MOBILE — The second day of practices went off without a hitch at the 2023 Reese’s Senior Bowl. That is, of course, if you didn’t pay attention to the quarterback play. With most of the talk aimed at other positions, the quarterbacks have failed to take control of the Senior Bowl in 2023.
Senior Bowl Quarterbacks Leave Much on the Table on Day 2
After much success at the position in recent years, the 2023 Reese’s Senior Bowl class lacked star power at quarterback entering the week of practices. Even with the late addition of Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker, his expected absence from on-field drills lessened the magnitude of pulling a potential Blue Blood quarterback.
There was always the chance one of the quarterbacks would make a name for themselves during the week of practice at Hancock Whitney Stadium, however slim that may have been. But after two days of practices and ample opportunities to turn heads, the six quarterbacks have been underwhelming.
On the second day of practice at the Senior Bowl, quarterbacks on the American Team (Max Duggan, Clayton Tune, Tyson Bagent) were each given a two-minute drill to lead their team downfield in pressured situations. These drills were filled with checkdown passes and errant throws that left much to be desired.
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Duggan connected on an intermediate corner route to Oregon State TE Luke Musgrave, but that was buried in a slew of slower reads and inconsistent play on the drive.
Bagent had a perfect zone-beating throw to the second level, where he lead Houston WR Tank Dell away from coverage perfectly. The only issue there is that he finished the two-minute drill with two errant passes that were out of bounds and didn’t even give his receivers a chance to pull down the ball.
Tune’s two-minute drill got off to a sluggish start and ended even worse when he was late to make a decision and had to flee the pocket on a play that likely would’ve been a sack in an actual in-game scenario.
National Team Quarterbacks Lean Too Heavily Into Short Game
Taking the field first on Day 2 at the Senior Bowl was the National Team. We saw the first reps for Louisville QB Malik Cunningham, who missed the first day of practice after feeling “under the weather” during warm-ups.
Cunningham certainly struggled from the proverbial rust, as he hadn’t thrown a pass in simulated action in over two months.
Jaren Hall from BYU had several good throws during individual drills with wide receivers, dotting Jayden Reed perfectly downfield at the pylon on a deep corner route as his highlight of the day. But Hall, like so many others, was subject to checking the ball down all too often during team drills and seven-on-seven or seven-on-nine situations.
Fresno State’s Jake Haener delivered some on-time throws to each level of the field during individual drills as well. But, similarly to Hall, Haener also seemed to struggle with the speed of team drills and consistently took too long on throws before ultimately checking it down.
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All in all, the quarterbacks have failed to take any of the proverbial leaps to help their draft stock. Conversely, these quarterbacks haven’t done anything egregious just yet to harm their draft status.
Entering the 2023 Senior Bowl, the quarterback class was considered to be a close group in terms of the middle-tier players. On the Pro Football Network Draft Board, there is little separation between this group:
- Hendon Hooker, QB5, No. 99 overall
- Jake Haener, QB6, No. 112 overall
- Jaren Hall, QB7, No. 117 overall
And so far, after two days of practice, as they’ve each left a lot to be desired, it’s starting to look more and more like these quarterbacks are exactly who we thought they were.