The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Building the Beast: Who's turning heads at the Senior Bowl?

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

We're certainly in the heart of S. Bowl season. For most of us, that refers to the Super Bowl. For Dane Brugler, though? In that case, you're referring to the Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl. This week, Dane's travels take him to Mobile for the Senior Bowl. With practices underway, who's already catching the eye of scouts? What more is to come the rest of the week? Dane and Dave Helman get into it all on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast.Connect with The Athletic Football ShowPlease take our listener survey: theathletic.com/survey26YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowPodcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/viewX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: Dave HelmanCo-Host: Dane BruglerExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Dave on X: @davehelman_Follow Dane on X: @dpbruglerTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to another episode of Building the Beast. I am your host, Dave Hellman, and we are on location this week. Dane Bruegler is on his All-Star Games circuit. He was in Dallas-Fort Worth for the East West Shrine Bowl. He is currently in Mobile, Alabama for the 2026 Senior Bowl. And we got a lot to get to. There's prospects galore. There's edge rushers.

There's quarterbacks worth talking about. And Dane is on hand to give us a firsthand account. really fun episode with Dane. Let's get right to it. All right, Dan, well, I got to say I am incredibly jealous, man, because while I'm just up here freezing and coping with the end of the NFL season in Chicago, you're watching live football. You are coming to us live. You were gracious enough to set up at your hotel after the first day of senior bowl practice.

Not only that, but you were in Frisco for Shrine Bowl practices earlier this week. So I know it's not warm anywhere, but slightly warmer climates plus the ability to watch some live football. It sounds pretty good to me. Keywords slightly because it is, it is crazy how the, because usually this trip is a warm trip, but especially compared to what we're used to in the north. But man, it's been a rough trip. Weather-wise, so I went to Frisco. I was in Frisco for a few days for the East West Shrine game.

and actually changed my flight to get out of there a little bit earlier before the storm hit, because they were 70% of flights at a DFW were canceled, and so tried to stay ahead of that. But yeah, now I'm in Mobile. Today, Tuesday's practice, about 45 degrees. So not the warmest, and I didn't, you know, I packed for a light breeze, but not for 40-degree weather. So sitting out there for five hours, you know, but it beats working for a living. So I'm not going to complain too much. We checked in with you yesterday when we wanted to get our ducks in a row about doing this show and make sure everything was good.

And I was, I'll be honest, I was a little bit worried about you with all of the travel advisories and hearing everything about cancellations. And I know DFW got hit hard with ice and snow, but I should have known better. I should have known that you would not be denied with this road switzerland. to see as many of these prospects as you could. No, it's such a big stepping stone in this process. Being able to see some of these guys up close that I haven't seen in person yet, talk to some of these guys I haven't talked to yet.

And, you know, these two All-Star games put together that probably 90% of them will be drafted and 100% of them will be in a camp. So, you know, these are guys that need to get eyes on and need to figure out and eager to do that the rest of this week here at the Senior Bowl. So Shrine Bowl practice is wrapped up. Actually, as we're recording this, the Shrine Bowl is kicking off on Tuesday night.

A lot of interesting names. I would encourage you if you haven't to go check out our conversation with Eric Galco, the director of player personnel for the Shrine Bowl, get you up to speed on all things in Frisco. And then it's right on to Mobile. So you wrote a story for The Athletic.com. I highly encourage everybody to go check that out to about the biggest storylines in Mobile this week. So I'm debating how I want to do this because, I mean, we could do the cliche thing.

We could start with the quarterback. And Garrett Nussmeyer out of LSU is going to be one of the biggest names at Mobile this week. He went into the season with major, major hype as one of the top senior quarterbacks. The season could not have gone any worse for him. and now he's here trying to redeem himself. We could start there, but I don't want to, to be honest with you. I want to get back to the roots of you and me talking draft stuff. And I want you to tell me about the position drills at senior bowl practice on Tuesday,

specifically, because we talked to Drew Fabianich, the director of the senior bowl last week. And he was talking about how deep and how good this edge rush your class is. and you got a chance to look at it today. So let's start there with what you actually saw at practice today because I got to imagine it was fun. No doubt. And it can be tough in these one-on-ones, especially when it's tough to be a corner,

it's tough to be a tackle. When you are on an island one-on-one and not every rep, not every situation is exactly how things would go in a game. And so you're really at a disadvantage, and especially because this is a really good edge group and a pretty good wide receiver group. And I think that's how it's played out. Even with no Rubin Bain who accepted his invite,

but then later pulled out, Akeem Mesidor, David Bailey, a lot of these edge rushers ended up not being here, but the ones that are here, I thought performs pretty well. T.J. Parker from Clemson was here, a guy that, man, back in the preseason, we were talking about maybe a top 10, top 15 type of pitch. he didn't have that type of season this year but now it's okay

can he get back into that first round conversation with how he does starting this week in Mobile and then at the Combine based on the first day pretty good start because he did a nice job using his power

because he's not a speed guy you know he is a 6-3 260 25 pound guy that one wins with power went with his hands and he did that consistently I think it was a team drills went right over Trey Zune at left tackle, caught him with his feet up in the air,

and just planted him on his back. Then in one-on-ones, he won more than a few times, using that leverage, using those hands. So T.J. Parker helped himself, I thought, in practice one, Derek Moore from Michigan, same type of deal. Moore is just one of those guys that I really like, not because he's great at anything, but he's good at everything. He's not going to have that one distinguishing trait that stands out,

but he's just well-rounded, solid, just check the box all the way around. 6'4, 255 pounds. He had a good first day of practice. You see the power. You see the way he can use his hands, getting underneath the pads of blockers. And so his timing is really impressive. So not the most violent, but when he does connect, you see the power. And so Derek Moore, T.J. Parker, those two guys specifically stood out among these past rushers.

I don't want to, I don't even, I don't know who it was and I don't want to know because I don't want to single the guy out because that's not fair. Like the one-on-one drills are, they're designed to help receivers and edge rushers. We say that every year. but man there's a video and a photo going viral as we speak of t j parker long arming this poor guy in in the in the one-on-one drills and just i mean he's he's just got him up on a on a poster and it's it's pretty it's pretty great uh but like i said every year right we get one of the like last year is mike green going up against josh connerly right where it's just you catch him in the right spot and it's just it's bad news for the tackle.

And look, Connerley ended up still being a first round pick, drafted ahead of Mike Green. So, you know, but for these tackles, you are put in a really disadvantageous spot. And so scouts know that, coaches know that, teams know that. It's all about digging yourself out and really you're playing defense as an offensive tackle. It's just that's part of how this drill works. So it's only one day of practice. If you didn't see anything that jumps out at you, that's totally okay.

But a couple other guys I would want to highlight from this are Missouri's Zion Young is down there, a guy that we've talked a lot about. Alabama's L.T. Overton, I believe, is there. And Texas Tech's Ramello Heights. So not David Bailey, but Ramello Heights, another big piece of that Texas Tech front. So a lot of options here to be looking at if you find yourself in need of an edge rusher. Well, and Romello Hyde, I was kind of worried about what he was going to come in and wait in at. Because in the summer, Scouts had him at like 225.

He was a good 235 here, which still not great for an edge rusher, but still a little bit better than what we thought it could be. And he plays bigger than he looks. And we saw that today during drills. Zion Young is a good-sized defensive end. And another one of these guys that's not going to win with pure speed. It's more with timing and just understanding how to beat the tackle one-on-one combat. And so Zion Young, he didn't necessarily jump out today, but definitely eager to watch him the rest of the week.

But yeah, LT Overton, the other guy that you mentioned, this is a big week for him because the flashes with him are first round. And this was true last year. And Scouts will really hope this 2025 season, his senior year, he would turn those flashes into more consistent production, it just didn't happen. It was more the flashes where you watch his 10 best plays, you're like, all right, yeah, this is obvious a first rounder, right? But when you watch snap to snap and just the full body of work, you don't see that necessarily from LT Overton.

So hopefully this week he can maybe be a little more consistent with his impact. It's kind of the story of Alabama's year, isn't it? Where I know I'm not crazy. They got a lot of talented players. but the consistency and showing up for evaluators, I think is going to be a big part of it. Overton is one of those guys specifically at the Senior Bowl. Okay.

I have done, I have appeased the nerdy side of me, but I do have to pay the proverbial bills here. And I am curious for a variety of reasons, but on top of my own rooting interests, we talked to Drew Fabianich last week, or last week about the Senior Bowl. and if Yusuf is underselling it when he talks about Garrett Nussmeyer, what he's been doing to get ready for this opportunity, and how healthy he might be, because let's face it, regardless of what Brian Kelly and everybody else wanted to say at the time, Garrett Nussmeyer just did not look right when he was still starting games at LSU. So again, I don't want to go overboard off of one afternoon of practice, but what have you seen and what is at stake for Garrett Nussmeyer?

so this week in Mobile. Yeah, and I don't want to go overboard either, especially it's the first day. Usually I try to give the quarterbacks a lot of grace on the first day. They've never thrown these receivers. You know, it's just a very new environment. It's a tough situation to just be dropped into. And so I want to see you get better day one, day two, day three,

just show that development, that progression throughout the week. But just on going off of Tuesday's practice, is Nuss Meyer, clearly the best quarterback here, clearly. And you see the ball, the way it comes off his hand, you see the anticipation, putting the ball in spots where his guy can make a play. So I think for a guy that came in as obviously the top quarterback here, I don't think there's much debate about that. So you expect him to look good, and I think he did.

And the way the rest of the week goes, I would expect him to get even more comfortable. and it just looks a lot different than the Garrett Nussmeyer we saw back in November and when LSU was really struggling to get going on offense. And so good sign for him. Hopefully we see him continue to build these days and hopefully all these quarterbacks. Diego Pavia was actually pretty good. There was a lot of, like I said, giving these guys grace on the first day, the running back quarterback exchanges, stuff like that they need to fix. The ball hit the ground too many times.

but in terms of timing and putting the ball where receivers can go make a play, Pavia did a nice job. I know there's a lot made of his official way-ins, but I don't know. Let's talk. Let's talk about it because, I mean, you can wave off a lot of things, but Diego Pavia measuring in just shy of 510 officially. So 5-9 and 7-8s. Does that matter? I mean, I'm talking to a guy, I mean, you've been very consistent about. Diego Pavia's draft prospects this entire time.

So, I mean, in the context of a guy that you're drafting on day three, regardless if he gets drafted at all, do you think that matters? But our listeners already knew he was going to be under 5'10, right? I mean, because we've talked about what he was in the spring. And, you know, like, so it shouldn't be that much of a shock for the people that listen to this podcast. Now, does it matter? Of course it matters.

There's not many quarterbacks in the NFL who were under 510, under 200 pounds. That was maybe a little more surprising to me than the height. We knew he was short. In the spring, he was closer to 210. Now he's under 200 pounds. And it's just not a great combination. It's just going to take the right situation because there's only going to be so many teams that are going to be willing to take a chance on him in the draft.

and it's just going to take the right sequence of events for that team to be looking for a quarterback when you get the rounds five to seven and be willing to roll the dice on Pobby at that point. But like I said, I want to give him credit because I thought he threw the ball pretty well in day one. Tailing Green was a level up and down from Arkansas. You know, over all these quarterbacks, I'm eager to watch them the next two days just to see who gets better from day one and who can put together them. most consistency. And based off of the first practice, I'd say it's a pretty good start from Nussmeier. One guy you did mention in your story that I want to shout out just because he's the least likely for the average fan to have seen, I would say, would be Cole Payton out of North Dakota State. Right.

Measuring in at 6-2-229. And again, like, yes, let's not overreact to one day of practice. But we've seen what the Senior Bowl can do for, I hate to call North Dakota State a small school because we know how good they've been at the FCS level. But we've seen what the Senior Bowl can do for guys that don't come from Blue Blood programs. I mean, Gray's able out of North Dakota State,

just did it last year. And I don't mean that to say that Cole Payton, would be a first round prospect, but this seems like a guy who has a ton to gain with some good practices and good performances against players like this. Oh, I mean, he's here for a reason, right? I mean, in North Dakota State's had a pretty decent run of quarterbacks getting drafted. I think, what, three of their last four starters have been drafted in the NFL. So, you know, and that's going back that Carson Wentz and Trey Lance and, you know, so like you said,

he's not going to be a first rounder like those guys were, but he's still going to be somebody that has a shot to get drafted. And I can't help but see Michael Pennix with him. And maybe it's the lefty thing that's messing with my mind. But he's also because he has a pretty good arm and he can sling it. I mean, he will throw it, you know, those far out routes and some of the deep overs. But he also scatter shot as well, kind of like Michael Pennax. And so I can't help us see Michael Pennix with Cole Payton.

But yeah, this is a big week for him just to see him how he does with, you know, better competition on a more consistent basis. There's a couple small school thing is big for the Senior Bowl, for these All-Star games in general, just to see. And we see few of them these days because if you're good enough, chances are you transferred up to FBS and probably even a Power 5 school. But some of these guys stay put. And for the Cole Payton's and a few of these other guys, this is a big opportunity for him down here. The John Carroll wide receiver, Montgomery, look, I'm a D3 guy.

As much as I dislike John Carroll because I'm a Mountain Union guy, he showed up today and made some noise. He created a little bit of a buzz with the way he plays. He's not a big guy, six foot, just under 200 pounds, but he could run and he won the catch point more than a few times. So small school, definitely a theme of this week, even though we don't have as many of the non-FBS guys as we usually do. Tyron Montgomery out of John Carroll,

so he's either going to break onto the scene as a player or he's going to be somebody's passing game coordinator here in the next three years based on the... Or a future GM, like Casario? The John Carroll Illuminati in the NFL is wild. so I'm definitely circling Tyron Montgomery's name. One last thing, I'm going to take a break,

but I do just, I want to hit on that with Nussmeyer really quickly is just the idea of it's weird to think about this guy's ceiling in an environment like this where, I mean, like we said, the season couldn't have gone worse. And it's hard to imagine that he would get drafted too highly based on that. But we know the talent is there. We know that the 20, Ford tape is definitely up and down, but very, very exciting compared to what we got this year.

He's a coach's son. He's Doug Nussmeyer's son, longtime quarterbacks coach and offensive play caller and college and the NFL. If teams fall in love with this guy, it's, I mean, in a draft where there's like only two quarterbacks definitively above him, not trying to sell him as a first round guy, but it's wild to think what his ceiling could be if this draft process goes really well. I think it's really unsettled at this point just because a lot of teams loved him over the summer.

And even though that love was maybe pushed to the side, it didn't go away. A lot of teams still really like Garrett Nussmeyer. And for all the reasons you just mentioned, he's not a big guy. He's 6'1, just over 200 pounds. You know, he's a good athlete, but not a difference-making.

athlete. What really separates him is the arm talent and then just the command of the offense. That's what really separates him. And that command of the offense comes from exactly what you just said, being the son of a coach and growing up in just learning how to play the position. You know, he received his graduate degree in quarterback playmaking at a very young age. And so Nussemeyer is going to be, if he stacks good tape from this week, or day after after day, practice after practice. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be, and it'll help that this is just a week class where you have Fernando Mendoza, who's going to be the number one overall pick, and then it's anybody's guess where the next

quarterback comes off the board. Most likely going to be Ty Simpson. Now, is that going to be at pick 20? Could it be at pick 35? I mean, that's what we're going to try to figure out here the next few months. But then who's quarterback three? right now, if the draft of today, I'd say pretty confidently that's going to be

Garrett Nussmeyer, but where he's going to be drafted, that's where I don't have any confidence at all. I would guess it would be like mid third round. That'd be my guess right now. But again, like you said, if he has a good week and he keeps stacking these practices, could he get into the second round? Sure, why not?

I mean, could he get in Tyler Shuck territory right around the 40th pick or so? Yeah, you can't rule that out either. So, yeah, I think this is a big opportunity for Nosmeyer. Let me flip on some of these practices on NFL network and see him rip a couple missiles and I'll be back to my reckless ways in no time at all. All right, we're going to take a quick break. And after that, I've got, I'm just going to pepper Dane with names I want to know about at the senior ball right after this. All right, Dane, I'm going to do exactly what I said.

I got the senior bowl roster in front of me and I've got your article in front of me as well. And I'm just going to ask you about guys that I'm curious about. about let's start with a guy that we both loved heading into the season. And unfortunately, another guy where injuries just got in the way. But I was ecstatic to see that Florida's Caleb Banks took a senior bowl invite. And I was even happier to hear that he's healthy enough to do stuff. And man, I'm going back to 2024. But my God, what a disruptive player when he was healthy last year.

And so curious what you've seen and curious, again, very similar to Garrett Nussmeyer, even though they have very different jobs of just how high can a guy's, a guy like this ceiling be when you don't have much of a 2025 season, but get in front of some evaluators and kick the right guy's asses and you never know what can happen. Very different body types as well. Caleb is so impressive in person. Just when you see him in person and you see how big he is. And he's a legit 6-6-335 pounds, just a massive, massive dude.

And it's all good weight. Like it's not all in his, like this is something that happens with scouting is you legitimately, and this is why scouts show up early for just guys stretching. You body shame, okay? And it's not something that you necessarily are proud of, but it's part of the report. And you got, okay, he's got a little bit too much weight in his belly. He's got, you know, a little too much weight in this section, whatever.

But the thing with Caleb Banks is from the calves to the bubble to the shoulders, it's well distributed. That 335 pounds is really well put together in that frame. And to see him move the way he does with the power, the length, this is why even though he missed most of the year, he's still in that first round conversation. It's just hard to find guys that look like him, that move like him. And just talking to before this week,

talking to who he was training with, how motivated he was to get right. Because he came back late in the year, played what, two games, I think late in the year for Florida. But still, I think a lot of guys in his position would have skipped this. Let's just get ready for the,

combine. No, he wanted to train extra hard to make sure he was good to go for this week because he knew just how much it could help him just to see for scouts to see him back out there. So Caleb Banks right there in that conversation to be the highest drafted player that's out of this game. Jumping over to cornerbacks, there's two guys I wanted to talk about for similar reasons. I think they both qualify under the radar is not the way to describe it, but guys that maybe aren't getting. talked about as much. And we've talked a lot about the top of the cornerback position. We've talked plenty about Tennessee's Jermad McCoy, who didn't have a 2025 season and is not at the senior bowl because he's an underclassman. His teammate, Colton Hood, is there. And I feel like he gets lost in the shuffle when you're talking about the guys at the top of the cornerback

position, or at least he does for me. And then a guy that you've talked about several times is at the senior bowl. That would be Chris Johnson out of San Diego State. who he seems like he's got a lot of fans in the hipster football community. Like the number of people that have told me, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're cool. But have you watched the San Diego State Kid? Like, I hear that regularly. So what are we looking for from these guys this week? Man, Chris Johnson was my guy back in September.

It's like, you know, my sleeper, my, this is going to be my guy. And then the secret got out. And it's just, it's not cool anymore to say Chris Johnson's here. your sleeper, but he's having a, he had a good first day of practice, a really clean pedal, very fluid in his transitions. He, I like the way he can balance, looking for the football while still understanding the route. He recovers well, and I think that was my biggest question with him,

is just how fast would Chris Johnson be? It wasn't an issue for him today. You know, when he did get beat by a step, he was able to recover, get back in phase. You know, he is a, he's good size, he's six foot, 190 pounds. So there are ball skills, instincts. I mean, Chris Johnson,

and big fan, I think this guy is going to be, he has a good chance to be a second round pick. Colton Hood is, you know, he was in my first round mock. You know, he's a guy that I think, okay, Mansour Delane, Jermon McCoy, and then I think it's a discussion.

You know, who's that next question? Is it Avion Tarell? Right. Colton Hood, Terrell. C-Say. You know, I think that, yeah, They're all those guys in a similar conversation and good on Hood for being here to kind of put his best foot forward

about why he should be that guy. Wasn't a perfect practice. I mean, he did get beat by, and it's kind of nature of the position that's going to happen. But he's so patient and then fluid in his transitions that it's just you don't see a ton of separation. There was one time, I can't remember who the receiver was, but able to stop and Colton Hood just kept going.

So there was a few times where, you know, like we said, it's tough to be a corner in these one-on-one situations. But credit to hood, he had more good plays and bad plays. You understand why we're talking about him as a first round pick when you see a move out there at that size. And it's also interesting. So I've talked to a ton of players over the last week. Two of the players I talked to down in Frisco at the Shrine game,

two Georgia players, Dylan Bell, Colby Young, the two receivers. I asked both of them, who's the toughest corner that you face this year? They both, without a hesitation, said Colton Hood.

And I think that says a lot. And these were separate interviews, by the way. They didn't know who these guys were, who they were going to say. So for both them to say Hood, I think that, and when I asked why,

they gave great explanations about just how, how patient he is, how sticky he is as a corner. Like, he's just, there's a lot to like about him at the next level. So Colton Hood,

you know, he's going to be one of the top highest drafted players that comes out of this game. Like I said, it's not fair to call him under the radar because if you're paying attention to the draft, you've definitely heard Colton Hood's name a lot. But I do think it's fair to say he is not usually lumped in up there with Delane and with his teammate McCoy in the way that we talk about him. Well, go have, go have three great practices and see where that lands you because we see it happens. every single year where a guy who's maybe, again, not off the radar, but not in the square center of it either. You can sure wind up in the middle of that thing by the end of the week. No doubt. That's it. And it's, we've seen it. I mean, Dave, how many senior bowls have you

been to where, you know, whether it's Zach Martin or Aaron Donald back in the day, but guys that come in with, you know, some hype, they're not totally unknowns, but then they play at a much higher level than some more expecting. And now all of a sudden it's like, okay, well, why aren't we talking about him as a top 20 guy? Why aren't we talking about him as a top 15 guy? You know, and so that happens every year.

I mean, it's an easy comparison to draw because they play the same position. But like, and again, everybody knew who Quinyan Mitchell was when he got to the senior bowl. Right. But by the end of the week, it was like, oh, hell yeah. Quinnion Mitchell's a baller. And it like, it just sort of solidified it

in a way that maybe it wasn't as unanimous before senior bowl practices. And Colton Hood is he's not a G5 player. He plays in the SEC. So it's not a one to one, but there's no denying what a good week can do for you, not just in the eyes of evaluators, but just public perception too.

Yeah, no doubt. And obviously it means more for a guy like Queen John Mitchell coming from the Mac and compared to Colton Hood coming from the SEC, but it still doesn't hurt. And Hood's one of those guys where he's on the short list of, you know, Caleb Bangs, Colton Hood. Like, it's a short list of guys that are, have a chance to be first round picks here at the Senior Bowl.

Before we move on, let's take one quick break. So there were a couple linebackers you wanted to talk about. And we can definitely do that. But just looking through the roster, man, there are, there are a ton of fun and interesting linebackers in Mobile. and I think that just plays to the overall class. I mean, so two guys you wanted to highlight Arizona States, Keishon Elliott, as well as Pittsburgh's Kyle Lewis,

but that's on top of Bryce Betcher from Oregon being down there. Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech is down there. Scooby Williams, the A&M linebacker. I mean, my goodness, we got a lot to sift through here. But Elliot and Lewis were two guys that stuck out to you. Well, and this is just a great linebacker class in general. You know, obviously it starts with Sunny Stiles. And then as you move through, it's just there's a lot of names that are just good football players.

And Kyle Lewis is, this is the senior bowl is set up for him specifically because he is, he's undersized. There's no way around that. He's under six foot, 224 pounds. So, you know, like that's what you worry about. He's not a take on guy. And so watching his tape from Pitt coming into the week is a really tough player to get an idea of, okay, what are you? Because he's at his best in space. He's not going to take on blocks.

This is not who he is. There's not a ton of coverage stuff. So it's just he had, his grade is incomplete because it's just, just okay, how am I going to use you? You're not a stack linebacker. You're not quite a safety. And so this week is kind of made for him where it's all in space. It's all just show us what kind of athlete you are.

And that's what he did in the first practice, especially these one-on-ones against running backs. He had an interception. He had a couple other knockdowns. So Kyle Lewis is still, I don't think we're going to come away from this week with a better idea of kind of what are you. But I think we're going to hear some buzz.

about just what kind of athlete he is and competitor he is because this is set up for him to play well. Now with Keishon Elliott, he's more of, okay, he looked apart. He's 6-2, 235 pounds. I think I heard great finish at least five times when we're talking about Keishon Elliott and his reps, whether it was in the run game and his tackles, the way he can square up the ball carrier and finish.

And then they don't take guys to the ground and especially in the first practice. But the way he'd square guys up and be able to be in a position to wrap, finish, and then playing through the hands of running backs and tight ends and coverage. So, I mean, Kishon Elliott, whether it's popping guys in the hole,

finishing, making plays and coverage, I thought he had a great first practice and he's making a case why he should be considered a top 100 player. I've always thought linebackers and running backs are really hard to evaluate at these sorts of practices. But when they kick ass, though, it kind of pops out where you're like, all right, it's hard to evaluate, but that looks the way it's supposed to look. Yeah, that's fair. And

running backs especially because it's aside from the past pro drills, you know, it's kind of tough to take too many big takeaways away. But yeah, I think the, like we said, it's a good linebacker group and so far so good for those guys here. A couple more guys. to hit before we get you out of here. When you brought up small school guys before the break, I thought you were going to tell me, because it's so obvious already. Like you talked about them in your article.

We talked about them with Drew Fabianich last week. You're a Ted Hurst guy. Like maybe that's your new guy. If, like, if that's not too obvious, like is that under the radar enough to be your guy? Because I feel like you're a fan. And just based on following your work over the last couple weeks. Was maybe before Thanksgiving, I had an article where on the athletic where I had speaking to a scouting director, he gave me five names.

And this is all in the article, five names that were considered under the radar guys. And Ted Hirsch was one of them. And look, Georgia State has not been a good program, at least in the wins and loss the record this past year. I think, you know, it's, so if you're going to watch Georgia State tape, you better be standing out, and Ted Hurst does that. His production for a program that's not very good is off the charts. A lot of big plays down the field. He is a big guy.

He's 6-3-207, and he consistently wins down the field. He had a play in one-on-ones this week or today where he didn't have a ton of separation, but the way he tracked the ball went up and got it. I think he caught it with one hand in the corner of the end zone. It was just really, really impressive. So Ted Hurst is one of those names I think is going to be a little buzzy this week with the way he plays, the way we go come out of this week, how they're talking about him. He's just a really impressive player.

And if he played at Ohio State or Alabama or Georgia, one of these other schools, we'd be already talking about him as a day two player. But I think it's a chance to get there this week. by the way he plays. It is the easiest position. Ed, edge rusher and receiver, like we said,

the easiest positions to really pop at the Senior Bowl. Ted Hurst from Georgia State. Jacoby Lane from USC is down in Mobile. You mentioned Tyron Montgomery out of John Carroll. Josh Cameron, the Baylor receiver. He's a sick dude.

Oh, man, I forgot about Josh Cameron. Baller. Yeah. I'm just thinking. Looking back to that SMU Baylor game from earlier in the season where, I mean, he went nuts. So did everybody else in that game. But yeah, really fun player. And he's a big dude.

I mean, he, I've got the weigh-ins in front of me. I mean, I think he weighed in, yeah, 223. So he's 6'1 and a quarter at 223 pounds. He's a big dude. His parents own a barbecue food truck. So, you know, he's eating good down there. I had a feeling you were going to say that. Yeah.

Yeah. But he had a really nice thing. fingertip grab down the field. I think he was one of the winners of day one. So glad we're able to mix his name in, very eager to see if he can keep it up throughout the week. Oh, man, my guy,

Remello Brinson from SMU is also at the Senior Bowl. Another guy who went crazy in that game. Yeah, there's so many players worth getting excited about. One more for you. I know you got to go. Lee Hunter. We talked about Ramello Hyde already.

David Bailey didn't make the trip. But again, this Texas Tech, front had so many players on it and this seems like a big week for i would say the least heralded member of it in lee hunter yeah i was talking about a big boy six three and a half 320 pounds um and you know you see it with the way he just clogs up run lanes taking on doubles uh then he had a few plays i'm and i'm eager to watch the tape you know because when you're when you're a practice you're watching this you're watching that there's so much to watch

at once. You try to take it all in. I saw the end of one of his one-on-ones. I think it was against both Stevens, the guard from Iowa, who I like a lot, I think, is going to be probably drafted somewhere the top four rounds. But Lee Hunter went right over him.

Just pure power. And that's what I want to see more out of him. I know you can hold up versus the run. Can you give me a little more juice as a pass rusher? And I think based off of day one of practice, he was able to do that. I could just keep asking you players, but like I said, I know, and here's, here's the fun part.

I'll take you all behind the curtain. I told Dane we would get him out of here. And I assumed he had dinner or drinks with like a scouting director or a GM or something fun and very prestigious going on. And he was like, before I do anything else, I got to watch the tape of practice. And that is why that's why Dane's the best is because he's going to finish. he's going to finish doing this pod and go grind tape for two hours before he goes and tries to get intel at uh is it still vets yeah it's got to be vets yeah i mean that's still going strong there downtown um mo's barbecue's a good one for you know there's always um some scouts there

but um yeah you know i've got a it's always with practices now being later in the day like you don't care as much about how late you stay out because practices don't start until 1 o'clock now, which is a good and bad thing. But it definitely helps in terms of the night before and not having to worry about making sure you're getting back and actually getting some sleep. That is a great point. You can grind tape until your heart's content and still get into plenty of mischief afterwards and learn plenty of new nuggets and tidbits that you can then tell me.

Which, speaking of which, we got a schedule. change for y'all. We are actually coming back. We will do, with the Super Bowl coming up, we will do next week's episode of Building the Beast. We'll do that Sunday for Monday. So heading into Super Bowl week, Dane and I will recap everything else that happens at the Senior Bowl. We'll talk about the rest of practice, whatever Dane learns at Mobile's various watering holes, as well as the game itself. We'll have plenty of info for you. I'm really looking forward to that. But until then, Dane, Stay warm. Have fun. We'll talk to you soon. And we'll catch you all next week.