2023 Senior Bowl Risers & Fallers: Chase Brown

The competitive fires were on display at Senior Bowl all week. Players were giving it their all with dreams of the NFL Draft swirling in their heads. Thor Nystrom, Derek Brown, Crissy Froyd and Mike Maher were on-site in Mobile, AL to cover all of the practices, press conferences and interviews. Here are some final takeaways about RB Chase Brown.

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

Senior Bowl Faller: Illinois RB Chase Brown

I wasn’t as high on Brown coming into the event. But he fell beneath even my tepid expectations in Mobile. Whereas a guy like Spears showed that his lack of third-down utility in college may have been a usage thing, Brown proved that his own was endemic to his game.

Brown was rag-dolled in pass-pro drills. He didn’t look good as a receiver, either. Brown was unable to separate during his routes. In one-on-ones, defenders were consistently getting hands on balls thrown to him and crowding catch points when they weren’t. Brown simply doesn’t have the ball skills to make up for a lack of separation – he needs the clean catch point to make the play.

Brown had paddle-hands with the ball all week. He dropped freebie dump-offs in the pass game in addition to his ongoing struggles catching with bodies around him. He also had fumbling issues as a runner.

Brown’s collegiate tape showed a runner who feasts in the second- and third-levels. But he needs to get there to succeed. And the concern my colleague Derek Brown and I had coming in with him is we couldn’t project how he’d do that at the NFL-level barring the luck of playing behind the league’s best offensive line with a coaching staff that would use him perfectly.

Brown doesn’t break many tackles, and he’s not overly-gifted at making defenders miss in the hole. The running lanes he saw last season that allowed him to get a head of steam into the second-level weren’t available in Mobile. Because of that, Brown’s strengths were dormant during Senior Bowl week, while his weaknesses came to the fore.

My Day 2 @seniorbowl Risers & Fallers

Evan Hull ?
Tyjae Spears ?

Chase Brown ?
Jaren Hall ?https://t.co/QJDM2aebRa

— Derek Brown (@DBro_FFB) February 2, 2023