Phil SavageSenior Bowl practices begin today in Mobile, Ala., with the most prominent college football all-star game set for Saturday afternoon.
Of the 116 players at last year's Senior Bowl, 107 drew a paycheck this season in the NFL, said Phil Savage, the event's executive director. North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz was the No. 2 overall pick in last April's draft, and inside linebacker Blake Martinez, a fourth-round pick from Stanford, played for Green Bay in Sunday's NFC championship game in Atlanta.
Savage was a recent guest of "Press Row" on Chattanooga's ESPN 105.1 FM.
Q: Are you concerned that Deshaun Watson and Jonathan Allen bypassing your game could become a trend similar to players skipping bowls?
A: "I think it's really an apples-and-oranges comparison with Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey and Shock Linwood, because those guys were in bowl games that really didn't impact the final rankings. Had Fournette or McCaffrey been in a major bowl game like the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl or the national playoff, they would have played had they been healthy.
"In terms of our game, it is not uncommon for people to bypass the opportunity. It probably got a little more attention this time around because of Deshaun Watson, but the truth is that their college careers are over, and this is the first game of their professional lives. They're playing for NFL staffs, which this year are the Browns and the Bears, and I communicated to Watson that he had the curtain call in Tampa but that people want to see him operate with different coaches and different systems."
Q: Who do you project from Alabama as an NFL star without needing to see this week or next month's NFL combine?
A: "I think it's pretty evident that this year's team with Jonathan Allen, Reuben Foster, Ryan Anderson, Dalvin Tomlinson - their whole defense will probably be drafted in the first two or three rounds. For my money, Jonathan Allen was the face of the franchise for the Tide this year, and I think he will go on and play 10 years and be a really productive player for someone."
Q: How do you divide the rosters given that you have a Florida International tight end on the North team?
A: "We're definitely liberal with our geographic line. We try to find our best players, and in this particular year, most of our best tight ends were from the Southeast, so we had to decide who we could flip to the North. With Jonnu Smith, we figured a lot of snow birds go to Miami and that he could play for the North.
"It happens from time to time, especially with the West Coast schools who aren't really part of the Mason-Dixon line going back 150 years or so."
Q: Who are some players to watch this week who didn't compete for Bowl Subdivision programs?
A: "I think (UTC defensive end) Keionta Davis is a player to watch here. Cooper Kupp is a receiver from Eastern Washington, and he's the all-time leading pass-catcher in the history of college football with 428 receptions on that red turf out there. We have several offensive lineman - Julien Davenport from Bucknell and Jordan Morgan from Kutztown - who have upside potential."
Q: What does former Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs need to accomplish this week in order to get drafted?
A: "The thing with Josh is that he's got enough size and the intellect is there, and everybody raves about the kind of person he is. It's always interesting to see how these quarterbacks who have played in spread systems respond to playing under the center and with play-action passes, and will there be consistency with his accuracy?
"I watched him in the bowl game against Nebraska, and on back-to-back plays, he missed stationary receivers on the wide part of the sideline and then came back and threw a beautiful post route for a touchdown that proved to be the difference in that game. The potential is there. The consistency is what people will be looking for."