2022 Senior Bowl: Who Stood Out And Struggled At Every Position
The 2022 Senior Bowl featured a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. Who won the week, and who left a bit to be desired.
The Senior Bowl is always a great way to kick off the NFL Draft process, and it was no different in 2022. A great week of practices commenced, with one of those indoors, as seems commonplace these days. The game is currently finishing up, and the 2022 NFL Draft “kickoff week” was, once again, a lot of fun.
Getting the Jets and Lions down there with their coaching staffs was excellent for the prospects, as they have a great group of coaches, ranging from upbeat and fun to extremely loud and intense. The National team, coached by the Jets, definitely got the offensive line and defensive line getting into it all week long.
We missed out on some great players participating down in Mobile, as Utah’s Devin Lloyd and Penn State’s Jahan Dotson both pulled out before the week began, and San Diego State’s Cameron Thomas missed the week due to injury.
As always, there were big winners from the week, and those who maybe disappointed relative to expectations. We’re diving in to all of that at every position from the Senior Bowl group for the 2022 NFL Draft right here. Let’s dive in!
2022 Senior Bowl: Quarterbacks
The best part of this quarterback class in the 2022 NFL Draft was that the Senior Bowl was set to be a proving grounds. Save for Matt Corral, the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft were all heading down to Mobile for the week. As it often does, many believed competition would elevate someone into the driver’s seat for QB1 in the 2022 NFL Draft.
All we really saw was more of the same from this class, with no one separating themself that much from the week. The biggest standout was Liberty’s Malik Willis, who made some excellent deep ball throws early in the week during receiver-corner one-on-ones. In the team drills, Willis made a couple great plays, including a rollout play to the left where he hit Greg Dulcich in stride in the rain. The ball jumps out of Willis’ hand, and he generated the most velocity of any quarterback during the week. From what many said, Willis also was very coachable throughout practices.
Sam Howell flashed the deep ball as well, and was solid throughout the week generating velocity. Bailey Zappe doesn’t have the arm, and made a couple questionable reads during 11-on-11, but his accuracy and touch was pretty good.
On the other side, the National group was a bit “meh” throughout the week. Kenny Pickett reportedly was great in interviews, but the lack of arm strength was evident during practices. Pushing the ball outside the numbers was a struggle for Pickett. Carson Strong got a lot better throughout the week in team/red zone drills, but the accuracy was very hit-or-miss. Desmond Ridder flashed the most of the group, hitting some very good throws over the middle on frontside or backside digs.
Willis probably won the week, and Pickett’s 2022 NFL Draft stock won’t take much of a hit, but the question marks are still there across the board.