PurplePTSD: Three NFL Draft Prospects That Lost The Senior Bowl

Press release from the PurplePTSD:

Josh Frey

2022-02-07

The Senior Bowl is often heralded as one of the great ways to expose top-tier collegiate talent that went overlooked during the regular season. It’s also a time where some prospects do not shine as brightly as they should under the bright lights. Yesterday, we went over a few of the winners of the Senior Bowl. Today, we’ll go over a few of the losers.

QB Carson Strong (Nevada)

It wasn’t an overall bad week for the QB of the Nevada Wolf Pack. It just wasn’t anything to knock scouts’ socks off. He made some nice throws in practices, but he also made a few mistakes. I personally come away from watching this week thinking almost exactly the same of Strong as I did prior, and that’s not what the goal of this showcase is. Two turnover plays in Saturday’s game didn’t help things either.

Meanwhile, there were some strong QB performances over the course of the week, particularly Malik Willis. Prior to this week, I had Willis and Strong ranked back-to-back as QB5 and QB6. Willis certainly made some separation.

TE Charlie Kolar (Iowa State)

Like Carson Strong, Charlie Kolar just missed out on being among the top-five of my positional rankings on the latest draft board. The Cyclone sat at TE6 going into the Senior Bowl, and he may be falling after this performance. All the same concerns exist with Kolar after this week: route running, consistent hands, and pass blocking.

During the actual game we saw a two-play stretch where these concerns came to fruition. Kolar dropped a pass that should have resulted in a first down, and then he allowed a sack to another of the big winners of this week, Minnesota edge rusher Boye Mafe. Making matters worse, Jake Ferguson had a terrific day at the TE position which could push Kolar further down many draft boards.

EDGE Cameron Thomas (San Diego State)

Cameron Thomas lost the Senior Bowl not because of a poor performance, but because he was unable to play at all. On Tuesday, Thomas sat out practice with a hamstring injury, and he never stepped back on the field for the rest of the week.

With a large group of EDGE players that could go anywhere from the mid-first to late-second round in this year’s draft, this could have been Thomas’ opportunity to pull away from the pack and solidify his first-round status. Instead, it could end up being a great “what if” mystery.

This press release was produced by the PurplePTSD. The views expressed here are the author’s own.