A few notes from Monday’s Senior Bowl events, which included the first practices of the week. The North team and South team practiced at the same time, and I chose to watch the North practice.
– Jeff Ireland and Tony Sparano also checked out the North practice, which included quarterbacks Jake Locker, Colin Kaepernick and Ricky Stanzi. Kaepernick had the best day of the three, impressing scouts despite a funky throwing delivery, while Locker struggled with his accuracy.
– If Ireland and Sparano still have relationship issues after the events of last month, it certainly didn’t show on Monday. They sat next to each other, by themselves, for the entire 2-hour practice.
– The Dolphins are in need of top-line speed at receiver and running back. When asked which prospects they like with that skillset, McShay and the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock both said the same name – Troy’s Jerrel Jernigan. If the Dolphins can’t land Jernigan – they won’t use the 15th pick on him, but they might miss him because they don’t have a second-round pick – Mayock said he really likes Boise State receiver Titus Young, who is listed at 5-11, 174 pounds and reminds Mayock of “a poor man’s Desean Jackson.”
– Bengals QB coach Ken Zampese on coaching Locker: “He’s wide eyed. He’s really excited. He’s got a lot of natural enthusiasm about him. … Every time we take a break and come back and meet again he’s got another question, so I know he went through the stuff.”
– Locker, on his decision to return to Washington for another year instead of coming out last year to be a first-round pick: “I know I didn’t make a mistake. … You look at the numbers and it may not show you that, going from my junior year to my senior year, but as a player I felt a lot more comfortable game in and game out. I feel that this transition is going to be a lot more comfortable for me because of that extra year.”
– Bengals owner Mike Brown told Cincinnati media that the team does not plan to honor Carson Palmer’s request for a trade, but stranger things have happened.
– Mayock came out with his quarterback rankings for this draft, and it included a curveball: Blaine Gabbert, Locker, Cam Newton, Ryan Mallett, Andy Dalton. Most scouts consider Locker fourth in that group, behind Newton and Mallett. McShay called Dalton, who led TCU to the Rose Bowl, “the most underrated” QB prospect in the draft.
– The Dolphins need one or two running backs, but might be better served to wait until the middle rounds to draft them. Other than Alabama’s Mark Ingram and Virginia Teach’s Ryan Williams, no other prospects jump out. “It’s a weird running back class,” McShay said. “I love Ingram, I love Ryan Williams. After that there’s about 10 guys you could make the arguments for. There’s a lot of depth in rounds 3-5.”
– Finally, Jones talked about the ongoing labor dispute between the players and owners. The owners will institute a lockout on March 4 if a new CBA is not signed, and NFLPA president De Smith said he would “declare war” on the owners over the weekend.
Jones said no one – owners and players – wants a work stoppage, but that the owners want to fix what they consider a broken system and “get it right for the long-term.”
“We certainly, unanimously want to get a deal done before we lose any play time,” Jones said. “We are so united as owners toward one goal, and that’s not missing any work.”
Jones was asked about a potential 18-game schedule for next year, and said the owners could have imposed it on the players the past few years, but chose not to out of respect for the players.
“We certainly want players to buy in,” Jones said. “A lot of people don’t realize we had the ability to go to 18 games all during this last labor agreement without asking anybody, but the point is that’s not how we want to do it.”
