Bear Digest

Who Stood Out in Senior Bowl Practices for Bears to Consider

The 1:30 p.m. kickoff to the Senior Bowl on NFL Network gives fans a chance to see talent in Mobile for themselves, and here's who could interest the Bears after strong workouts this week.
Gene Chamberlain|
Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter gets inside block by Iowa's Beau Stephens in Senior Bowl practice.
Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter gets inside block by Iowa's Beau Stephens in Senior Bowl practice. | Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The emphasis on defense in this draft for the Bears is so necessary it can be seen now three months away from that great spring day.

Senior Bowl practices this week brought forth numerous reports of standout performances from players at need positions for the Bears, some even from players who were surprises.

The game kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Saturday on NFL Network and affords an even greater chance to watch these defensive players, because now they can go all out with their hitting. In practices, the restrainer was still on. It's no longer just one-on-ones or thud-up.

Here are top players to watch for the Bears in the Senior Bowl based on reports of the week's practices.

LB Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech

The possible move to free up cap space by cutting Tremaine Edmunds can make linebacker a huge Bears need, where right now it seems a secondary need. Rodriguez is only ninth on Mel Kiper's linebacker ranking, but won the Nagurski Award. Ryan Young of OnSI's College Football Headquarters emerged impressed after a week of seeing workouts. He liked Rodriguez's all-around abilities after 128 tackles, 11 for loss, four interceptions and seven forced fumbles last year.

S Bud Clark, TCU

Both Dane Brugler of The Athletic and Young pointed out how impressive the TCU safety was during practices. Among the safeties, he rated best in practices as a ballhawk, which probably shouldn't surprise considering he had a whopping 15 interceptions in college and played a ton of games. Teams normally don't target safeties in the first round. Clark would be a good option on Day 2. Penn State's Zakee Wheatley and Kansas State's VJ Payne were also players at this position who stood up to be counted in one-on-one drills.

DT Lee Hunter, Texas Tech

Hunter, who is 6-3 1/2, 320 pounds, is another of the reasons Pro Football Focus and others have agreed this is the deepest overall class of defensive linemen in years. He was all over social media with Senior Bowl highlights and helped Texas Tech finish second in total defense, but No. 1 against the run. How could the Bears, who allowed 5.0 yards a carry, say no to that? TCU also finished sixth in sacks, which just backs up the thought that if you stop the run, you give yourself a chance to rush the passer. Hunter only had 2 1/2 sacks in college and 10 1/2 tackles for loss, so he hasn't been regarded as elite. But he definitely turned heads when given a chance to go one on one in Mobile.

DT Caleb Banks, Florida

Banks was one of the few potential first-round defensive linemen to take part and lived up to his billing in scouts' eyes. The 6-6, 330-pounder is made for Senior Bowl drills in one-on-ones because of his athleticism, but what scouts all said they saw in college games was more of a need to finish. This game will give him a chance to display how he can do this.

DT Deven Eastern, Minnesota

This was a surprise name to pop up during workouts. Both NFL Mock Draft Data Base and PFF have him graded as an undrafted free agent after he had 14 QB pressures, 38 tackles and 2 1/2 sacks for his career but like with some others, he used the spotlight of the practices to say he could do more.

Edge Zion Young, Missouri

Brugler was overwhelmed by the number of good edge rushers in Mobile who weren't necessarily regarded as first-rounders, but he probably shouldn't have been because the offensive line quality participating to go against them wasn't the greatest. In his summation of the talent, one name stood out to him above the others, and it was the 6-5, 262-pound Young.

"Though he won’t stand out with his cornering speed, his violence at the point of attack and rangy presence consistently popped," Brugler wrote. "Young had a silky cross-chop that created a rush lane to the quarterback during the team period, and it will stick with me."

That's a description sure to be of interest to people like Dennis Allen, who likes the violence in rushers more than getting around the corner. Mel Kiper has him fourth on the defensive end rankings.

Edge T.J. Parker, Clemson

Parker already was well respected and Brugler saw no reason to think otherwise, especially with technique where he did a "... terrific job leveraging his rush to overwhelm blockers, especially with his patented long-arm move." Parker is more of an outside linebacker at this point, according to Mel Kiper. ESPN's expert ranks him third best edge-rushing linebacker in the draft. The practices let him show he can handle all aspects of the position.

Edge Derrick Moore, Michigan

Moore had a great final year with 10 sacks but still hadn't generated enough talk nationally to move way up the chart. His week of practices helped. Brugler had him among the top three or four edge rushers, anyway, but added, "So Moore was already very much on the radar of NFL talent evaluators entering the week, and he took full advantage of that."

T Dametrious Crownover, Texas A&M

It's not all defense for the Bears, who could use an alternative at tackle with Ozzy Trapilo injured. Crownover showed he can handle it. NFL writer Ryan Fowler, in his Mobil analysis, saw the 6-6, 331-pounder as intimidating and effective. "He’s a big, broad-shouldered blocker with SEC experience and a physical demeanor that shows up in every phase of his game," Fowler wrote. "Throughout practices in Mobile, Crownover was consistent in one-on-one periods, showing the ability to anchor against power and absorb contact without losing balance, and his size alone presents problems."

T Max Iheanachor, Arizona State

When the week started, Iheanachor wasn't exactly on the tip of tongues. He's not on Kiper's top 10 tackle list. "The 6-foot-5, 325-pound right tackle got better as the week went on, being able to eliminate rushes," Brugler wrote.

Lance Zierlein of NFL.com offered a comp player who won't exactly thrill Bears fans. He said it was former Bears backup Germaine Ifedi.

However, the scouts saw a 6-foot-5, 325-pounder who has a background as a basketball player and his footwork showed this.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.