Senior Bowl 2013: 3 Players For Chiefs Fans To Watch
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
The 2013 Senior Bowl will is in just a few hours. The Arrowhead Addict community will be holding a live thread to discuss the game and the prospects. Chances are, there could be a future Chief in this game.
But who?
QB Geno Smith, the clear early favorite among Chiefs fans, is not participating. Neither is USC QB Matt Barkely. Still, there are a number of other players that will hit the field today that Chiefs fans (and scouts) will want to keep an eye on.
Here are three of them:
1. Nick Kasa, TE, Colorado:
The Chiefs have been seen chatting Kasa up on a couple of different occasions during Senior Bowl week. He stands at 6-6, 271. He made the switch to TE from DE and became one of the most reliable targets on a poor Colorado offense.
Still, Kasa appears to be one of those sleeper picks that could give his draft stock a serious boost over the next couple of months. Right now he is projected to be a 5th or 6th round pick but TE is one position that we’ve seen a number of athletes make the move to and succeed. Kasa doesn’t have a ton of experience and he didn’t put up huge numbers but the interest he is drawing this week could mean scouts see him as a bit of a natural.
The Chiefs could use a TE. Tony Moeaki turned in a decent season in 2012, considering he was coming off an ACL surgery and given the team’s QB play. Moeaki came on strong a the end of the season but the New England Patriots have shown that a team can benefit from having a couple of big targets at TE.
2. Tyler Wilson, QB, Arkansas
We’ve heard rumors that the Chiefs scouts down in Mobile have been paying an awful lot of attention to Tyler Wilson this week. We didn’t feel the sources were necessarily credible enough to do an entire post on it but consider this a friendly tip from your buddy at the pub. We’re not sure if this is true or not but chances are the scouts are paying close attention to ALL of the QBs, seeing as the Chiefs need three of them.
As former Chiefs GM Scott Pioli pointed out last night on NFL Total Access, teams go into these offseason evaluations hoping to see confirmation of what they already know based on what their scouts have told them. If the Chiefs have Tyler Wilson as a player they could potentially take #1 overall on their draft board, then they are hoping his practices and play this week confirm that rating.
Evaluations of Wilson seem to be all over the place. Some have him as a first round talent while others thing he is more of a second or third round prospect. A strong performance today could force some teams to revaluate Wilson’s position on their board.
3. Mike Glennon, QB, North Carolina State
Glennon is a big QB, standing at 6-6. Like Wilson, the evaluations of Glennon are a little fluid as well.
There was some concern about Glennon’s somewhat smaller frame earlier int he week but he seemed to erase some of those fears slightly with his work in practice.
This, from Doug Farrar of Yahoo! Sports:
"None of the six signal-callers at the Senior Bowl looked “elite” (to use that overdone quarterback term), and that was expected in a generally weak class at the position. But of all the pocket passers, I thought Glennon showed the best overall skill set. He stood tall in the pocket and was not tentative with his throws, and he’s a better mobile thrower than you’d think at 6-foot-7. He’s still iffy under pressure (which shows up more on tape than in practices in which quarterbacks are not to be taken down) and there are mechanical issues to deal with, but Glennon at least set himself up to be a slightly bigger fish in that small pond."
AA’s own Lyle Graversen suggested Glennon could be a pretty good plan B for the Chiefs in the April.
Glennon may have more riding on today than any of the other QBs. Keep an eye on him.
Other players we know the Chiefs have talked to are:
Defensive Tackles:
Sylvester Williams – North Carolina
Long Snappers:
Carson Tinker – Alabama
Linebackers:
Vince Williams – Florida State (ILB)
Zaviar Gooden – Missouri (OLB)
Offensive Lineman:
Xavier Nixon – Florida
Just some more names to watch out for.
And you can add the rest of the QBs to that list as well.
See you this afternoon for the Senior Bowl live game thread.