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The Senior Bowl is the first chance for this years draft prospects to show their value for the upcoming draft. It is a great chance for players to showcase their skills in actual pads considering most of their other chances will be in shorts.
Some of the top quarterbacks will be participating in this year’s Senior Bowl in Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen. Both of these quarterbacks have serious criticisms attached to them going into the draft, so showing out here could mean the difference in being a late first-round pick or even top 10. They will also be able to show off right in front of Hue Jackson and the Browns who will likely be drafting a quarterback with one of their top-five picks.
The Bengals will also be looking for some offensive linemen, linebacker and even maybe some safety prospects to further evaluate after the game. The Bengals need to make protecting Andy Dalton more of a priority, and the linebackers last season struggled. The safety position just needs more depth after the team lost Derron Smith to the Browns after he was signed off the practice squad.
This may be the first step in the draft evaluation process, but it is probably one of the more important. We won’t have a better chance to see the best of the best play an actual football game against each other again.
Seeing how some of these smaller school guys handle playing some of the best Division I talent will be something to watch for. Also, seeing if the top talent can hold up when they aren’t surrounded by superior talent will be interesting as well.
How to watch the Senior Bowl:
Date: Saturday, January 27, 2018
Time: 2:30 p.m. EST
Where: Mobile, Alabama
Stadium: Ladd-Peebles Stadium (38,888)
TV Station: NFL Network
Radio: Sirius XM
Coaches: Vance Joseph and the Broncos staff vs Bill O’Brien and the Texans staff
SB Nation: Senior Bowl 2018