MOBILE, Ala. — Day 1 of the 2023 Senior Bowl is in the books, and the first practice was predictably uneven. That goes for the teams in general and the quarterbacks in particular. No one was great, but some were certainly better than others.
Senior Bowl Monday Practice Report: Ranking the Quarterbacks
Seven quarterbacks are in town this week, but just five practiced Tuesday: Jaren Hall (BYU), Jake Haener (Fresno State), Clayton Tune (Houston), Tyson Bagent (Shepherd), and Max Duggan (TCU).
Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker is still recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, and Louisville’s Malik Cunningham sat out practice Tuesday with an illness.
Here’s a rundown, in order of merit, of the five who did practice.
Max Duggan, TCU
The closest thing the 2023 Senior Bowl has to a star quarterback certainly played like one Tuesday. Duggan had the most complete day of the quintet, completing all five of his attempts in team drills for 69 nice yards.
He played on time and in rhythm, displaying more than enough arm strength to play on the next level.
Duggan didn’t have a perfect day, however. He threw a bad pick during 7-on-7 drills. But all in all, a good day for a prospect (QB12 on PFN’s Big Board) who needs a lot of them over the next three months.
Jake Haener, Fresno State
Haener helped himself significantly and was the best of the National Team’s quarterbacks in the day’s early-practice window.
After connecting on six of his attempts in 7-on-7s, Haener stayed hot in team drills. He connected on 5 of 8 passes for 68 yards. One of his incompletions should have been a pick (Indiana’s Cam Jones dropped a ball thrown directly at him), but that was really his only bad throw of the day. Haener had great pace on his throws, zipping passes into tight windows.
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Haener — the 6-foot, 208-pound 23-year-old — entered the week as PFN’s QB6 and a projected fourth-round pick. But if he can string together three more good days here, he could very easily force his way into the Top 100.
In 32 games at both Washington and Fresno State, Haener completed 68.2% of his passes for 9,120 yards, 68 touchdowns, 18 interceptions, and an 8.4 yards-per-attempt average.
Jaren Hall, BYU
Nothing was easy for Hall (PFN’s QB7), who was sacked twice and errant on throws when given time enough to attempt them.
Whoever takes the 24-year-old former baseball player will be drafting on potential, but Hall could have done more to convince team execs who might be wary of taking another BYU athlete who happens to play quarterback.
Hall (6-0, 211) on Tuesday completed just three of eight passes in team drills — a stat line skewed by drops and batted passes — and wasn’t much better in 7-on-7s. It would have been nice to see him throw to the second and third levels a bit more. His longest completion was 12 yards.
He’s certainly capable of doing so. Hall averaged 8.6 yards per attempt in college.
Clayton Tune, Houston
Tuesday was not the day Tune had hoped for. He averaged less than five yards per attempt in 7-on-7 drills and two yards per attempt in team drills.
Checkdown Clayton, he was.
But Tune — our QB8 who was first-team all-conference his final year at Houston — had one thing going for him Tuesday:
He was not Tyson Bagent.
Tyson Bagent, Shepherd
Bagent, the Division II superstar who threw more touchdowns (159) than any player in college football history, was not ready for prime time. Or the mid-afternoon, apparently.
He threw two picks in 1-on-1s, missed a wide open Rashee Rice for a touchdown in 7-on-7s, and threw behind a receiver badly in team drills.
We all knew the learning curve is going to be steep for Bagent. We just didn’t know it would be this steep.