NEWS AND NEAR NEWS

Post-practice Senior Bowl report … Practice sessions at the Senior Bowl in Mobile wrapped up late yesterday afternoon and for the most part NFL personnel people have headed home. And while all teams teams will be getting the tapes from tomorrow’s actual game, in fact, most care primarily abut what transpires during the practice sessions during the week as well as the player interviews. Even then, most don’t put too much emphasis on what transpires at the Senior Bowl. Players are only involved in a limited number of reps and many of those are are more drills than actual football scenarios. As well, the players are working with strange coaches and teammates and, of course, none of the very top prospects for this April’s draft were in attendance in Mobile this week. That said, it is a chance for scouts and coaches to get an up-close-and-personal look at many of the better prospects in testing circumstances. And no player in Mobile was more impressive this week than Michigan DE Derrick Moore who still hasn’t been blocked. Read more

CFP quietly alters playoff field regs … The big news in college football in the wake of Indiana’s historic national championship win last week was that the CFP playoff field would remain at 12 for 2026 after the SEC and Big 10 could not agree on an expanded format. What didn’t get as much notice was the fact that the CFP committee did tweak the 12-team field. This coming year, the champions of all four power conferences will make the playoff field whatever their ranking, while the automatic non-power 4 rep will be the highest ranked non-power 4 team in the country whether or not they are a conference champion. Lastly, Notre Dame, which was the big loser this year when the committee slid Alabama up into the field, will be guaranteed a playoff spot if they are ranked in the top 12. Good for the Irish, but we’re not sure that the committee realizes that if Notre Dame is ranked, say 12th overall, and a lower ranked conference champion and/or non-Power 4 rep make the field, a higher ranked Power 4 team or even teams will be bumped from the playoffs. Cue the squawking!  Have a great day!

Defence again dominates National Senior Bowl practice … If there was a story at this afternoon’s National team practice at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, it was that the defensive line simply dominated their offensive counterparts. In fact, it usually looked all the part of a jail break during the team drills part of the practice during which the QBs barely had time to just dump the ball off on the majority of snaps. And several of the guys who were just blowing past people at Tuesday’s initial workout were back at it today including DEs Nadame Tucker of Western Michigan and Clemson’s TJ Parker. Tucker, for example, could get washed out when bigger OTs got their hands on him, but for the most part he was just too quick off the snap and was also able to effectively use a long first step to find seams when stunting. And they were joined in the chase by relatively unheralded Cian Stone of NC State, another long, lean ER with a quick first step who was almost as disruptive, while Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton was also quick and relentless.

It also didn’t seem quite fair that the already loaded National d-line was bolstered by the addition of Florida State DT Darrell Jackson, the star of last week’s Shrine practices. Fortunately, for the National offense, though, he didn’t get that many snaps. In fact, the star of today’s session was Penn State DT Zane Durant, who is somewhat undersized, but was explosive off the snap and relentless as he won time again by gaining leverage and maintaining it thru the whistle. At the same time, fellow DTs Bryson Eason of Tennessee and Minnesota’s Deven Eastern also had quietly effective days.

And while it was one of the those ‘shoudda stood in bed days’ for most of the National o-linemen, one who did hold up really well all day was Georgia Tech C/G Keylan Rutledge, while it was not a good day at all for Boise State’s Kage Casey, who struggled at times just to get his hands on people, never mind sustaining blocks.

We have noted over the years that all-star games are not necessarily great venues for LBs to show their stuff. Today, though, Jacob Rodriquez of Texas Tech had arguably the defensive play of the game when he picked off a pass to cement the D’s ‘win’ on the final play of the workout. However, the two most impressive LBs on the field earlier today were Kyle Louis of Pitt and Oregon’s Bryce Boettcher, both of whom were around the ball on just about every snap.

First day Senior Bowl notes … It is always important to note that, as usual, the first day’s practices are held in shells, so one doesn’t want to get too carried away with observations from those early sessions. In fact, the early practice involving the National team was a rather tame affair even by first day Senior Bowl standards, although several players did stand out. Texas Tech NT Lee Hunter, for example, looked like a man among boys during the workout; he’s a massive 6-4, 325-pound wide body type who simply ragged doll more than one opposing offensive lineman, especially during team drills. What may have really caught the eye of pro scouts is that Hunter also displayed surprisingly light feet and easy lateral agility for such a big guy. One other player who may have introduced to the national draft world was Western Michigan DE Nadame Tucker. Not that he should have needed an intro as he tied with Texas Tech All-American David Bailey for the national lead in sacks with 14.5 this past season. Tucker isn’t all that big at 6-3, 250, but was very quick on the day, blowing past a number of big-time college OTs on a number of occasions including one poor soul who ended up on the ground without ever getting a finger on Tucker. Meanwhile, the throw of the day was by Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia who dropped a perfectly placed pass in the hands of Baylor’s Josh Cameron over tight coverage by Tennessee CB Colton Hood; Hood, though, got a spot of revenge when he won the end-of-practice one-on-one dual. we should also mention that while Clemson DE TJ Parker did not get that many snaps on the day, he was pretty dominant when he was out there.

The America practice later in the day was a generally livelier affair. Among those that stood during the late afternoon practice were DEs Zion Young  of Missouri, Michigan’s Derrick Moore, and Gabe Jacas of Illinois and Florida DT Caleb Banks. And similar to Tucker above, Boston College ER Quin Hutchins also appeared to introduce himself to the wider draft world. Again, not a big guy, but very quick and elusive. While a number of defensive linemen stood out during the American workout, the offensive line actually held up pretty well for the most part with several including Florida C Jake Slaughter, OGs Jeremiah Wright of Auburn and Arkansas’ Fernando Carmona, and OTs Jude Bowry of Boston College and JC Davis of Illinois being particularly effective. On the other hand, one OT that did struggle noticeably was Austin Barber of Florida. Meanwhile, the ‘catch of the day’ award went to Ted Hurst of Georgia State who made a brilliant one-handed grab of a pass in traffic, while Notre Dame’s 6-4 Malachi Fields was also a load for the coverage group.

Mensah updated; QB does sign with Miami … Just hours after settling a legal dispute with Duke, star QB Darian Mensah confirmed that he is in fact transferring to Miami where he will replace Carson Beck who is out of eligibility after leading the Hurricanes to the national championship game. Mensah, who figures to be one of the top prospects at the position for the 2027 draft, had signed a lucrative NIL deal to stay with the Blue Devils at the end of the season, but later reneged on that commitment and tried to enter the transfer portal. Duke sued and the issue had been tied up in the courts the past few weeks. No details were announced regarding the settlement, but it clearly exposed a flaw in the whole NIL regime which is obviously still very much a work in progress.

Big day on star game schedule … There a huge day on the college football post-season all-star schedule Tuesday with the East-West Shrine game scheduled for the evening in Frisco, Texas, while the Senior Bowl practices get underway in the afternoon in Mobile. And both will be covered by the NFL Network with the Senior Bowl practices slated to start at 2:30 PM ET and 5 PM ET, while the Shrine game kicks off at 7 PM ET. For the record, the Senior Bowl will also have practices at those times on Wednesday and Thursday with the actual game set for 2:30 PM ET on Saturday.

Most of the draft focus will be on Mobile where the Senior Bowl simply has the better prospects, although unfortunately a number of what would have been the game’s best prospects dropped out after initially accepting invitations including DEs David Bailey of Texas Tech and Miami’s Rueben Bain, both of whom are generally considered to be top 5-10 candidates for this year’s draft. Of course, Bain has a good excuse as he played in last week’s national championship loss to Indiana and can claim he needs a break. In fact, he’s one three Miami stars to withdraw from the Mobile game along with fellow DE Akheem Mesidor and DB Deionte Scott. However, even with the defection of Bailey, Bain and Mesidor a pretty good case can be made the DEs are still strongest grouping in Mobile as TJ Parker of Clemson, LT Overton of Alabama, Missouri’s Zion Young, Gabe Jacas of Illinois and Dani Dennis-Sutton of Penn State say they will be there. Meanwhile, other top prospects in Mobile this week will include RBs Nicholas Singleton and Keytron Allen of Penn State and Oklahoma’s Jaydn Ott; Boise State OT Kage Casey; DTs Caleb Banks of Florida and Texas Tech’s Lee Hunter, Texas Tech LB Jake Rodriquez and Texas S Michael Taafe, while the QBs will be Garrett Nussmeier of LSU, Luke Altmyer of Illinois, Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia, Sawyer Robertson of Baylor and Cole Payton of North Dakota State. Here are the full rosters for the National and American teams in this week’s Senior Bowl.

As noted, the East-West Shrine gathering in Frisco features mostly third-day prospects; however, there are clearly also plenty of players that NFL teams want t check out including QBs Cade Klubnik (Clemson), Haynes King (Georgia Tech), Miller Moss (Louisville), Jalon Daniels (Kansas), Mark Gronowski (Iowa) and Joe Fagano (UConn), while some of the higher rated non-QBs Shriners this week include TE Jack Endries and OG DG Campbell of Texas, LSU LB Harold Perkins; LB Jake Golday and DT Dontay Corleone of Cincinnati, LBs Taurean York of Texas A&M and Eric Gentry of USC; Florida State DT Darrell Jackson; OTs Aamil Wagner of Notre Dame and Wisconsin’s Riley Mahlman; OGs Brian Parker of Duke, Alabama’s Jaeden Roberts and Ar’maj Reed-Adams of Texas A&M; and Indiana C Pat Coogan. Here are the full Shrine rosters: East; West

‘Hawks, Pats off to Super Bowl; two more picks settled … It will be Seattle versus New England in the Super Bowl in two weeks in San Francisco, although they got their in different ways. The Seahawks held off the LA Rams 31-27 in a wide-open, high-scoring affair, while the Patriots won a 10-7 defensive struggle in the snow in Denver. As a result of their losses, the Rams will now have the 29th pick in every round at the 2026 draft, while the Broncos will have the 30th selection in each round. Here is the updated selection order for the first three rounds of the upcoming draft as well as an updated listing of picks per team thru those initial 3 rounds.

College football notes … Not necessarily a whole lot going on in the world of college football this weekend, but there are several items of note. The extended deadline for underclassmen thinking of entering 2026 draft who playing in last Monday’s national championship game passed yesterday with only one item to report as Miami LB Mo Toure announced that he was returning to the Hurricanes for the upcoming season. Toure has been a very productive player in the past when healthy but has seen his career sidetracked by a couple of torn ACLs. Meanwhile, Texas confirmed that QB Arch Manning recently underwent what they are describing as minor foot surgery to clean up that issue that sidelined him for several weeks earlier this season. And lastly, former Colorado OT Jordan Seaton, arguably the top  returning tackle in college football, has confirmed that he has transferred to LSU.

FSU DT stands out at Shrine weigh-in … There wasn’t necessarily a whole lot that jumped off the page following the weigh-in/measurement session at this weekend’s East-West Shrine event in Frisco, Texas. However, the one player who really did stand out was Florida State DT Darrell Jackson who measured in at 6-5, 328 with 35-inch arms and huge (11-inch) mitts. At the same time, a couple of other lesser known players also stood out at the weigh-in Kentucky OG Josh Braun and Louisiana LB Jaden Dugger. Braun measured in at a robust 6-6, 333 with 34-inch-plus arms and 10-inch-plus hands; in fact, the OGs, who may be the best overall position in Frisco this week, all pretty much passed the eyeball test including DJ Campbell of Texas, Micah Morris of Georgia, Alabama’s Jaedan Roberts and Ar’maj Reed-Adams of Texas A&M. The Horns’ Campbell, for example, was a lttle shorter than prototype at barely 6-2.5, but he’s over 320 pounds with 34-inch arms and 10-inch hands. For his part, ULL’s Dugger, who is coming off a vey productive year in which he posted 118 tackles including 3 sacks, a pick, and a forced fumble, measured in at almost 6-5 and 240 with arms just under 35-inches.

Meanwhile, among other well-known Shrine prospects, neither of SEC LBs Harold Perkins of LSU and Texas A&M’s Taurean York showed much length, although neither was thought to be all that big. Perkins, for example, measured in at 6-0, 222 with 31.5-inch arms, while York was barely over 5-10 and 232 pounds with just 30-inch arms. On the other hand, length is no problem for Southern Cal’s Eric Gentry who came in at 6-6 with 35-inch arms, but he’s a lightly on the light side at just over 220 pounds. Texas TE Jack Endries also came in a little bigger than maybe anticipated at 6-4, 244, but he doesn’t necessarily have the largest hands. Same story for Georgia Tech QB Haynes King who had relatively small hands at under 9-inches.

Here are the full Shrine measurement numbers courtesy of Steelers Depot.

CFP field to remain at 12 for 2026 … The college football playoff will stick with 12 teams for the upcoming season after the SEC and Big 10 could not agree on the format for expansion. The SEC reportedly wanted to expand the playoff field to 16 teams, but the Big 10 would only agree if the SEC would commit to a 24-team model after three years which they were not prepared to do at this time because it would mean the end of the conference championship games which are very lucrative for the SEC.

Star ‘Canes OT enters draft … To absolutely no ones surprise, All-America Miami OT Francis Mauigoa has confirmed that he will in fact be etering the 2026 draft where he is projected to be a top 5-10 pick. And speaking of Miami, the Hurricanes got a big get in the transfer portal when rising former Missouri DE Damon Wilson committed to the program.

American Bowl on tap … One of the lesser all-star games kicks off in just a few hours with the American Bowl set to go at 8 PM E later this eveing in Lakeland, Florida. Coverage will be provided by the NFL Network. Again, this is a lesser star which could very well not having selected in this year’s draft. However, there are a number of players with at least some name recognition including Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos, WR Daniel Sobkowicz of FCS national champion Illinois State, along with veteran offensive linemen Ethan Onianwa of Ohio State and Texas A&M’s Reuben Fatheree. Here are the full rosters for tonight’s game.

Shrine prospects heading to Frisco as star week set to kick-off … NFL hopefuls participating in next week’s East-West Shrine all-star game are gathering in Frisco as we speak for the start Shrine activities. Players will start their interviews tomorrow and we presume get weighed and measured, while the 4 days of practice get underway on Friday culminating in the actual game this coming Tuesday evening, the 27th, with KO set for 7 PM ET on the NFL Network.  And while the Shrine game did appear to close the talent gap on the Senior Bowl, which gets underway on Monday, in the past couple of years, that may not have been the case this year. Indeed, the majority of Shrine participants this year look to be more third-day prospects. However, there are clearly also plenty of players that NFL teams want t check out including QBs Cade Klubnik (Clemson), Haynes King (Georgia Tech), Miller Moss (Louisville), Jalon Daniels (Kansas), Mark Gronowski (Iowa) and Joe Fagano (UConn). Meanwhile, some of the higher rated non-QBs in Frisco this weekend include TE Jack Endries and OG DG Campbell of Texas, LSU LB Harold Perkins; LB Jake Golday and DT Dontay Corleone of Cincinnati, LBs Taurean York of Texas A&M and Eric Gentry of USC; Florida State DT Darrell Jackson; OTs Aamil Wagner of Notre Dame and Wisconsin’s Riley Mahlman; OGs Brain Parker of Duke, Alabama’s Jaeden Roberts and Ar’maj Reed-Adams of Texas A&M; and Indiana C Pat Coogan. Here are the full Shrine rosters: East; West

Senior Bowl adds DE Bain, CB Ponds, three others from title game … The Senior Bowl has announced that Miami DE Rueben Bain, a top 5 prospect for the upcoming draft, is one of 5 players from Monday’s national championship game to commit to this year’s all-star game in Mobile. Bain will be joined in mobile by teammates Markel Bell, a massive 6-8, 345-pound OG and CB Keionte Scott, along with CB D’Angelo Ponds and RB Kaelon Balck from Indiana. Of note, both Bain and Ponds are 3rd year juniors who are in effect declaring for the draft.

January mock updated … With the 2026 draft class now pretty well set, the GBN projection for the first round of the upcoming draft has has been updated. Again, please note that our goal is not to try and predict which particular player a particular team will select 3 months plus down the road; rather we are primarily trying to give some idea where the different players might be selected given the current intel. And while the potential blue/red chips prospects for the upcoming draft are starting to come into focus, exactly which of those players teams with early picks are likely to target is not. In fact, trying to slot the first half dozen or so picks into this projection had the feel of trying to herd cats!

And the meek shall inherit the earth!!! … Indiana, which hadn’t won a conference title since the 1960s, won their first ever national championship ever, with a 27-21 win over a game Miami team in a terrific game that went down to the final minute. However, there won’t be much time for many of the best players on both teams to dwell on what happened Monday night as those thinking of entering the upcoming draft, including top 10 prospects QB Fernando Mendoza of Indiana and DE Rueben Bain and OT Francis Mauigoa of Miami, have only until Friday to make decision on whether to turn pro this winter.

Peeking ahead to what may be loaded 2027 draft … Now that the field for the 2026 draft – now just 95 days away – has been pretty well set, we can also get a sense of what the 2027 draft class might look like. And while the current draft class isn’t exactly blowing anyone away, especially at the very top of the board, next year’s class has the potential to be very talented. Let’s start with the QBs for example. While there is really only one QB in this year’s class – Fernando Mendoza of Indiana – with a top 5-10 grade, the 2027 draft could include, in no particular order, Dante Moore of Oregon, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, Arch Manning of Texas, Oklahoma’s John Mateer, Sam Leavitt, who transferred to LSU, Darian Mensah, formerly of Duke who is in the portal, Brendan Sorsby, who transferred to Texas Tech, Southern Cal’s Jayden Maiava, Drew Westemaker, the leading passer in college football last year who transferred to Oklahoma State, and Byrum Brown who transferred to Auburn. In fact, several of those players will actually have eligibility remaining after the upcoming season and need not enter next year’s draft, but that’s a lot of arm talent.

And quarterback likely won’t be the only stocked position in 2027 as there are several others with multiple prospects with elite potential including the edge rushers. That group could include, for example, Dylan Stewart of South Carolina, Colin Simmons of Texas, Utah’s John Henry Daley, Minnesota’s Anthony Smith, Quincy Rhodes of Arkansas, Damion Wilson, formerly of Missouri who is in the portal, and the Oregon duo of Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti. Meanwhile, no position may have more pure elite talent for 2027 than the WRs which could feature Jeremiah Smith of Ohio State, Alabama’s Ryan Williams and Cam Coleman of Auburn, while there are a number of quality OT prospects including Trevor Goosby of Texas, Jordan Seaton, formerly of Colorado who is in the portal, Xavier Chaplin who transferred to Florida State and Cayden Green of Missouri.

‘Canes to face Hoosiers in CFP championship … It is championship Monday in college football as Miami will take on top-ranked Indiana in the CFP title game later this evening with KO set for just after 7:30 PM ET on ESPN. The Hurricanes will actually be the home team as the game will be played in Miami. And they’re be plenty of NFL bound talent on the field starting with Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza and DE Rueben Bain and OT Francis Mauigoa of Miami, each of whom is considered to be a top 10 prospect for the upcoming draft.

Four more picks set; four to go … As a result of this weekend’s conference semi-final playoff games, 4 more picks were settled in the selection order for the 2026 draft. Chicago will have the 25th pick in each round, while Buffalo will have the 26th selection in the opening round, followed by San Francisco at #27 and Houston at #28; those three teams though will rotate those three spots in subsequent rounds. That leaves just 4 picks to be decided: #s 29 and 30 will go to the losers of the conference finals on January 25th, while picks 31 and 32 will go to the Super Bowl finalists. At the same time, here is the updated listing of picks by team for the first three rounds.

Saints, Browns, Giants and Pats get top ESPN 2025 draft grades … For those that didn’t see it last week, ESPN ran a piece last week grading the productivity and potential of every team’s 2025 draft with New Orleans, Cleveland, New England and the NY Giants getting the highest grades.