20 NFL Draft prospects to know in the 2020 Senior Bowl
The Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, is one of football’s most hectic and strange weeks. It begins with a creepy weigh-in sandwiching a few days of practices, before ending with a meaningless game.
Still, it’s one of the premier events in the run up to the 2020 NFL Draft. Every year, prospects help (or hurt) their draft stock with a good week of practice or a breakout performance in the Senior Bowl.
With that in mind, here are 20 players to know in this year’s event.
4 quarterbacks to keep an eye on
Last year, Daniel Jones’ Senior Bowl performance caught the attention of Giants GM Dave Gettleman, who drafted Jones with the No. 6 pick. This year, there are two potential first-round picks playing.
1. Justin Herbert
It was sort of surprising seeing Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert participate in the Senior Bowl. Over the years, plenty of top quarterbacks have dropped out of the all-star game, but maybe things are changing. After all, eventual No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield practiced leading up to the 2018 game. Herbert most likely isn’t in contention for the Cincinnati Bengals and the first pick, so he could have just been seeing the writing on the wall regarding his draft stock.
By all accounts, Herbert had a good week of practices. He was lauded for a strong arm that zipped through heavy winds and his ability to place the ball in the right spot.
For his efforts, Herbert was named the best practice player of the week.
Herbert had an up-and-down season at Oregon, and some of that can be blamed on his receivers dropping passes.
2. Jordan Love
The same can be said about Utah State quarterback Jordan Love.
Love is a confounding prospect. His numbers dropped in 2019 compared to 2018, but he also lost most of the offense around him. That included offensive coordinator David Yost, who left Utah State for Texas Tech. According to reports, Love showed some during practices why he’s considered a first-round talent.
3-4. Jalen Hurts and Anthony Gordon
After those two, Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts, this year’s Heisman runner-up, is the biggest name. But Anthony Gordon of Washington State is the more interesting player.
Gordon started only a season for the Cougars while sitting behind walking meme Gardner Minshew. Gordon’s 2019 stats are eye-popping. He put up 5,579 yards and 48 touchdowns, with 570 yards and nine touchdowns alone coming against UCLA.
The 7 best players in this year’s game (non-QB edition)
While the quarterbacks get most of the attention, there are some big-name prospects at other positions in the Senior Bowl.
1. Javon Kinlaw
Unquestionably the top player participating this year is South Carolina defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw. In the weigh-in session to start the week, Kinlaw starred with an 84-inch wingspan on his 6’5 and lean 315-pound frame. Yes, that is extremely strange to write, but it’s part of draft season. Kinlaw is a possible top-10 pick and did nothing to hurt his status.
2. Marlon Davidson
Auburn’s Marlon Davidson is another big defensive lineman who didn’t disappoint. Look at what he can do at just under 300 pounds:
3. Josh Jones
Another part of draft season is skyrocketing offensive tackles. We’ve seen it annually. Last year it was Andre Dillard and Tytus Howard jumping into the first round. This year, Houston’s Josh Jones could become a hot name, starting with a standout week of practices. Jones is known for his quick feet, but he got plenty of attention for violent, powerful hands.
4. Ashtyn Davis
Football all-star games are typically bad settings for safeties because the setting neuters their aggression in the secondary and doesn’t allow them to blitz. That’s why California’s Ashtyn Davis didn’t grab a ton of headlines this week He’s still a potential top-100 player.
5. Jared Pinkney
The 2020 draft is a good one for tight ends, and one of the best ones is participating in the Senior Bowl. Vanderbilt’s Jared Pinkney is a likely top-100 pick as well, but he was injured much of the season and had just 20 receptions.
6. Jonathan Greenard
Florida pass rusher Jonathan Greenard is another player who struggled this season with injuries. Still, in his only season at Florida after transferring from Louisville, Greenard had 9.5 sacks.
7. Neville Gallimore
Oklahoma defensive tackle Neville Gallimore is another top-100 pick playing in this year’s game. He had a strange career at Oklahoma. He’s a menacing defensive tackle at 6’2 and has some plays where he just jumps off the screen. But in 52 games with the Sooners, he had just nine sacks and 18 tackles for loss. Still, he managed to get some positive attention this week.
“The former Sooner was able to translate his trademark high energy and athleticism into frequent pocket pressure in one-on-one drills,” Chase Goodbread and Lance Zierelin noted on NFL.com. “He also helped muddle lanes vs. the run. Gallimore might be a somewhat polarizing prospect, but this was a good week for him.”
5 players who had a breakout week
These players all turned heads in Senior Bowl practice this week.
1. K.J. Hill
The Senior Bowl has been kind in the past to wide receivers. Terry McLaurin started building his draft stock at the Senior Bowl last year and looks like a budding star in Washington. Fellow Ohio State wide receiver K.J. Hill is on the same trajectory. After a sort of ordinary season of 57 receptions for 636 yards, Hill’s draft process is critical. Catches like this one help:
2. Denzel Mims
Baylor’s Denzel Mims is another receiver who impressed during the week. Look at him pull in this one from Love:
Mims should be a good mid-round pick up for a team looking for a speed receiver who just happens to be nearly 6’3. Mims has all the makings of being a draft gem.
3. Van Jefferson
Florida’s Van Jefferson, another wide receiver, got his share of plaudits as well.
Here’s what The Ringer’s Danny Kelly wrote about Jefferson in his Senior Bowl recap: “At 6-foot-1, Jefferson played bigger than his weigh-in weight of 197 pounds, putting on a route-running clinic while using quick footwork to sink his hips and make sharp cuts to gain separation.”
4. Troy Pride
LSU’s Kristian Fulton and TCU’s Jeff Gladney accepted their invites to the game, but dropped out late. That left the cornerback position a little light in talent.
Notre Dame’s Troy Pride had a strong week after underwhelming at the weigh-in with relatively short arms (31 3/8 inches) and wingspan (73 3/4 inches). On the field, though, he was praised for his toughness and ability to play the ball.
5. Lloyd Cushenberry
It’s also sort of strange to say a player from the national title-winning LSU team had a breakout performance, but that’s the case for center Lloyd Cushenberry. That’s as much to do with the other players at his position than anything else. Wisconsin’s Tyler Biadasz didn’t have quite the season many expected and Oklahoma’s Creed Humphrey returned to school. Both of those things help Cushenberry’s draft stock.
This type of block helps too:
4 small-school players who stood out most
At the 2015 Senior Bowl, hardly anyone heard of guard Ali Marpet going into the week. By the end of the week, the Hobart College blocker was flying up draft boards and eventually became a second-round pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
1. Antonio Gandy-Golden
Liberty wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden could be another relatively no-name player who turns into a household name after a strong Senior Bowl week.
“(Gandy-Golden) made several terrific toe-tapping, high-point grabs in the corner of the end zone against multiple corners and used his strong hands and good body positioning to win on slants and in-breaking routes,” Yahoo Sports’ Eric Edholm wrote in his Day 3 winners post.
2. Adam Trautman
Dayton tight end Adam Trautman has been a favorite of #DraftTwitter for much of the season, and he got to show why during Senior Bowl week.
Trautman was first introduced to many by The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who put the Flyer well inside his recent top 100 at No. 72.
3. Kyle Dugger
Another small-school prospect people have been excited about since the preseason is Lenoir-Rhyne safety Kyle Dugger. He made the acclaimed Freaks List from Bruce Feldman, and you could see why in Mobile.
4. Ben Bartch
Looking for an even deeper sleeper? How about St. John’s offensive tackle Ben Bartch?
The former tight end could be a nice Day 3 pickup in the draft.
‘You’re a Complete Mystery to Me’: Meet My Brother Jamie
Op-Docs
What I wish people understood about having a family member with Down syndrome.
By
Mr. Widdowson is a filmmaker and researcher.
Jan. 14, 2020
My brother, Jamie, has a profound learning disability. Despite being close to nonverbal, he demonstrates charisma, a sharp sense of humor and emotional sensitivity. In the Op-Doc above, “Music and Clowns,” I team up with my parents to discuss what it is like caring for someone with Down syndrome. We piece together fragments of insight to gain a sense of his inner life, but our differing perspectives reveal as much about our own subjectivity as they do Jamie’s.
We rarely see portrayals of the diverse, ordinary lives of people who have Down syndrome (unless we are connected to someone who has it). Much of what we hear instead is based on a medical narrative. As prenatal screening tests improve, the birthrate of people with Down has fallen. I believe people should be able to base life-changing decisions on accurate information. But I also feel that a diagnosis does not reflect my brother’s human worth. This film attempts to complement the medical narrative with firsthand stories of what it is like to have someone with Down syndrome in your family. Jamie has enriched our lives, and I believe a society can be measured by its capacity to nurture those who are most vulnerable.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Alex Widdowson is a filmmaker and researcher, focusing on the ethics of representing neurodiversity through animated documentary. He is based at the Autism Through Cinema project, Queen Mary University of London.
Op-Docs is a forum for short, opinionated documentaries by independent filmmakers. Learn more about Op-Docs and how to submit to the series. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
‘Doctor Who’: Season 12 Episode 4 Recap: Electrifying and Terrifying
Doctor Who continues to delight sci-fi fans. Season 12 Episode 4 of the show, “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror,” had the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends trying to unravel an alien mystery. Along the way, they meet some intriguing historical figures, including Nikola Tesla.
Warning: there are spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 12 episode 4, “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror.” So for those of you who don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now. If you’ve already seen the episode, or want to know what happened anyway, keep reading!
Famous inventors and mysterious figures in ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 episode 4 
Season 12 Episode 4 of Doctor Who, “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” starts with a man standing in front of a waterfall and talking to potential investors about his wireless power transmitter. This man turns out to be Nikola Tesla. Unfortunately for Tesla, none of the investors seem interested. They all think that he and his inventions are too outlandish.
Tesla soon has more problems to deal with as a worker is killed because of an electric shock. He is stunned and immediately starts investigating to see how the worker might have died. He finds out that a part is missing. A floating orb appears, and he catches it in his hand.
As he’s examining the orb, his assistant Dorothy Skerritt comes up behind him. The two of them quickly have to run as someone is trying to shoot them. The Thirteenth Doctor then appears, asking Tesla and Skerritt if they’ve seen anything weird. Tesla, Skerritt, and the Doctor have to run from the shooter and end up boarding a train to New York City, where Ryan Sinclair, Graham O’Brien, and Yasmin Khan are waiting.
The mysterious shooter follows them, but the Doctor detaches the train car that the shooter is in from the rest and leaves the figure behind.
Orbs and alien weapons in ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 episode 4
The Doctor reveals why she had asked if there was anything weird: she had been tracking a strange energy signature, which she still finds in the train car with Tesla. Tesla does not want to give the orb he found to the Doctor, so she decides to stay with him and his assistant Dorothy Skerritt. When the group arrives in New York, there are protesters waiting outside of Tesla’s lab. They are protesting his inventions, thinking that they’re dangerous because of information spread by Tesla’s competitor Thomas Edison.
Eventually, they get inside the lab and Tesla shows the Doctor and her companions the orb he found. The Doctor recognizes the orb as an Orb of Thassor. It’s meant to spread information but has been reworked to do something else. Someone working for Edison, Harold Green, comes and takes a picture of Tesla’s lab.
The Doctor tells Yasmin, Tesla, and Skerritt to guard the orb, while she, Graham, and Ryan investigate Edison to see how his men got alien weapons.
Where is the real Harold Green? And new foes revealed
While the Doctor, Graham, and Ryan are talking to Edison, the mysterious figure from before comes into his office and kills all of his workers. Edison wants to know what happened to Harold Green, and he soon gets his answer. The alien creature comes in, looking just like Harold Green and the Doctor, Graham, Ryan, and Edison have to run. They then find the real Harold Green, dead.
The Doctor calls Yasmin, having found out that the aliens can take the form of anyone but it’s too late. Dorothy Skerritt, Tesla’s assistant, has already let two of the aliens in. They take Tesla and Yasmin onto their ship. The aliens are apparently called the Skithra and their queen wants Tesla to fix their ship and their weapons.
New and old friends saved and a race to save the Earth
The Doctor transports herself onto the ship just in time to save Tesla and Yasmin. But not before she finds out that the Skithra have taken the technology of other alien races and used it to suit their needs and that they chose Tesla because he was intelligent enough to find their signal. Once they’ve gotten off the Skithra ship, the Doctor sends a message to the queen telling her to leave. Of course, the queen doesn’t listen and instead threatens to kill everyone on Earth if the Doctor and her friends don’t hand over Tesla.
Tesla is willing to give himself up to save everyone else, but the Doctor won’t let that happen. The Doctor and Tesla work to power Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower while Yasmin and Edison get people off the streets. Meanwhile, Graham, Ryan, and Dorothy Skerritt start getting ready to defend Wardenclyffe. The Skithra Queen then comes down to earth just as the Doctor and Tesla are about to blast the ship with lightning.
Luckily, the Doctor manages to trick the Queen into being transported back to her ship, just in time for Tesla to hit it. Later, Yasmin questions whether or not Tesla becomes rich and famous after saving the world. The Doctor says that he doesn’t and Yasmin doesn’t think that’s right. They both tell Tesla not to give up, no matter what anyone says.
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