2024 NFL Draft: eight players that stood out at the East-West Shrine Bowl sessions on Monday
This year, the East Shrine Bowl moved to the 12,000-seat stadium located in the Ford Center in The Star, the headquarters and shopping complex for the Dallas Cowboys. It’s a great place for prospects who want to become superstars at the next level.
The 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl practices begin on Tuesday morning. But on Monday, the players who will be on the American as well as National teams got their team sizes.
A few important things happened at the weigh-ins, and this was not open to the media. These prospects stood out in some way.
Maye and Sam Howell, who was quarterback for the Tar Heels at the time, ended up on both ends of a ping-pong table and played for a long time.
Different people have different ideas about where Ore defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus will end up in the NFL. One reason for this is that he has different listed weights and is used in different ways by the Ducks.
Dorlus weighed 272 pounds and was 6 feet 3 inches tall. He has a huge 81-inch wingspan, with arms that are 33 1/3 inches long. The only thing that makes him different from Josh Paschal, a 2022 second-round pick, is that he is one pound lighter.
Over the weekend, I was able to see four practices at the Shrine Bowl in Frisco, Texas. From the field, I was able to see two practices between the west and east teams. I got to see some of these prospects in action during both one-on-one and team drills.
Ten of the players who played in the event last year were picked in the first 125 picks of the draft. These players included Baltimore Ravens receiver Zay Flowers, Los Angeles Rams defensive back Kobie Turner, and many more.
Today, Saturday, practices for the competition this year began and will go on until Tuesday. This year’s toward the east Shrine Bowl has some of the best NFL draft prospects.
Then, on Thursday, February 1, at 8 p.m. ET, NFL Network and NFL+ will show live coverage from the East-West Shrine Bowl at the Ford Center, where the Dallas Cowboys prepare for games.
While Phil Longo had been offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the College of North Carolina from 2019 to 2022, Drake Maye, whose family has ties to the school, was being recruited. Longo remembers what happened.
“They didn’t want to leave up until they were ahead, so they stayed at their home until 2 a.m.” They would not leave the house. Longo told ESPN, “We had to go inside and kick themselves out at some point.”
It made me think, ‘We’re hiring the right people,’ because that’s what you need from your quarterback. Someone who won’t give up and will fight until the end of the game. Before Maye, I could say that regarding Sam, so I felt very lucky to have another one.
Howell was later picked by the Washington Commandos in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft. Maye is likely to go earlier this year. In the initial mock draft, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. put Maye with the Patriots at No. 3.
“His family has a long history of basketball, which is a big part of why he’s so athletic.” He’s a tall, skinny quarterback [6 feet 4 inches, 230 pounds].
“From the outside, I don’t think you’d guess that he’s as strong as he is,” he said. There were 4,321 yards and 38 touchdowns on Maye’s passes, but he also threw seven interceptions. He also ran 172 times for 653 yards and seven touchdowns.
“He’s not Patrick Mahomes by any means, but he fits that mold.” Mahomes walks or carries himself in a way that is all his own.
Drake isn’t like other people. His feet are good. He can throw things and twist his body in plenty of different ways.
He’s much better than you might think at throwing off-platform. That’s one thing that I think makes him different from other people. That being said, it shall be exciting to see how it works in the NFL. He was also a great runner in college.
Maye was at his best in 2022, his first season of being a full-time starter. Longo’s attack-minded offense, which is similar to the late Coach Leach’s Air Raid system, brought out the best in him.