Jeff Ulbrich & 4 National Team Players

Edition #573

Good morning! ☕

I spent the weekend catching up on the Senior Bowl practices and game with the idea of singling out some guys who were coached by Jeff Ulbrich. There were certainly some talented prospects in Mobile this week and the Jets defensive coordinator was given the perfect opportunity to evaluate these guys before heading back to NY.

👏 Congratulations to Jeff Ulbrich who led the National Team to a 16-7 victory despite missing a number of his star players including the likes of Michael Penix Jr. and Taliese Fuaga. The feedback from Mobile is that the players really responded to Jeff and enjoyed his practices. It’s good for the Jets that Ulbrich didn’t get a head coaching gig, but his time will come.

🦫 Eric Edholm of NFL.com released his Mock Draft 1.0 and he had the Jets taking Taliese Fuaga - “The Jets need to add skill-position talent, but the offensive line absolutely must improve in 2024. And this just feels like a prospect general manager Joe Douglas could fall for. Although Fuaga played right tackle almost exclusively for the Beavers, he could be tried at guard if needed.”

🦁 Josh Edwards of CBS has the Jets taking tackle Olumuyiwa Fashanu from Penn State: “Offensive tackle and the Jets are one of the most obvious positional need-team pairings in the 2024 NFL Draft. New York may need two offensive tackles this offseason, but it starts with the selection of Olu Fashanu.”

🟣⭐ Joe Broback of Pro Football Network has the Jets taking Malike Nabers from LSU: “It became abundantly clear that Garrett Wilson wants better things in 2024, and the Jets work towards that goal with this pick. Wilson gets Aaron Rodgers back at quarterback next year, but the franchise needs wide receiver help for their offense. Malik Nabers gives New York another big-time threat catching passes and a great complement to Wilson. Nabers was dangerous — and productive — after the catch for LSU, and he could thrive with the Jets in a similar role.”

2️⃣ Rich Cimini had an interesting note on the departure of Rex Hogan: “One was the decision to draft former BYU quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. Hogan, who developed scouting connections at BYU while working years ago as the director of football operations at the University of Utah, was known to be a strong advocate for Wilson during the draft process. An executive from another team, who knows Hogan personally, theorized it may have been a factor in letting him go.” Cimini did go on to say that one source said it was mutual.

🔙 It’s a big day for the Jets…in a way. Robert Saleh and his staff will return to 1JD today having had an extended break following the conclusion of the season. It’s time to start drawing up or confirming approaches for both free agency and the draft.

👍 Rich Cimini mentioned this in his column, but I’ve heard this from a lot of people. Joe Douglas has really been talking up Fuaga, he loves him, loves his size, loves his athleticism. Could it all be a play to get someone else? Absolutely. But when you’re at the senior bowl, when you’re in the presence of hundreds of scouts, college personnel people etc, it’s hard to hide your true feelings about certain prospects.

🟢⚪ I love the Senior Bowl, not only are they extremely good at providing access to people like me, but the whole event is designed to give the prospects the perfect platform to perform, and the coaches the perfect opportunity to evaluate. Jim Nagy has done such an incredible job and the tagline of “The draft starts in Mobile’ is pretty accurate.

Posting winners/losers is a tough gig, I checked out a few lists over the weekend and I saw the same names on both lists with different publications. It’s all perception and personal opinion, so here’s my view.

I spent plenty of time watching both the American and National team, but today I wanted to focus on players from the national team, coached by Jeff Ulbrich.

Brenden Rice - Wide Receiver - USC

Son of the great Jerry Rice, Brenden is always going to have an eye on him, but coming into the senior bowl I thought he was flying under the radar a bit. Some questioned his hands after he dropped 11.4% of his passes at USC in his first year (2022) after transferring from Colorado, but they looked pretty good in Alabama and we have to remember he was coming off a year where he dropped just 2 passes (4.3%). My biggest concern was that I didn’t feel as though he played to his size, his 3-12 contested catch rate at USC as a 6’3, 217lb receiver was a concern…but he showed off some good body control and ability to use his frame. I still think he may get over-drafted because of his heritage, but he’s a talented guy.

Taliese Fuaga - Offensive Tackle - Oregon State

Fuage was the best offensive tackle in Mobile and to me, it wasn’t very close. He’s a mammoth tackle with so much more athleticism than you’d expect, he showed that in the open field and individual drills. I keep hearing that the Jets are very much “in” on Fuaga at number 10 overall, so take that how you will. His anchor isn’t at that elite level, but there is plenty to get excited about with him, including the fact he allowed 0 sacks and 12 pressures over nearly 350+ snaps as a pass-blocker. Not only that, he’s an outstanding run-blocker and there is an argument that he is the premier run-blocker in the class. He did have 8 penalties last year, and that’s worth watching considering the issues the Jets had with the Zebras last season.

Jackson Powers-Johnson - Center - Oregon

We obviously don’t need a center having drafted Joe Tippmann in the second round last year, but the Jets could decide to get creative if someone like Powers-Johnson falls to them in a spot they can’t refuse. Powers-Johnson played both guard positions at Oregon but it was as a center that he excelled in 2023. One of the best run-blockers in the class, he also allowed 0 sacks and 1 pressure in 497 pass-blocking snaps. This week at the Senior Bowl it was easy to see why, he was the best practice player throughout the week in every single area. What’s scary is that he’s only 21 and he only has one year of starting experience in college, but he was as clean as you like from a rep perspective this week. Strength, balance, coordination, communication and quickness. This guy is going to be very special for a very long time.

Payton Wilson - Linebacker - North Carolina State

I’ll admit that I had absolutely no idea who Payton Wilson was at the start of the week. I follow the draft closely, but this name hadn’t crossed my radar. I’ve honestly spent the majority of my time looking at offensive players for obvious reasons. He’s only had just over 2,400 snaps over 5 years due to multiple injuries but he looked so fluid and strong through the week of practice that I had to go and do a little research. 2023 was by far his best year with 67 stops constituting a defensive failure and a missed tackle rate of 4.7% on 138 tackles, 17.5 of them for a loss and 6 of them for a sack. What was also really impressive was his 3 interceptions and 6 pass defences in 2023, earning him a 90.4 coverage grade at the linebacker position from PFF.