Take the Senior Bowl seriously

As we in this nation love our football, the NCAA and NFL are never ones to let us down.  Just because the NCAA season is over and Auburn has earned the crown of national champions that is no reason for the football season to be over.

We still have one more NFL game to watch and even though I am completely disinterested in the two teams competing I will watch it.  Green Bay is my least favorite team and does Pittsburgh really need another Super Bowl ring?  People in Pittsburgh sure think so.

But a lot of college football fans get one last huray before the NFL draft and that is this Saturday with the annual senior bowl.  This game is being played in Mobile Alabama and needs to be taken seriously by all those participating in it.Yes this game is for fun.  It does not matter who wins and loses.  If you participate you get to compete against the top seniors in the nation, get a free trip to Alabama (whop, whop?) as well as free meals, free hotel rooms and just a small vacation before you start the real world in the NFL or the business world for those who don’t make the next level.

But my point is this bowl game is another post-season bit that can make or break your NFL dreams.  Or at least your first paycheck.  Nothing is more important for an NFL prospect than the combine.  Your body of work in college no longer guarantees you a high draft selection.  As quarterbacks like Grahm Harrell and Colt Brennan how well those spread numbers did for them in the NFL draft.

So you have to show up to the combine, but you also have to play well here.  Every scout will be watching this game as it is real game situations.  Something the combine cannot recreate.  Did that wide receiver get two feet in?  Can that offensive lineman run block, pass block and zone block?  Can that quarterback make more than one read, then put the ball right where it needs to be?  Will that tight end go across the middle and catch the ball in traffic?   How fluid are those corner back’s  hips?Dozens of players have a great opportunity here.  Take Washington’s Jake Locker here.  The guy would have been a top pick last year, but decided to stay in school.

Since staying, he had a down season riddled with rib injuries.  Now questions of his accuracy and toughness have dropped his stock to a possible second or third round pick.  A good senior bowl can bring some faith back to his game.  And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, he needs a good game here!  He played awful in the Holiday Bowl against a good Nebraska pass defense and he can’t afford to have let down after let down.

Speaking of the Huskers, a nation leading six participants have a great chance to raise their stock.  In my opinion two players more specifically than anyone else.  Those are wide receiver Niles Paul and running back Roy Helu Jr.  Helu Jr. has been as steady as they come when it comes to college running backs.  However, he is not putting up numbers that would make Adrian Peterson blush.  That said, if he can show a little more explosive play-making alongside that consistent running he could find his way into the second round.

Paul might have been the most overrated Husker I have ever seen.  His hands and route running raised huge questions after this season.  A good senior bowl could convince the scouts that he is a valid slot receiver, rather than just a special teams specalist.

I feel you really have to question Price Amukamara’s decision to sit out the senior bowl.  I get the fact that at this point it would be much easier for Amukamara’s stock to fall rather than go up as he is considered a top pick.  But he is battling LUS’s Patrick Peterson as the top   in this draft.  However, Peterson is also not participating because he is a junior.

That to me screams an opportunity, on national television, by games coached by NFL coaches, with NFL rules, watched by ever scout and team scout available, to showcase your skills and all but seal the deal as the top corner in the draft.In my experiences, employees not only want to see an education, but they want to see real world experience.  Experience is something you cannot teach in a classroom and is valuable to a young professional.  This game, on top of a college career, is just another thing to put on your resume and force a teams hand at drafting you because you are a can’t-miss guy.

- Adam St. Paul

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