Thor Nystrom’s 2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Defense

Thor Nystrom has returned home after a busy week in Mobile. He recaps the Senior Bowl with the biggest winner and loser at each position group. Measurements in the tables below via the Senior Bowl’s weigh-in. Movement metrics provided by Zebra Tracking.

• 2023 Senior Bowl Guide
• 2023 Senior Bowl Primer: Dynasty Rookies to Know
• Senior Bowl QB Rankings, Breakdowns & Team Fits
• Senior Bowl RB Rankings, Breakdowns & Team Fits
• Thor Nystrom’s 2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Offense
• Derek Brown’s 2023 Senior Bowl Risers & Fallers

Check out all of our 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports & Prospect Profiles

2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Defense

Top Athletic Performers

2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Defensive Line

Winner: Georgia Tech DL Keion White 

 White’s athleticism popped off the field all week. Not a surprise, since we knew the guy was a freakshow athlete. He arrived even bigger than I anticipated, measuring in at 6’5/280 with a 79 ¾” wingspan. 

White consistently impressed in drills. On Thursday in particular, he was a menace in one-on-one drills. This is what we showed up wanting to see – simply because White had less film against high-end competition than most others in attendance.  

White is a sixth-year entrant who played only 1,291 defensive snaps of FBS football, including 666 in the P5. The best look we got at White, last season, he was stranded on a shipwreck Georgia Tech team that fired its coach mid-season.

White began his career as a three-star tight end at Old Dominion. White was eventually converted to EDGE by ODU before ultimately transferring to Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets moved White between the interior and EDGE, taking advantage of the versatility his athletic profile promises.

In Mobile, White emphatically proved the concept of his athleticism. He also showed enough technical advancement to prove that he could contribute at the NFL level immediately. This was key for a prospect who is not only still relatively new to defense, but who had to learn how to play both inside and outside as he was getting started. 

White showed enough at the Senior Bowl to get evaluators dreaming on upside. Defensive coaches will pound the table in April for the potential to mold and then unleash this versatile, malleable ball of clay. 

Faller: Army EDGE Andre Carter

 I was excited to watch Carter this week – he was a devastating edge defender at Army. Carter’s length was obvious on the screen and he proved it during weigh-ins, checking in at 6’6/252 with an 82 ⅛” wingspan.

But while Carter’s length and athleticism – he’s a former WR and TE – were proven concepts from his work at Army, Carter struggled against the run while on campus. Curious, for a player built as well as he was. 

While Carter has some power in his hands, they have a mind of their own, and Carter’s inconsistent use of them has the effect of erasing his length advantage on downs/reps in which he loses autonomy over them. 

Losing the ability to lock-out linemen is particularly problematic in the run game, where Carter plays too high, compromising his already thin lower-half. In addition, he lacks discipline out of the chute, ceding gap integrity and making it easier to move him one direction or the other. This is how Carter finds himself at a leverage disadvantage on most running downs. 

Unfortunately, Carter’s lack of play-power came to the forefront in Mobile. Senior Bowl offensive linemen had no issues putting Carter on a conveyor belt in one-on-one run-blocking drills. In team drills, Carter had problems setting a clean edge.

 And while he looked better in the pass-rushing portions of practice, Carter also wasn’t as dominant in that phase as you would have hoped for – particularly since he provided zero presence as a run defender.

2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Linebacker

Riser: Washington State LB Daiyon Henley

Henley consistently flashed in practice. He carried that over into Saturday’s game, where Henley was consistently around the ball. He recovered a fumble, recorded eight tackles, and was a pest in coverage. 

Henley’s a skilled linebacker. I like the way he moves in coverage, and the way he reads the quarterback’s eyes while staying disciplined within his coverage responsibilities. Henley projects as a strong coverage linebacker at the next level.

It’s harder to get a sense for a linebacker’s work in run defense at these events, because the reps aren’t full-contact. But you can get a sense for how linebackers see the field, and how quickly they diagnose.

In team drills, Henley consistently made the correct decision coming downhill and often met running backs in the hole. One particular rep during the team portion on Tuesday that I wish had been in a game situation – Henley filled a hole to confront Texas RB Roschon Johnson. 

Henley wrapped Johnson at the contact point but immediately let go. In a game situation, it would have been interesting to see if Henley had the power to knock Johnson off his feet without help, or if Johnson would have flattened him. Either way, Henley’s diagnostic quickness and haste to fill holes in the run game stood out during practices. 

This, along with the instincts he flashed in coverage, provide hope that Henley is far enough along the developmental line of continuum to potentially play as an NFL rookie. Henley signed with Nevada as a two-star dual-threat quarterback in 2017. He was converted to receiver, and spent the next two years as a rotational WR and part-time kick returner.

In 2020, Nevada switched Henley to defense, initially giving him snaps at safety, nickel, off-ball linebacker, and EDGE before a season-ending injury four games in. In 2021, Henley settled in at LB full-time and broke out with 94 tackles. Henley transferred to Wazzu for his final campaign in 2022 and had his national coming-out party, piling up 106 tackles, 12 TFL and four sacks. 

Henley is still learning the linebacker position. He flashed natural instincts in Mobile, and his movement skills lived up to the hype. Henley locked himself into Day 2 with the showing. He could greatly bolster his Round 2 case by going ballistic during athletic testing at the NFL Combine.

Faller: Troy LB Carlton Martial 

Martial was one of my favorite defenders in college football to watch the past few years. He’s a warrior on the field. The production spoke for itself – Martial is the all-time FBS leader in tackles with 578.

But Martial’s size was a concern, and his game wasn’t as diversified as you’d want for such an anomalous prospect. For those reasons, Senior Bowl week was critical for Martial – to prove he belonged on the field with superior athletes.

It turned into a lost week in that regard. Martial measured into the event even smaller than expected – 5’7/210 with sub-30” arms. He had the fourth-shortest wingspan of any player in attendance (71 ⅞”), nearly a full-inch shorter than that of diminutive Houston WR Tank Dell.

Martial was a non-factor during Tuesday’s practice session. He looked noticeably tiny out there on the field, a physical disadvantage he wasn’t moving around quickly enough to compensate for. Martial lost reps to running backs in pass-pro one-on-ones – that stood out even more as fellow undersized LB Ivan Pace Jr. of Cincinnati proved unblockable in the same portion of practices.

Martial never got a chance to bounce-back from his tough start. He suffered an undisclosed injury on Tuesday and was withheld from practice the next two days, as well as the game on Saturday. 

The injury hurt Martial more than, for instance, Roschon Johnson’s own injury hurt him. Martial had more to prove during Senior Bowl Week. But on his first day, it didn’t look as if he belonged physically, and being physically unable to continue thereafter did the opposite of softening that blow.

What I wanted to see from Martial this week was a concrete run-game plan to offer the promise of staying clean up until contact with the running back, and any sort of semblance of life in coverage. Martial was targeted 124 times in his career and gave up 89 receptions for 917 yards. He wasn’t an outstanding blitzer, either – begging the obvious question of whether he was even playable on passing downs.

We weren’t given proof-of-life on the run-game concept, the one underpinning his entire evaluation. Meanwhile, Martial amplified size/durability concerns while not addressing the passing-down questions. 

It pains me to say this, but I’m not sure he’s draftable.

2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Defensive Back

Riser: South Carolina CB Darius Rush  

Rush got an opportunity in Mobile to step out from former teammate CB Cam Smith’s shadow. Rush left having planted his flag as a legitimate NFL prospect in his own right. His teammates voted him the American team’s CB Practice Player-of-Week.

Rush impressed in team drills and one-on-ones, erasing receivers in practices. He led all of the Senior Bowl defensive backs in passes defended during drills. Rush ceded precious little separation, consistently contesting balls thrown his way.

He appeared to be one of the most explosive movers at the event, and the data bore that out. Rush’s max speed of 21.65 mph was the fastest recorded regardless of position at this year’s Senior Bowl by the Zebra tracking system. During the five years the Senior Bowl has tracked this data, Rush’s speed ranks as the eighth-fastest among all participants. 

Rush may have been in jeopardy of being viewed as someone who benefitted from his circumstance in college. Instead, he forwarded the idea that he may have been criminally overlooked. Smith measured into the event at 6-foot-2, 196 pounds, with a 79 ¾” wingspan. 

Rush is built for press-man coverage in the NFL. In Mobile, Rush proved he has the length, athleticism, and coverage chops for that work. Expect his stock to surge again later this month at the NFL Combine during athletic testing. 

Faller: Alabama S DeMarco Hellams

These all-star events aren’t great exhibitions for safeties. Safeties aren’t allowed to show their physicality in practices – coaches understandably don’t want players flying into contact – and they don’t get as many opportunities to display their diagnostic skills in traditional coverage looks. 

Instead, safeties are forced into more situations that some of them are going to struggle with – one-on-one drills against receivers. Hellams fared poorly in that portion. He was particularly hapless against the more agile receivers. Tank Dell eviscerated him.

In college, Hellams was a fabulous run defender and a reliable tackler. But he’s always been poor in coverage. Last year, he gave up 326 yards on 40 targets along with a 94.4 NFL QB rating against.

Alabama fans, sick of watching Hellams in coverage, piled on as Twitter videos out of Mobile showed Hellams in a blender. “Demarco Hellams getting absolutely torched is nothing new,” read one. “Demarco Hellams ‘slips’ more than anyone I’ve ever seen,” read another. “Nah I know that’s not Demarco Hellams getting cooked,” guffawed a third.

With the caveat that this event was tilted away from Hellams’ strengths and towards his weaknesses… Hellams confirmed concerns that he isn’t to be trusted against the pass.

2023 Senior Bowl Recap: Special Teams

2023 Senior Bowl Practice Recaps