2022 Senior Bowl: Who Stood Out And Struggled At Every Position

2022 Senior Bowl: Offensive Linemen

Standouts

Boston College’s Zion Johnson was the big winner along the offensive line during Senior Bowl week. He had some tough battles with top defensive linemen, but he held up well. His grip strength, footwork, and anchor were as advertised. Even when his hands were a bit wide, the power in his lower half absorbed the rush well. He even took a lot of reps at center, and he flashed great reach blocking and second level blocking in team drills.

Dylan Parham got consistently better throughout the week. The versatile Memphis lineman got a huge early win, weighing in at 300 pounds. He thrived at center with reach blocks as well on team plays, and got constantly better versus the rush in one-on-ones with impressive strength and improving hands.

The Georgia guys, Justin Shaffer and Jamaree Salyer, looked in control all week and never seemed overpowered. They moved around all week, with Salyer even getting reps at center along with both guard positions. Their hands, sets, and technique were impressive: no real flash, just go to work and win.

LSU’s Ed Ingram was dynamite this week. His grip strength was great, his lateral movement skills were great (along with his footwork), and he recovered well against counters and stayed strong with his anchor. Technical prowess, along with athleticism, was there.

Chattanooga’s Cole Strange and North Dakota’s Matt Waletzko both continued to improve all week. Strange worked on the interior, and his hand placement got tighter, his anchor improved, and he got wins against a defensive lineman we’ll talk about shortly. Waletzko was great with his sets, carried rushers along the arc, and had a great snatch rep on the outside as well.

Tulsa’s Chris Paul looked good at both tackle and guard, firing off the ball well in run game drills and holding his own against pass rushers.

Struggled

It may be a bit shocking, but the tackle group was really the group that struggled this week. The competition was fierce, and it led to plenty of lost reps from the tackle group. Darian Kinnard was among the best at the Senior Bowl, but even he looked better inside.

Trevor Penning was a “winner” for a lot of analysts because of the demeanor he played with, but in all honestly, he struggled to anchor and gave up a lot of ground on every rep, getting walked back to the quarterback consistently.

Bernhard Raimann was another who many had high hopes for, and it’s safe to say the round one talk for him in the 2022 NFL Draft might be done. He consistently let defenders into his chest all week, losing leverage and couldn’t regain it. Raimann also had several reps where he bent at the waist and lost balance at the contact point.

Daniel Faalele has truly elite size, but he didn’t have the best week in 1v1 drills. He got pushed back with speed to power and lost balance on a couple of occasions, and had several instances of oversetting against speed rushers, offering up the inside like a king size Reese’s cup.

Max Mitchell has the athleticism and gets after it in the run game, but technically, as a pass protector, he needs work. This week cooled off his 2022 NFL Draft stock a little.