NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 303. Everything You Need To Know For 2025 Senior Bowl (w/ Jim Nagy)
Episode Date: January 23, 2025Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers are joined by the Executive Director for the Senior Bowl, Jim Nagy to preview the 2025 Senior Bowl roster. The two chop it up with Jim get you hyped for everything tha...t could happen in Mobile.
Transcript
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Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast.
Trevor Sickleman, Connor Rogers here with you guys for a very special episode as we
have a third guest here on the show, Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl
and it's that time of year, folks.
It is time to talk about
these all-star events the senior bowl event is a a plus top tier event that we get to go to every
single year for the draft season i'm very excited about it jim thank you so much for joining us man
we really appreciate it yeah good to be on guys good to see you again it's been a while yeah i
know it has it's been too long honestly i'm very excited to get down to Mobile. You know, fingers crossed.
I've been checking the weather over the last couple of days.
It looks absolutely beautiful.
So I'm really hoping that we get all of that for all three days of the practices.
And then, of course, the game as well.
That's when it's at its best.
But, Jim, this draft class is loaded in so many ways.
And I think there's a lot of different position groups that you could talk about of like,
all right, this is the strength of the class. This is the strength of the class.
You and your staff have been doing homework on this class for a long, long time. So when it came
to sending out those first invitations and really building out what was this senior bowl roster,
my first question to you is, was there a position group that was the toughest to narrow down?
Like you just had so many names on the list where you go, we'd love to have all of these guys,
but obviously there's only so many spots that you have on the roster.
What was that toughest position to narrow down to the invites that you have this year?
God, you started with an easy one, Trevor.
It was defensive line.
It was defensive line.
It's a really good group.
We're excited about the guys we got coming down here.
And it's because we got a lot of buy-in from the junior class.
We had the 10 first-round picks last year.
All those guys were seniors.
And we've got a number of juniors that I think are going to be first-rounders this year.
So I think our cut line on the D-line, our lowest graded player that we brought was in the fourth round.
Wow.
And that's pretty high on the board.
You know, some positions you get down there in the sixth round.
And some years when it was just all senior running backs,
you're picking guys in the seventh round.
So, no, that was good.
The D-line class is by far the toughest cuts.
Jim, I feel like you have a good handle,
for better or for worse on these
Twitter streets with the draft right now.
And you just, it's, we're in the world where there's no sleepers anymore.
It feels like everybody is aware of basically every prospect in the world
right now.
But in terms of buzz, who's a player on each side of the ball that it
surprises you how little conversation you see around them so far now that we're already at
january oh that's a good one um let me get some water here i just got i've been doing a few of
these today i figure i figure you're doing a lot of it i'm honestly surprised that we've got you
just for this show because your phone's probably running off the hook to make sure this event runs
the way that it needs to next week so you can can take all the water you want. And really guys,
what set us back was we had a blizzard down here all the time,
but we had seven inches of snow, which is,
it broke the record from 1895.
And it absolutely crippled Mobile.
I mean, it was apocalyptic the other night,
my wife and I went for a walk on streets that are usually heavily
trafficked. We're walking right down the middle of the street.
I mean, nothing was open, no cars on the street.
So we're behind a little bit.
We lost two full days in the office as a staff,
which isn't ideal when you're trying to operationalize a game.
I know this would have been a nightmare for you,
but for one of the days at practice to be just an absolute snowstorm and as people say
real football i mean that would have been one of the most memorable if not the most memorable
senior bowl practice that i will ever attend and so i know that would have been a nightmare for you
so in that respect i'm glad that it snowed earlier from the yeah i don't think the agent community
would have been real happy with us.
So back to your question, guys, that maybe aren't getting enough buzz, I would say like at tight end Maliki Matavo from UCLA.
I feel like sometimes we just forget about these West coast prospects a
little bit. This guy's like almost, I mean, he's over six, six.
He's two, he was 267 pounds in the spring.
And he moves like a guy that's 6'4", 240. Really fluid,
great adjuster. I'm frankly shocked that more people aren't talking about him.
I'm going to cheat a little bit. I don't do a lot of these podcasts in my office,
but because downstairs looks like a locker room right now with all the equipment,
I'm back up here and i would say uh
you know on the defensive side of the ball of guys that aren't getting talked about wow that's a
really good one um like i love upton stout from western kentucky let's go yeah you know he's just
an easy guy to like you put on the tape and he's super urgent he's flying around and uh we've got
a scouting assistant um here on the staff that played on the really good Alabama teams back in 2017, 2018.
Upton Stout would have fit on those defenses with his play style.
I mean, he's a dog.
He flies around.
He played outside corner mostly on junior tape this year.
He's more as a nickel.
He reminds me of LaMarcus Joyner when LaMarcus came out of Florida State.
I thought LaMarcus could play anywhere. I was with the Seahawks at the time and we had really strict size parameters at DB.
You know, we liked our big corners in Seattle, but you know, he was the one guy that I really
wanted to, like, I thought he was the exception. You know, you don't want to go to bat for too
many exceptions in a draft room. Lamarcus was one of the few guys that I did. And Upton Stout
kind of reminds me of him.
I love that shout-out because I've watched a little bit of Upton.
You know, you get him on the MDS and the PFF big board,
and I felt the same, man.
It just felt like he wanted to be out there every single snap,
the energy that he played with, all that.
And I love the LaMarcus Joyner shout-out as well
because that's when he was great.
You talked about some of the juniors and really having the opportunity now
to add some of these juniors to the game. are a couple of those guys who is like it's a
little bit later in the process you know you have your initial invites that go out and then you
obviously you get to invite some of those juniors but they're just some huge names that can take the
interest in the game and just elevate the game overall when it comes to the overall draft class
who are a couple of those guys who you talked about having some potential first rounders within there that you were just so stoked to be able to
get and you're excited to see there yeah and you know we had to wait on those guys the league office
wanted us to hold off on announcing juniors until the january 7th date and i trust me i wasn't happy
with it i let my uh feelings be known on park avenue but uh but it really worked out honestly
it worked out great
i texted those guys after i was like well you know because we we did we just kind of on january 7th
we pushed out i think all the offensive juniors in the morning and the defensive at night or vice
versa and it created a huge uh huge storm on social media that day so um no i mean all those
guys we're excited about all those guys it's hard hard to single anyone out. But, you know, Josh Connerly, the left tackle at Oregon,
was a good late add.
You know, and he's a guy, we didn't get Kelvin Banks from Texas
and Will Campbell from LSU.
And Josh Connerly's coming because he wants to be the top tackle taken.
And you know what?
Like, I love that mindset.
He could have easily sat it out as well.
He knew those other two guys weren't coming.
And he's like, you know what, I'm'm coming down there so he would be one of them
and then uh you know on the d line i mean there's a bunch of those guys walter nolan shamar stewart
from texas a&m i think has a chance to uh make as much money as anybody um he's got crazy tools
and talent has it has it pretty you know has it resulted in a lot of production on paper yet? No.
But he is disruptive on tape, and he's another guy at 280-some pounds.
He moves like he's 260.
And so he could make a lot of money in these one-on-ones.
We see it every year.
There's guys that come down and really make a mark.
Like Braden Fisk last year was a guy that now in hindsight,
he went from the teams when we did our calls in November, most teams had Braden Fisk as a fourth or fifth rounder.
He ended up going 39 overall to the Rams.
And now that that looks like a gross underdraft, you know, like if we,
if we redrafted last year's draft today, Braden Fisk could be a top 15 pick,
maybe a top 10 pick.
So I think Stewart's got a chance to have that kind of week.
Yeah.
I was just going to say him, him talking about competing too with fisk last year he practiced with all he did all
practice one week with one team and then didn't you guys just because of injuries and some guys
weren't able to participate in the game yeah you asked him like hey can you flip over and can you
play d-line with a team and a game plan that you've never played with before? And he was like, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that was that's that's a total competitor, like you mentioned there, too.
And that's why that's why we asked Braden to do it, because I knew he wouldn't balk at it.
You know, I mean, again, all the line stuff are the same calls for both teams.
So and that's all he that's all he cared about when we called him up to do the move.
It was me and the two defensive line coaches standing there by the escalators.
And he was like, you know, is what we're stuff we're doing up front the same
and they said exactly these two d-line coaches worked together in miami years ago so they call
the same stuff and uh he's like all right let's go so um and so that's it was no surprise man it
was no surprise what he did for the for the rams this year that kid's an animal it's funny to look
back on that one because like you said, Jim,
where he was taken,
people reacted not only to that,
but the bounty the Rams
gave up to go get him.
And then he had eight and a half sacks
as a rookie and everybody's like,
OK, maybe we overthought this one
and the Rams are right.
So big picture question, Jim,
because I'm fascinated
by just the entire process of this.
You were a scout for a long time
and now you
have a lot of years under your belt running the Senior Bowl. What would you say was the biggest
adjustment from that transition in your career that maybe you didn't expect when you took the job?
Well, there's just more to this job in terms of the hats you need to wear. So that's one thing.
I mean, I've said it a lot. I was drinking out of a fire hose the first year on the job my wife refers to refers to it as the year on
the couch because i was waking up in the middle of the night and i couldn't sleep so i just go
downstairs and turn on the tv and try to fall back asleep um so there's just a lot more to this to
this job and then uh i would say like as an evaluator i just i don't have time i'm running
a business too so right i don't have time. I'm running a business too.
So I don't have time to sit here and watch like seven games on a player.
I got to rip through some stuff.
And, you know, so I've had to become a lot more efficient
as an evaluator than I was as a scout.
And I think probably it's probably speaks to you building out a staff too,
because every year, I mean, you guys have so much on, on
everybody. I mean, obviously we talked about, uh, up and stout as one of them a couple of minutes
ago, but just like through all of it, being able to build out that full scouting staff has been
really cool to see, uh, the fruits of that labor for sure. You know, you've talked about, you know,
some of these players that, uh, are kind of like favorites one way or another. One thing I always
love about the senior bowl in particular is it's about that
time of the year when we start to really learn player stories right where okay we can watch them
on tape we've seen them in college football you know draft analysts you know we get some more all
22 and we get the pff statistics and all that kinds of stuff but who are maybe one or two players who
you've got on this and i'm sure that there are
there are plenty not that you're like singling out or playing favorites or anything but somebody
who their background makes you want to bet on whether it's a guy who was a walk-on or a college
football journeyman or just you know like the upbringing whatever they've been through it
they've earned this opportunity and so just one or two guys that might pop into your head of
like man this guy's been through a lot you know that you could bet on this player because any
situation and how he's had to climb up the ladder to get to this point in mobile that makes you feel
good about betting on him going to the nfl sure um i would start with jack besh at tcu um and just
what he said what he had to go through recently with losing his brother.
Yeah. The tragedy on Bourbon Street. And we Jack and I have been in close contact ever since that.
So I'm rooting for I'm rooting for all our guys, but I'm really rooting for Jack when he goes to the next level, what he said to overcome just this last month. And then I would say like another
really cool backstory is Khalil Mullings from Michigan.
I mean, I think by now, I mean, I've even spoken about it a lot.
But just love a guy that, you know, went to Michigan as a linebacker and played 22 games or whatever it was on the defensive side of the ball.
And then transitions to fullback and, you know, does that last year mostly as a fullback.
And then, you know, drops a little bit of weight.
I think he dropped about five pounds uh trimmed up this year and became the primary ball carrier uh you know on a football team that
that had one of the ea sports cover boys donovan edwards uh you know in the same backfield and uh
so that's so mullings is is a cool story too uh but there's there's a ton um you know one of the
cool things we've done this year um to to really help the teams out these players out but
one thing we try to we try to change it up every year right we sit back okay what can we do better
what worked what didn't work and um one of the things we did this year we've interviewed
almost our entire roster so far um before they get to mobile and they're taped with our scouting
staff does it um it's 15 to 20 minutes. They're icebreaker-type questions that, you know, the teams only get the guys
for 15 minutes here anyway, you know, and then they can pick some other players
they get more time with.
But every player gets 15 minutes with a club one-on-one.
But to give them more, you know, you sit down with a player,
it's the typical, hey, Connor, hey, Trevor, where are you from?
Talk to me about your family.
We've got that on tape for them now.
So the teams have been sent all those videos.
There's a link they can access and watch those videos.
So now when they come down to Mobile, they can get down to Brass Tacks.
And what's been cool for me, I've watched them all myself.
So now when the guys, you know i i try to learn their
faces before they come to mobile so when they get off the bus i'm not like trying to figure out who
they are um and this has been a great project for me personally because now i know some of these
kids back stories and then you know like going back to last year with ray davis from you know
who's had an awesome run here through the playoffs for buffalo great rookie season yeah former
kentucky running back living in his car for a couple of years being homeless. Like, so there's been some really cool
stuff and, and, and, and more will come out through the draft process. We're going to, we're going to
post some of these videos online, but some really good stuff. Jim, it feels like we're now in a
world where wide receiver classes are just stacked year after year, but something that I particularly really like
about this class is a lot of the top guys
are bigger targets.
There's physical wide receivers.
A lot of these guys can block.
They can play above the rim.
What about this group that you have on this roster
from Jaden Higgins from Iowa State,
Pat Bryant from Illinois,
who I got to talk to a Big Ten media last year,
and I just thought he had a tremendous year for them.
You know, you look at Alec Io Manor.
Do you see it the same way, that this just feels like a more physically imposing?
You brought up Jack Besh already, a physically imposing wide receiver group.
Yeah, it's a big group, you know, and it's a senior-heavy group.
There's not a lot of juniors came out.
There's only about four or five junior wide receivers.
So, yeah, I like this group.
Brew McCoy is another guy from tennessee big physical
player um so yeah it's you know i don't know if this group is quite on par with maybe the last
couple years it seems like the last three or four years have been just stellar wide receiver classes
and this is a good group don't get me wrong there's a lot of really good players and i think
like you bring up pat bryan i mean there's some guys that that i think are going to build a lot
of traction through the spring but uh but yeah it's a it's a nice big physical group i mean i gotta stick along those lines for my next
question everybody loves the one-on-ones right especially as social media is blown up everybody
loves to see those practice clips so i'm curious of the wide receiver or db room i'll give you the
flexibility to go either side of the ball if you want is there somebody that you think is going to
become social media's favorite prospect when it comes to those wide receiver db one-on-one drills because it felt
like it was lab mcconkey last year with right how he was able to cook a lot of those dbs in those
one-on-one drills because it was just his bread and butter of how he wins and now we're seeing
that with the chargers but you know you got guys like xavier restrepo and and and tez johnson and
jaylen royals and like so many,
Jack Besch as well, certainly.
Is there anybody that really stands out that you go, all right,
this is going to be social media's favorite player in these one-on-one drills?
Yeah, you know, we had Michael Wilson in the game a couple years ago
from Stanford who made a big jump coming out of the week.
He was really uncoverable, really good separator.
I think Jaden Higgins could have a similar type of week um down here
and then flipping it over to uh the defensive backfield max harrison at kentucky is a guy that
that i've really liked the last couple years he was an easy guy to invite i actually didn't even
watch a ton of tape from this year because i liked the previous year stuff so much he was kind of a
no-brainer um going back to when we started watching drew phillips last year yeah uh you
know drew had a great rookie year for the Giants.
I was just talking to Brian Dayball yesterday about Drew and the season he had for those guys, you know,
fired up there about his future.
And there's something about that Kentucky team.
We've had a Kentucky guy in the game all my seven years here at the Senior Bowl.
I got a ton of respect for Coach Stoops and what they do up there and the staff
and just the way the style of DBs they look for him. They're always aggressive they're tough um so i think harrison could have a great
week so obviously senior bowl week is a great opportunity for the players but what's been
really cool jim is now it's a growth opportunity for coaches who are some rising names on this
year's staff that are going to get a chance to do something because they obviously all get bumped up
at the senior bowl from their current position that'll get a chance to do
something with a little bit more on their plate that fans should know about yeah it's a you know
it's a coach up format now so our our head coaches our coordinators our coordinators are full-time
position coaches and our position coaches are quality control guys or assistant position
coaches so yeah it's it's a cool format it's different um what's really cool tomorrow mike kafka who's one of our head coaches for the
national team is going to be interviewing for his second round interview at the new orleans saints
for their head coaching job so that that's cool i mean bubba ventrone uh special teams coordinator
of the browns that's a personal one for me because i was with the patriots when we drafted bubba
um out of college and it's been cool to watch been you know go up and then you know again just personally for me to have three
guys that I was in Seattle with two guys from that Legion of Boom defense KJ Wright a great
senior bowl alum and then Deshaun Shedd both those guys off that Legion of Boom defense down here
coaching and they're on the same group. They're coaching together this week.
Kind of a full circle moment.
So cool to have those guys as well.
That's awesome.
That is really cool.
Got a couple more questions here for Jim Maggie,
but before we continue this interview,
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jim one of the things that i love about the Senior Bowl and the All-Star Circuit in general is the versatility for some of these prospects. I'm looking at the Senior Bowl list, and for and it feels like those guys can be,
all right, well, maybe they played tackle in college.
We're going to kick them into the inside.
We're going to see what they're like at guard.
We're going to see what they're like at center.
I remember watching Dominic Cooney last year
play a bunch of different spots on the interior
and at the tackle spots last year during practices.
Cody Mock is somebody that's been in this game before
where you guys have moved him all around,
tackle, guard, center,
and we've seen that he's settled in very nicely
at guard for the Buccaneers.
Who's a couple of players along the offensive line specifically
who you think are going to have a really good opportunity
to showcase that versatility, maybe play tackle in college,
but you feel like the NFL, they're more of an interior guy
because it feels like there's a lot of guys on that tackle list,
but a lot of them could end up being starters maybe along the interior that's a great point yeah
that's a great point like I brought up Connerly from Oregon earlier he's he's really one of the
only left tackles most of these guys played on the right side but usually you know those guys
are right tackles for a reason this group whether it's you know Armand Membu from Missouri or Marcus
Bowe from Purdue or you know Big Jonah at Arizona, those guys could all play on the left side.
Those guys are left tackle athletes.
It's similar.
Last year, Tyler Guyton from Oklahoma came down here.
He was a right tackle at Oklahoma.
We played him on the left side a little bit just to let teams see it.
I think he started the entire season for the Dallas Cowboys
that left tackle.
And so, yeah, we're going to do that.
All those names you brought up.
Like, Marcus Bowe, I was talking to his agent the other day,
he might snap down here.
I mean, there's some teams that –
Let's go.
We like that a lot.
Yeah.
He could – I mean, Cody Malk played all five spots.
You might see Gray Zabel from North Dakota State, fellow Bison.
He might play all five spots.
He's ready to snap. Big Joan is going to kick inside and play guard and absolutely mall people um membu's probably
going to move in and play some guards so um you're go over to the left side and play tackle so we're
you know we talked to the offensive line coach we talked to all these coaches so as soon as they
come on board i get on in a zoom with the offensive and defensive, you know, offense from American, defense American.
And same thing on the national side.
We go over a position flex and where we can play guys and kind of showcase a little bit.
So, yeah, there'll be some fun ones.
There'll be some guys on the offensive line doing some things you haven't seen them do in college.
It feels like this is the rare year that quarterback rankings are just going to be all over the place, opinions-wise, Jim.
And I've been going to the Senior Bowl long enough.
Like, I remember Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen out there.
And then you go to last year.
You had Penix and Bo Nix, Jordan Love and Justin Herbert once upon a time.
It feels like this year's group is just so wide open.
Is this going to be the most competitive competitive environment you've had at the
quarterback position since you've been doing this because i mean this is the type of week that the
the outlook for one of these guys compete totally different after six days compared to how they went
in yeah i like this group from top to bottom as much as any group we've had um it is it is a
competitive group i think there's uh you know there's there's
a variance on a few of these guys when you talk to people in the league like there's there's a
variance on on jaylen milrow i've been i've been asked a lot by people down here in the state of
alabama when i've done some local media stuff i will say this um and i've said it on a couple
other national things like he he's higher right now for teams than Jalen Hurts was.
Hurts was part of that crew with Justin Herbert and Jordan Love.
Now in hindsight, that was a ridiculous quarterback class.
But he was like a fourth or fifth round pick, Jalen Hurts was,
for most teams.
And right now, I think Milrow's probably like late one to late day two.
But he is higher.
He's got an opportunity to really kind of take this process and run with it.
I'm excited for him.
I'm excited for Jackson Dart.
I mean, I think Jackson Dart's a guy the league is really excited to see here.
I'm a fan of Dylan Gabriel, man.
The more I go back and watch Dylan Gabrielriel like this guy's played a ton of football
he's you know i heard uh i heard some nfl i heard a gm doing a press conference the other day talking
about how this position's a neck up position nobody plays it from the neck up in this class
better than dylan gabriel so uh you know i think we all made mistakes on on brock purdy and you
know he was mr irrelevant for a reason so you go back and you try to figure out like what did what what did i discount with this guy and and again it's experience and and uh the intelligence
part of it so um you know even the guys like seth hennigan you know like seth hennigan from memphis
is a guy i'm seeing nothing about online and all he's done is win 11 games four-year starter
coach's kid his dad's a great high school you know coaching the high school coach in the state of
texas so he really has a lot of parallels to Bo Nix. I'm not saying they're the
same player, but like the wiring of the guy and like growing up around football and being serious.
And man, you win 11 games at Memphis. You're playing your butt off, man. Like quarterbacks,
good quarterbacks should elevate programs. In my opinion, they should win games that people don't
think they should win. And that people don't think they should
win um and they should take their programs to places the programs haven't been before
and that's what Seth Hennigan's done at Memphis so you know he's a guy that a lot of people aren't
talking about that I'm excited about I love that shout out and going back to what you said about
Dylan Gabriel Connor and I um what was it Connor like a couple of weeks ago three weeks ago or
something we did our quarterback ranking episode and Dylan Gabriel it's just he's he's tough to quit you know it's it's hard
when you play that position so well between the ears under the helmet however you want to say it
he just plays a clean brand of football and he understands how to win at the position so
I agree I feel like he's gonna stand out a little bit in his play more than people are giving him
credit for I do want to stick a quarterback because there was a recent announcement here
about taylor elgzerman and i hope i said that right but laurel guy from canada won the canadian
heisman over 4 000 passing yards 40 touchdowns i just sort of looked up stuff because i'd never
heard of this guy before but it feels a lot like when tyson bagent was at the event right and tyson bagent was sort of this
nobody really knew about him quarterback and now he's an nfl or and i'm actually so
i i talked to me about him because i don't think a lot of people out there know a lot about him
and i don't know a lot about him um he's uh no he's a guy that I'll give his quarterback coach a lot of credit.
So he's with this group, QB Country.
It's based out of Mobile, Alabama here,
and they've got branches all over really the southeast part of the country.
And he went down and worked with the guys in Birmingham.
And they've got a guy, a coach there named Ben Neal,
who played quarterback at Samford back in the day.
And Ben's been hitting me up about this kid for at least since October.
And, you know, he's like, Jim, I know you're the senior bowl.
I know this is probably a stretch.
But, you know, if you have a spot opened up, you know,
he can throw it through a brick wall.
I don't know if you've seen this guy's headshot, fellas.
Like, he looks like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.
Oh, I'm in oh i'm in i'm in he's like six four he's like six four six five 230 pounds
he really does steel chin yeah got a great chin yeah but uh no i you know i had some i've had
some friends around the league that saw him at the you know the cgs and the tropical bowl and
um they're like man we'd love to see this guy down there. So we had,
we had a quarterback spot open and, and let's do it.
He's got a cool backstory too.
Like he's been in training camps with the Hamilton tiger cats and the Toronto
organauts. And again, like another full circle, full,
full circle moment for me. We announced that last night and I get a,
I get a, I get a text from a core,
a former Georgia state quarterback, Nick Arbuckle,
who I was recruiting to come to the Seattle Seahawks way back in the day.
And he had a Nick ended up playing up in Canada for a long time.
And he's up there coaching now. And he was like, dude,
you just ripped my quarterback from me. What are you doing?
So he's fired up for the kid.
He was just getting ready to start working
with him and now he's coming to mobile so um that should be that should be fun i'm looking forward
to seeing him i mean i've seen a ton of video on him yeah but he's like the only guy we have that
i've never met he's never been at the manning camp i don't know this kid at all had a really
cool phone call with him last night though he is fired up to get down here i love it i absolutely
love it the last question that i have for you j Jim sort of kind of goes along the lines of you know you're talking about a
little bit there where people have been hitting you up for a long time but sometimes you guys go
so deep on this class and every class that I feel there are always players that maybe you'll watch
during the summer that you go okay well you know if this guy ends up you know declaring and it
feels though over the last couple of years,
guys have been getting eligibility out of nowhere,
whether it's been an injury or just transferring or whatever.
Is there a player, maybe two players or whatever,
that you have on this roster currently that you've been scouting a long time,
that you have, whether it's been this past summer scouting
or the one before or whatever it was,
where a guy's been on your radar for a couple years now maybe the longest whatever it is that you finally get to
see in mobile this year is there one or two guys that stand out in that regard well certainly dylan
gabriel guys i mean going back i mean guy was at ucf it feels like you know with scott frost yeah
i mean i i don't know if he was or not but I mean you go back to
UCF and then the Oklahoma stuff and now Oregon so I mean just it feels like we've been watching
Dylan a long time and again I think all that experience is going to help him we're seeing
what it's doing at Bo Nix so I think that's going to help him when he gets to the next level and
then again just to cheat and kind of peek over at the board a little bit I don't know I mean
certain certainly Dylan Gabriel stands out.
And then, you know, and then on the defensive side of the ball,
Malachi Moore from Alabama.
Sure.
You know, a fifth-year player.
We invited him last year.
He accepted the invite.
They got him to go back to school.
And he's one of the few guys that stepped foot in Tuscaloosa
and stepped on the field right away and was a factor.
That doesn't happen very often. So, I mean mean we've seen five full years of of Malachi Moore which is
which is crazy so I I can't remember the last Alabama defense that didn't have Malachi Moore
on it maybe it's back when like I don't know Tim Smith and those guys are uh yeah not Tim Smith but
uh uh who's the pass rusher? Tim Williams. Tim Williams.
Oh, wow.
Tim Williams.
Back on those Tim Williams, Duran Payne defenses.
I don't know.
But both those two guys, I feel like we've been watching forever.
Man, Tim Williams is a terror at Alabama.
That was like early in my scouting days.
I remember watching Tim Williams.
I was like, this guy's going to be the greatest NFL player ever.
Obviously he wasn't, but I remember doing that.
Jim, thank you so much for your time here.
This was fantastic.
It was great to ask you a couple of questions and get all of our listeners and our community just to –
you fired up about the Senior Bowl because it's a great group this year.
We're really excited to get down there.
Can't wait to cover it as best we possibly can.
So thank you. I appreciate it.
No, thanks for having me on, guys.
Look forward to getting you down here. Bye.