gresh and fauria: senior bowl director jim nagy joins the show
The NFL’s 2024 draft season unofficially begins next week when both the East-West Shrine Bowl and the Reese’s Senior Bowl kick off in Frisco, Texas and Mobile, Alabama respectively.
Both events are riddled with top-tier athletes who are both training and showcasing themselves ahead of April’s draft. The Patriots, who hold the No. 3 overall pick, will likely have eyes on both events.
The Senior Bowl’s executive director, Jim Nagy, joined WEEI’s Gresh and Fauria on Wednesday and, among other things, spoke about the three quarterbacks that are projected to be among the top few picks in USC’s Caleb Williams, UNC’s Drake Maye, and LSU’s Jayden Daniels:
“I haven’t done a deep dive on those three guys as much as I’ve done on the guys that are in the game,” Nagy explained (the Senior Bowl’s quarterbacks include, among others, Oregon’s Bo Nix and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.). “I’ve done a ton of Jayden Daniels. He’s a guy that I thought we were going to get [at the Senior Bowl]… haven’t done as much on Drake [Maye] and Caleb [Williams], but you know doing tape on the offensive side of the ball for both of those schools, you can’t help but notice those guys.”
He continued: “I’ll say this about Drake, he’s actually training down here in Mobile, doing all of his pre-draft work down here in Mobile and I went over there and watched those guys work out the other day… he is a really good athlete for a big guy… I had a bunch of calls last year when he was, I guess a sophomore, I had some scouting buddies– and it happened like three or four times last fall, that were like, man they’re leaving practice in Chapel Hill and they’re like, ‘Man, you should see this kid at UNC throw the football.’ So there was clearly a wow factor, when you leave the practice field and you’re getting on the phone to call your buddies about it. He’s super talented. Caleb does stuff on tape that– again makes a ton of wild plays. I think he’s a better athlete than– I think everybody talked about the arm talent with Caleb, he’s a really good athlete too. I mean he’s kind of unorthodox, he’s a little, you know, not like a pretty moving guy but man he can make people miss and he can get out of harms way, so.”
“It’s a good class, man,” Nagy finished, with a kicker: “I mean you could have six quarterbacks go in the first round. I don’t know when the last time we had that, but you could legit have six guys go in the first.”
To help Nagy out, the last time the NFL Draft saw six quarterbacks selected in the first round was 1983(!!) when John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O’Brien, and Dan Marino were all drafted on day one.
Presumably, his current six are Williams, Maye, Daniels, Penix Jr., Nix, and Michigan’s JJ McCarthy, who has gained steam on draft boards following the Wolverines’ National Championship win earlier this month.
Nagy also spoke about Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, the upcoming wide receiver class, and more on Wednesday’s edition of Gresh and Fauria. You can listen to the full interview here.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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