49ers, Raiders provided advice on late Senior Bowl additions

Each year, the Senior Bowl committee selects a roster of players and as is the case with any postseason event, sometimes players have to back out for one reason or another. When it comes to the Senior Bowl, it is usually injury related, although for some players it is to avoid injury rather than simply rehab an injury.

Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy offered an intriguing bit of insight in the selection process during his recent podcast chat with Matt Maiocco. When January arrives and the Senior Bowl is figuring out replacement players, their staff gives the coaching staffs a list of options for a given position and lets the teams select the players that will join the roster. The teams are allowed to provide asks prior to that, but it sounds like they get an even bigger opportunity with the last minute adds.

Maiocco noted seven players that were late additions to the South roster. Given what Nagy told Maiocco, this suggests these are players to keep an eye on this week and through the rest of the pre-draft process. They include:

RB Wes Hills, Slippery Rock
WR Gary Jennings, West Virginia
OT Oli Udoh, Elon
DT Demarcus Christmas, Florida State
DT Daylon Mack, Texas A&M
LB Gerri Green, Mississippi State
CB Mark Fields, Clemson

Do any of these players jump out at you? None of the positions are a shocking inclusion. Running back might seem lower priority, but a day three back wouldn’t be entirely surprising. The process of just figuring out who some of these players are is a long one for those of us that don’t watch much college football. Any early opinions?