Senior Bowl week practices get going Tuesday and Matt Maiocco had the executive director of the event, Jim Nagy on his 49ers Insider Podcast. San Francisco 49ers fans may not have had the Senior Bowl penciled in as something to watch, but since Kyle Shanahan and his staff are coaching this year, more may tune in than usual.
This is a great opportunity for college prospects to show their stuff to two coaching staffs (the other being Oakland Raiders’ John Gruden and co.). Nagy was on point identifying what the benefits of the Senior Bowl is for both players and coaches. On what it benefits for the coaches, he had this to say:
“It’s the entire staff; it’s the training staff, it’s the equipment staff. Every person in a football operation sees theses players through a different lens. These players act differently when they’re in the training room than they do the meeting room. To get that opportunity, all the teams can take something away when they come down here from interviews to what they are seeing on the practice field. But, the teams that are involved, we don’t try to babysit these guys this week. We try to make this to be an NFL work week for them. So, they know which guys are late in the morning for breakfast. They see which guys are attentive in meetings and taking good notes. They see how a guy or a particular learning style a player might have. They see how he bounces back in practice from a bad rep. There’s so much behind the scenes stuff that the other 30 teams don’t get to see. I think John lynch put it best in his press conference, he talked, “We’re not real proud to be doing this, but we’re going to take advantage of it because it’s such a great resource.” You never want to be in the position where you’re coaching this game because it means your season hasn’t the way you wanted it to, but you can really get a leg up in the draft by spending a week in these guys.”
I’ve time stamped the entire podcast and not only does it go over the benefits, but it goes over the prospects to look out for as the week goes by. You can listen to the podcast using the widget above or you can go here if it doesn’t appear.
00:50 - Working with the 49ers and John Lynch
01:30 - Process inviting players to the Senior Bowl
04:45 - 49ers/Raiders having input on players they would like to have
05:47 - Advantage of coaching the Senior Bowl
07:22 - Advantage for players
10:52 - Josh Allen
12:04 - Possible standouts in 2019 Senior Bowl
14:16 - Fits for the 49ers’ LEO position
15:06 - Edge Rushers
15:45 - Cornerbacks
17:03 - Wide receivers
18:37 - Tight ends
21:07 - Guards/Centers
22:28 - Under the radar players