Senior Bowl 2022: Results and Prospects Who Boosted Draft Stock at Showcase

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Butch Dill/Associated Press

The National team scored a 20-10 win in the 2022 Senior Bowl, but the final score is hardly relevant compared to the importance of the prospect leaving a good impression. 

The Senior Bowl remains one of the best events of the offseason for draftniks. It provides a huge collection of draft prospects a week to practice in front of NFL coaches and evaluators going head-to-head against their peers. 

While the combine is about posting impressive workout numbers, the Senior Bowl is about playing football. 

The practices week provided plenty of chances to prove themselves. Producing in the game atmosphere isn’t a bad bonus, though. 

Plenty of players probably made themselves some money in Mobile, Alabama, but these three really boosted their draft stock with strong performances.

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Butch Dill/Associated Press

This was a great year for quarterbacks at the Senior Bowl. While there’s usually a group of bonafide prospects that don’t need to go to the event, this year it had six of the top seven quarterbacks on Bleacher Report’s big board competing. 

The opportunity to shine was especially important for Liberty’s Malik Willis (scouting report) and Western Kentucky’s Bailey Zappe (scouting report) since both are from Group of Five schools. 

Willis definitely created some buzz for himself. Luke Easterling of USA Today tweeted “Malik Willis ain’t getting out of the top 10″ during the game. That wasn’t necessarily because of his passing. He was just 2-of-4 for 11 yards after showing off a live arm throughout the week in practice. 

The best attribute he showed in the game was his ability to break contain and pile up rushing yards. He led the American team with 54 yards on four carries. 

Willis doesn’t have everything together as a prospect. He needs to improve his consistency, but it’s hard to imagine teams will allow a player with his physical traits wait too long to have his name called in April. 

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Butch Dill/Associated Press

Defensive tackle was a deep position throughout the week. Travis Jones, Logan Hall (scouting report) and Devonte Wyatt (scouting report) had strong showings, but it was Perrion Winfrey (scouting report) who walked away with MVP honors on game day. 

The Oklahoma Sooner looked like he was playing at a different speed than his would-be blockers. He had two sacks and three tackles for a loss and was a general nuisance for the opposing offense. 

That production shouldn’t have surprised anyone who paid attention to the practices. Winfrey was a bully in one-on-ones all week and showcased his potential as a player whose best days could be in front of him. 

Winfrey only had six sacks over two seasons at Oklahoma, but he showed he could be a much more disruptive force with further development. 

NFL teams are bound to love that. Run-stuffing defensive tackles tend to go a little later, but ones who can wreak havoc shoot up draft boards. Winfrey should be no exception. 

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Butch Dill/Associated Press

While it was obviously a rough week for some of the interior linemen with all the defensive tackles showing off, Zion Johnson (scouting report) made an impression. 

Dane Brugler of The Athletic called him the biggest winner of the week among the interior linemen. Brugler noted that Johnson worked all week at center, which is a new position for him. He’s already shown on film that he can play guard at a high level. 

Adding the ability to snap and block to his resume is only going to make him more enticing to teams who may miss out on Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum (scouting report) in the first round. 

Johnson looked good enough throughout practices to be named the Player of the Week. Then he was good enough in the game that it was noticeable when he wasn’t in. 

If Johnson wasn’t a first-round pick before the week started, he likely locked it up with a great week in Mobile.