Likely is a solid prospect but not like a game changer TE prospect. His college output is sweet, but his tape is just ‘meh’.
NFL Comp? = Ian Thomas
TE Daniel Bellinger, San Diego State (Post-SB scouting grade: C+)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: C/C-
Estimate = 6’5”/250
SB Measurements: 6’4.2”/252, 10.0” hands, 32.5” arms
Post-SB Note: One of the darlings of the coaches this week…and the QBs. He really helped his draft stock this week. Good blocker, and a surprisingly good receiver. His Combine numbers could push him to a ‘B’ level grade.
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Pre-SB Note: A sleeper TE here, but also one that could get overlooked at Senior Bowl week. It’s a big week for him to try and get noticed, but TEs usually do not stand out at the Senior Bowl unless they are super tall or super-fast.
Bellinger is a gritty blocker, thick prototype NFL TE prospect. But he didn’t get to show as much working on a bad offense/with a bad QB. He’s more athletic than you might think at first, and he showed really soft/nice hands in the little tape I watched. I think I’ll find out more about him when I see him competing versus the other TEs at the Senior Bowl.
NFL Comp? = Tyler Kroft? Maybe better than that? Dawson Knox-ish with better hands?
TE Trey McBride, Colorado State (Post-SB scouting grade: C+)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: B/B+
Estimate = 6’4”/260
SB Measurements: 6’3.1”/249, 10.0” hands, 32.4” arms
Post-SB Note: Came in lower end on his measurables. Was good-not-great all week. Todd McShay loves him, so every basic catch was communicated as the greatest thing ever. He’s the mainstream hype TE prospect, so that means: (a) he’s not as good as they portray, (b) he will get drafted highly and get 7,000 chances that other similar/more talented guys will not.
McBride is fine, but there are other as/more talented guys here.
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Pre-SB Note: Classic-look NFL TE. Good worker…a prototypical TE…the kind of TE threat NFL coaches imagine when they think of TEs. He’s not a revolutionary species like a Kyle Pitts, he’s more of a T.J. Hockenson type…only better than (the highly overrated) Hockenson.
Good hands. OK enough movement skills. Very good, willing blocker. 86 catches for 1,017 yards working with a poor QB in 11 games in 2021…that’s something.
For Fantasy, he won’t light your world on fire when you see him…but he will the NFL, so he will have Hockenson-Freiermuth like love among the NFL establishment.
NFL Comp? = A better T.J. Hockenson.
TE Jake Ferguson, Wisconsin (Post-SB scouting grade: C/C-)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: C-
Estimate = 6’4”/240
SB Measurements: 6’4.3”/244, 9.4” hands, 32.3” arms
Post-SB Note: Every time I’d catch TE drills, there was Ferguson making plays…especially in the 11-on-11s. He never ‘wowed’ me other than I kept seeing him getting targets and looks and had the ball in his hands probably more than any TE here this week. He’s a very capable TE…but not a star.
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Pre-SB Note: Better blocker than receiving threat TE. Not a bad receiver, just not that speedy or dangerous a weapon. Has good hands. Capable NFL TE Prospect, but nothing special.
NFL Comp? = Blake Jarwin, Foster Moreau.
TE Cole Turner, Nevada (Post-SB scouting grade: C-/D+)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: C-/D+
Estimate = 6’5”/240
SB Measurements: 6’6.1”/238, 10.3” hands, 34.5” arms
Post-SB Note: Had a good week, but I’m not super-impressed. First, he won the measurable weigh-in among TEs…an 85.3” wingspan is something to behold. At 6’6”/238, he has a huge catch radius. He stood out, literally and figuratively, but got a boost from being teamed with his QB Carson Strong. Strong went to Turner often in 11-on-11s, and it helped boost Turner’s presence. Outside of that…he’s tall, not super-fluid athletic (to me, so far). I’m willing to wait to see the NFL Combine speed/agility before pushing him to a ‘D’ grade, as I almost went with D= for the post-grade.
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Pre-SB Note: Tricky to grade him…he’s like a WR playing TE. He’s thinner-framed for the NFL’s liking as a TE, but he’s tall and rangy with really good hands as a receiving weapon at TE. He’s not the look the NFL wants at TE because he’ll be eaten alive as a blocker until he bulks up his frame – but for teams looking for a pass game TE weapon, he’s an option.
He’s a bit stiff in his movement…he’s athletic for the MWC but he may be slow for the NFL. I want to see his NFL Combine.
NFL Comp? = Caleb Wilson…remember him out of UCLA? He never made it far in the NFL but jumps onto teams for opportunity every year.
TE Greg Dulcich, UCLA (Post-SB scouting grade: C-/D+)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: D+
Estimate = 6’3”/245
SB Measurements: 6’3.6”/248, 9.8” hands, 33.8” arms
Post-SB Note: Was one of the better TEs of the week. He impressed me with how aggressive and urgent and confident he played. A lot of talented players disappear Senior Bowl week, for a variety of reasons…then some are just always in the action it seems. Dulcich is one of them. He started drawing, apt, Tyler Higbee comps…mostly for their similar long hair. He raised his prospect pulse this week…as a lesser-Higbee.
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Pre-SB Note: Reliable hands. OK size. Frame needs bulk. Not too swift afoot. Could make an NFL roster, but not a future star/starter.
NFL Comp? = Noah Gray.
TE Jeremy Ruckert, Ohio State (Post-SB scouting grade: D+)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: C-/D+
Estimate = 6’5”/250
SB Measurements: 6’5.0/250, 10.2” hands, 32.7” arms
Post-SB Note: There are so many solid TE prospects in Mobile, Ruckert just stood out as ‘not as good as the solid’. The mainstream loves him, ‘Ohio State’ and all, but in reality he’s just slower and less talented than all the guys I have rated above him here. But Ruckert will likely get drafted ahead of many of them because he’s a prototype NFL TE – big, slow, willing blocker, from a power school.
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Pre-SB Note: He’s got the look of a classic NFL TE…big, bulky, slow runner, decent hands, willing blocker. The Ohio State pedigree won’t hurt him in the draft either. He’s competent but not game changing.
NFL Comp? = Drew Sample, Nick Vannett.
TE Grant Calcaterra, SMU (Post-SB scouting grade: D-)
*Pre-Senior Bowl scouting grade: D-
Estimate = 6’4”/245
SB Measurements: 6’3.2”/243, 10.0” hands, 33.0” arms
Post-SB Note: One of the TEs this week that just kinda disappeared from sight for me. Hardly any notes. I remember seeing his name/jersey, because the name is unique/attention-getting…but his play wasn’t.
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Pre-SB Note: Had ‘retired’ from college football/Oklahoma due to multiple concussions (DNP 2020). He returned to CFB with SMU in 2021. He’s a slower, stiff, still a little hesitant TE. Not for me, and likely not for the NFL due to the concussions.
NFL Comp? = Ross Dwelley, Garrett Griffin.
