Senior Bowl 2014: Prepped for draft season, North and South rosters

Since Marvin Lewis took over as the team's head coach in 2003, Cincinnati's coaching staff have coached in three Senior Bowls, most recently in 2011. He coached the North team while future Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and offensive guard Clint Boling played for the South.

Cincinnati coached the North team in 2009, where four players that played in that game would eventually be drafted by the Bengals; linebacker Rey Maualuga, center Jonathan Luigs, punter Kevin Huber, cornerback Morgan Trent -- only Huber and Trent were on the North team with Lewis; only Maualuga and Huber remain. Cincinnati also coached the '04 Senior Bowl that featured defensive backs Keiwan Ratliff, Madieu Williams and Greg Brooks. None remain.

However, coaching a squad isn't the only opportunity for coaches. Many of Cincinnati's coaching staff and front office personnel are in Mobile, Alabama this week, scouting the Senior Bowl.

"The all-star games are just another step in the draft process," says Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin, the Bengals via Bengals.com. "The Senior Bowl is an important step because it's the first exposure our coaches have to the players. It's a lot of people's first exposure to these guys and you have only one chance to make a first impression. Our scouts have already done a lot of work on the guys in this game, so the early work with campus visits in the fall by the scouts, along with the exposure of the coaches to the guys in this game are a big part of our effort to reach a consensus when it comes time to draft."

As Geoff Hobson points out, it's where players like Marvin Jones, overshadowed at Cal, can really make their mark for the predraft process.

"You could see on tape that Marv didn't get many opportunities, but he made the most of what he got," Tobin says. "And the way people talked about him at Cal, it really made you appreciate him and it gave him a higher profile than his production. But you needed to see more and (the Senior Bowl) is a great place to see a guy who plays a position that relies on another position. Seeing a receiver with a higher cut of quarterback is very important. The biggest things are looking at how he runs a different set of routes, running a broader route tree, and getting opportunities from a different quarterback."

TOO MANY!

When the NFL announced that 98 underclassman, and 102 total players with eligibility remaining in college, were approved for the 2014 NFL draft, one Senior Bowl executive thought it was a bit much.

"I think it’s an issue and something for the good of the game, both at the college level and the NFL level, that’s going to have to be addressed, one way or the other," Senior Bowl Executive Director Phil Savage told the Charlotte Observer. "When you see almost 100 underclassmen come into the draft, and there are 250-some odd slots, there’s going to be a lot of kids that have been sold a bill of goods come the first week of May. Personally I think it’s bad for college football and I think it’s bad for the NFL, because players are coming into the league after three years of college and they’re not ready."

While some columnists will probably berate Savage's perspective that there are "too many" underclassmen that have declared for the NFL draft, there is some truth. One, seniors will have a bigger obstacle reaching the NFL. Two, some underclassmen just aren't ready and probably won't get drafted at all (bad advice?) -- whereas staying in the NFL would help their eventual draft status for comparative monetary compensation. However, if those players are good, they'll find a way into the league as an undrafted free agents.

Senior Bowl roster with measurements: