MOBILE, Ala. -- With Reese's Senior Bowl practices in full swing on Wednesday, 100-plus prospects for the 2025 NFL Draft are in the midst of a crucial job interview. NFL.com's Lance Zierlein and Eric Edholm provide a look at standouts from Day 2, as well as news and notes from the day's events.
Tune in for live coverage of Senior Bowl practice on Thursday beginning at 12 p.m. ET on NFL Network and NFL+, and don't miss exclusive coverage Saturday of the Senior Bowl game at 2:30 p.m. ET on NFL Network and NFL+.
Five stars from Day 2 of Senior Bowl practice
Ezeiruaku is a very fluid, forward-leaning rusher who uses his hands to work the edges of the rush. In one-on-one drills here in Mobile he showed off his ability to get quick wins with his angles and attack plan at the junction point. In the scrimmage portion, he showed off his ability to use his length to gain separation from blockers to keep from getting swallowed. He was good in Tuesday’s practice and kept it up on Wednesday.
There’s a reason he was No. 28 in my colleague Daniel Jeremiah’s initial Top 50 rankings, and he’s only helped himself at the Senior Bowl.
Ezeiruaka is a shorter edge defender at 6-foot-2 1/4, but he has a wingspan of a much taller player (82 3/8 inches). Long arms can be the great equalizer for a player like him. That matters.
McWilliams showed off his talent for smothering the break point in his one-on-one battles on Wednesday. He consistently anticipated the route and played physical at the top of the route. He had a good deep-ball rep during the scrimmage portion of practice, as well.
McWilliams transferred from UAB to UCF for the 2024 season, and his UCF tape was very eye-opening after some uneven tape at UAB in 2023. He played outside in college but at 5-10, 181 pounds with good short-area athleticism, a move to the slot shouldn't be a problem for him. His tenacity stood out on Wednesday and helped his cause.
Versatility is the name of the game nowadays in the NFL and that is exactly what Mondon offers. He battled a foot injury for chunks of 2023 and 2024, but it didn’t look like a problem in Wednesday’s practice.
He flashed acceleration and sideline-to-sideline range during the scrimmage portion of the day. He also shined in some of his one-on-one coverage reps that tend to heavily favor the offensive player. In pass-rush drills, Mondon was able to overwhelm running backs who tried to slow him.
He’s helped himself here in Mobile, with a strong practice performance pairing nicely with his pedigree and third-down talent.
The first thing that stood out to me about seeing Restrepo in person was how well built he is for a shorter slot target. He measured 5-9 3/8 with short arms but at 200 pounds, he’s proving in practice that he can play through contact and get through his route.
His lack of length and speed will limit the way teams deploy him in terms of target depth, but he’s showing that he can get in and out of his breaks against the coverage in Mobile. He’s finding passing windows for whomever is playing quarterback. The traits aren't ideal, but his play on tape and in Mobile stamp him as a player who can become a quality slot target.
There might not be a player here who looks the part quite like Stewart. He checked in at just over 6-5 and 281 pounds with a wingspan that nearly touched seven feet. The knock on Stewart is that despite his elite traits and explosive athletic ability, he simply doesn't have much sack production (4.5 in three seasons).
On Wednesday, Stewart's rush potential was on full display. He was able to win in one-on-one matchups with a powerful bull-rush that rolled the tackle back deep into the pocket. In the scrimmage portion, he was able to get into the pocket with power and an edge attack around the corner. I saw some of the same inconsistency that shows up on his game tape.
Teams grade and draft a prospect’s traits and flashes, and there was no shortage of flashes from Stewart on Wednesday.
Four Senior Bowl takeaways from Wednesday
1) One of draft’s top talents exits Senior Bowl. One of the highest-rated prospects at the 2025 Senior Bowl has pulled out of the week’s activities.
Missouri offensive lineman Armand Membou has been battling an illness and has headed home, NFL Network’s Rhett Lewis said during the broadcast of Wednesday’s practice. He will not participate in the remainder of the event.
Membou started 30 games for the Tigers at right tackle, and though he’s a possible first-round pick, there has been some debate about his best NFL position -- guard or tackle. His height (6-3 3/4) is typically below the threshold for offensive tackles, but he’s solidly built at 332 pounds with ample arm length (34 inches) for the position.
The guard-tackle debate might linger until the NFL Scouting Combine or Mizzou’s pro day, but he remains highly regarded among scouts.
2) Battle of the day goes for three rounds. The highlight of Wednesday’s American Team practice was a three-rep pass-rush duel between LSU OT Emery Jones Jr. and Texas edge rusher Barryn Sorrell.
Both players have acquitted themselves very well through two days, and their head-to-head battles were more of the same quality. Adding a little spice to it, both are Louisiana natives: Jones from Baton Rouge, Sorrell from New Orleans.
The Senior Bowl squads have been setting up one-on-one battles to cap practices -- running backs vs. linebackers, receivers vs. DBs and, everyone’s favorite, pass rushers locking horns with offensive linemen.
Typically, those battles go for only one rep, but Jones vs. Sorrell was so good that the American coaches ran two more between them.
On the first battle, Sorrell appeared to gain the advantage, but Jones recovered beautifully. Both sides claimed victory afterward, with their offensive and defensive teammates debating loudly.
“He pulled me down, but I didn’t fall,” Jones said. “He thought I was down for the count, but I came right back up and was still on him.”
Sorrell had a different perspective, naturally.
“Everybody knows if I'm moving the quarterback off the spot and the quarterback would have to move right there, right? You want to win the rep clean, but a lot of people don't see that,” he said.
Jones kept Sorrell under wraps on the second rep. The rubber match featured a powerful rush from Sorrell, pushing Jones back toward the quarterback. So, who won? Once again, it depends on which man you ask.
“He just gave me a bull rush, man,” Jones said. “I tried to sit on it as best I can, and I feel like I was able to do that.”
Sorrell’s belief: Pass-rush drills don’t always make it obvious who won.
“I mean, obviously, in a football setting with 11 people on the field,” he said, “I'll be probably making that play, right?”
The best answer? Both players helped themselves on Wednesday.
3) CB shakes off missed INT chance. Through two days of practice, one of the more consistent defensive backs has been Louisville’s Quincy Riley. The 5-10 3/8, 193-pound outside corner closed out Tuesday’s practice with a pretty pass breakup on a back-shoulder throw, and he had another strong day on Wednesday.
Riley, who had 15 interceptions and 40 PBUs in five years at Middle Tennessee State and Louisville, is one of the best ballhawks in Mobile this week. But he also let an interception slip through his fingers on Wednesday.
Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel threw behind Illinois WR Pat Bryant on a dig route, and Riley was in Bryant’s hip pocket. The ball hit Riley in the hands -- in stride -- and he just dropped it.
“I’m not known to drop too many balls,” Riley said. “When I dropped that one, I said, ‘that ain’t me,’ and got a little down for a second.”
Riley also went down to the ground for a self-imposed punishment: 10 pushups.
But he rallied to finish off the day strong.
Riley had some excellent battles with Iowa State WR Jaylin Noel and showed nice recovery speed to break up a pass to Virginia Tech’s Da’Quan Felton, who initially beat Riley at the stem of his route.
Through two days, Riley said he’s done what he came here to do: prove he’s the best at what he does.
“I feel like I’ve performed well,” he said. “Came here to do one thing, that’s to show I am the best, the best DB here and in the country.
“... I wasn’t gonna let that one drop slow me down.”
4) Canadian QB learning on the fly. When you consider what challenges Laurier QB Taylor Elgersma is facing in his quest to crack the NFL, start with this: Elgersma has been playing American football -- 11 on 11 -- for about three weeks now.
The 6-4, 216-pound prospect is a unicorn in that Canadian college quarterbacks simply don’t receive invitations to the Senior Bowl historically. For one reason, they have experience against a significantly lower level of competition than what the Senior Bowl provides. On top of that, the game is played a bit differently in Canada, with 12 players on the field for each team, three downs instead of four and a 110-yard field, just to name a few of the distinctions.
Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said Ben Neill at QB Country in Birmingham, Alabama, where Elgersma has been training, had been in Nagy’s ear about the Canadian QB. After Elgersma showed out earlier this month at the Tropical Bowl, he was a natural fill-in for Ohio State QB Will Howard, who dropped out after leading the Buckeyes to the national title.
Elgersma, who won the Hec Crighton Award (essentially Canada’s Heisman Trophy Award) got off to a bumpy start on Tuesday, as did several other Senior Bowl quarterbacks. But on Wednesday, he started to settle in and look the part more.
“Obviously, coming down here to 11-man football, it's a little bit different,” Elgersma said. “And so it’s gonna take some reps to completely get back to that spot where I was in Canada. But that's a challenge that I'm embracing. I'm just trying to get a little bit better day by day. I think today (Wednesday) was a little bit better than yesterday, and so hopefully tomorrow is better than today.”
Elgersma navigated pressure well to execute a nice throwback pass to Syracuse RB LeQuint Allen. Later, Elgersma hit Oregon WR Tez Johnson down the seam on a nice ball.
“I just think my foot speed was better today,” he said. “Yesterday, I think I was a little bit long in my drops and wide in my base. Today I was focusing on getting the ball out and timing, speeding up my feet.
“I think that translated to a couple reps. The whole operation felt smoother today.”
Elgersma is unlike any prospect in Mobile. He played hockey most of his life and only started playing football in the 10th grade. When he’s not going to school at Laurier or practicing with the football team, he’s working his side gig. The job description? “Overnight snow removal,” he said.
He’s since quit that job and turned his attention to the NFL.
“I’m just trying to put everything into this and give it the best shot I can,” he said. “I know I can play ball, and I am trying to get up to speed as quickly as I can.”