The Senior Bowl is a great event in the scouting calendar. First, you get the majority of the nations most accomplished student athletes all in the same location. They practice in NFL systems, the get coaching from NFL coaches and they practice and play against some of the best competition outside the NFL. Secondly, you get tons of NFL scouts together. They gossip together and get a feel for where they are at on different players. They swap stories and opinions and some of this gets handed down to the part of the media that thrives of NFL draft information.
One thing that inevitably comes out is a list of "who's talking to who." It's always best to take these with a grain of salt. I'm convinced the Chargers will talk to players just to fake out other teams. Also, the Chargers conclusion from a conversation is just as likely to be that they don't want the player as easily as it could be that they are in love with him. Finally, I've heard multiple times from Chargers draft picks that they never knew the Chargers were interested. So, keep all that in mind. Here's the names:
Allen Bailey, DE, Miami
Roy Helu, Jr., RB, Nebraska
Bilal Powell, RB, Louisville
Marcus Gilchrist, CB, Clemson
Danny Watkins, OG, Baylor
Brooks Reed, DE/OLB, Arizona
Vincent Brown, WR, San Diego St.
Titus Young, WR, Boise St.
Christian Ballard, DE, Iowa
Marvin Austin, DE/DT, North Carolina
Greg Lloyd, LB, Connecticut
Dontay Moch, DE/OLB, Nevada
Another thing that came out at the Senior Bowl through the scouting gossip is that some players are liked by NFL scouts a little more than the draft gurus knew. Cameron Jordan was a big name that kept coming up. Rumors were that he'd be drafted about where the Chargers picked, but now it could be much higher. Stay tuned, I'll give a better glimpse of who belongs on the Chargers (and their fans) draft radar tomorrow.