Cleveland Browns Senior Bowl Notes: Day 1 Practice

It’s important not to get stuck on initial impressions, but Day 1 of the Senior Bowl with the Cleveland Browns coaching a team had a lot to take in and keep an eye on the rest of the week.

The first day of the Senior Bowl is a little bit of a feeling out day. They aren’t in full pads and some of the players haven’t taken a rep since late November versus guys who played a couple weeks ago. What’s important is how the players adapt and develop as the week progresses.

Nevertheless, some players stood out with their first impressions both in the weigh-in and how they performed in the first practice.

There don’t appear to be a lot of solutions on offense here. O.J. Howard is the star of the 2017 Senior Bowl, both in terms of that’s who everyone wants to talk to and that he is likely to be the top player picked this year from this event.

Browns head coach Hue Jackson got Howard the ball seemingly as often as possible. How much of that is due to Howard being the best option he has versus trying to evaluate him and give scouts all they could want to see with Howard remains to be seen.

Beyond Howard, Dan Feeney is the next best offensive player in Mobile, as well as the best offensive lineman thus far and it’s not really close. Outside of those two, there are a ton of good looking body types but few finished products. A ton of potential but little polish.

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Mike Roberts may be the most intriguing body type for the Browns. He’s got the size and is a qualified receiving threat as a true inline tight end. Now, he’s working and trying to get better at operating out of a three-point stance. He’s stiff and it gave him problems on Tuesday, but it’s something he works on everyday. Per him, he stretches multiple times per day. It’s going to be a bit of process for him to get where he needs to, but he seems to have the attitude a team wants to work with and develop.

Roberts grew up near Cleveland, went to Benedictine High School and grew up a die-hard Browns fan, so if the team did pick him, it wouldn’t hurt his feelings.

The bulk of the talent is on the defensive side of the ball, which is good for the Browns since they need a ton of help there. The defensive line came out firing today, especially the smaller schools. Tanzel Smart from Tulane, Tanoh Kpassagnon from Villanova, Keionta Davis from Chattanooga and Larry Ogunjobi from Charlotte all looked promising immediately.

For small school guys, hitting the ground running is a good sign. And all of these guys looked good at the weigh-in, though Kpassagnon looks like he was carved out of granite and Ogunjobi looked like he was wearing a backpack beneath his waist. He has an enormous bubble butt which is what generates the lower body strength to get off the ball and be disruptive.

On top of that, both of them are also incredibly intelligent and accomplished students. Ogunjobi is a double major in computer science and biology while Kpassagnon is a finance major with minors in accounting and entrepreneurship. He plans to get his doctorate. Both are poised to finish this week as big time prospects.

At corner, it’s Tre’Davious White and everyone else. There are a handful of extremely talented corners here, but White is clearly the man. White has the height, the build, the speed and the hips. He got beat in drills going for interceptions, but his talent is obvious.

Nevertheless, Jourdan Lewis of Michigan and Damontee Kazee of San Diego State cleared an important hurdle. Both are officially 5-10 so they don’t have to immediately be assumed slot corners. That doesn’t mean they can’t play the slot, but this at least makes them look credible enough on the outside to get a shot there.

The other physical note is Chris Wormley, defensive lineman from Michigan. After speculation that he might be closer to 6-4 and in the 280s weightwise, Wormley came in at over 6-5 and just shy of 300 pounds. He just happens to be an enormous human being.

Next: Cleveland Browns, Senior Bowl Preview: North Roster

The off-ball linebacker position is pretty nondescript this year. The one exception is Haason Reddick of Temple and that’s because he was an edge player for the Owls. Potentially lost in a cavernous edge class, Reddick looks impressive physically and if looks capable as an inside linebacker, he could go higher there than he ever would have coming off the edge.

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