6 offensive prospects with surging draft stock heading into NFL Scouting Combine

For some players, the climb up NFL draft boards is well under way.

To help get you up to speed heading into the start of the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday, On3 checked with Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy and some NFL scouts to get a feel for the 2022 NFL Draft prospects who have helped themselves the most through the all-star game circuit and early portion of the pre-draft process.

Here are six offensive players that came up. We’ll get to the defensive guys Tuesday. The players are listed alphabetically.

Memphis WR Calvin Austin

2021 stats: 74 catches, 1,149 yards, eight receiving touchdowns; one punt return touchdown
Feedback: “I think the biggest thing with Calvin Austin (at the Senior Bowl) was his ability to beat press and get off the line of scrimmage, being a small guy,” Nagy said. “You know he’s quick and fast, so he’s hard to cover in there, but his ability to escape and get off the line was huge, the ability to prove that. You didn’t see that on college tape.”
Additional feedback: “He had a big Senior Bowl — the explosiveness, the speed, the juice, the burst and acceleration, everything that you want,” an NFL scout said. “Obviously, when you’re that small (measuring in at 5-foot-7, 173 pounds), you have to be pretty explosive and quick. And he showed that he can do that against high-level competition. Obviously, the punt return value’s there with him. It’s going to be really interesting to see what teams do with these punt returners because you’ve got Calvin Austin, who’s 5-7 and a little slot receiver, and then you’ve got Marcus Jones at Houston who couldn’t play in the Senior Bowl. He’s 5-7 except he plays corner, and you’d rather probably have a 5-7 receiver than a 5-7 corner. So it’s going to be a really interesting comparison between those two guys because teams got to see Austin’s explosiveness in person in Mobile and they didn’t get to see Marcus Jones. So Calvin Austin could potentially put himself into the conversation as the top available return specialist.”

Wisconsin TE Jake Ferguson

2021 stats: 46 catches, 450 yards, three touchdowns
Feedback: “Jake Ferguson had a really good week down there (at the Senior Bowl),” Nagy said. “And he ran well. I think he was the fastest of our tight ends, which was surprising. So I think he’ll run well (at the combine). He’ll test better than people think.”
Additional feedback: “You saw him get down the field more (at the Senior Bowl), show off his speed more, and he catches everything,” Nagy said. “You saw that on his Wisconsin tape, but probably just has a little more juice than what NFL teams probably thought he would’ve just watching Wisconsin tape.”

Tennessee WR Velus Jones

2021 stats: 62 catches, 807 yards, seven receiving touchdowns; one kick return touchdown
Feedback: “With Velus, it was just the speed really showed up all week (at the Senior Bowl), his ability to get to top speed quick,” Nagy said. “His acceleration really stood out and the ability to separate deep.”

Florida RB Dameon Pierce

2021 stats: 574 rushing yards, 13 rushing touchdowns; 19 catches, 216 receiving yards, three receiving touchdowns
Feedback: “It’s hard to tell sometimes with the running backs during the practice week (at the Senior Bowl) because we don’t tackle to the ground,” Nagy said. “But what he did in the pass game stuff (stood out) — catching the ball out of the backfield, had some really nice one-handed catches during the week, held up really good in pass pro. You would expect that with his run base and the power that he has in his lower body as a runner. But some guys, even with that kind of physical profile, don’t always stop people as well and don’t anchor as well. Dameon showed up as a physical presence in pass protection. And Dameon just had a ton of juice during the week. The guy loves football. (Oklahoma defensive tackle) Perrion Winfrey, (Nebraska cornerback) Cam Taylor-Britt and Dameon are three guys that I’ll always remember during our practice week. Those three guys just love football. There’s no doubting that after being around them for a week. Dameon just had fun down here. He enjoyed the process. He had great energy. The teams loved him. He killed the interviews.”

Chattanooga G/C Cole Strange

Feedback: “There’s a lot of people in the league playing with smaller centers right now,” Nagy said. “He’s a big-body guy (he measured in at 6-4⅜, 304 pounds) and really lean and no bad weight on him. Functionally, a strong guy. The competitiveness showed up (at the Senior Bowl) and really handling big, physical, powerful people like (Connecticut’s) Travis Jones, and taking some really good reps against those guys helped him.”
Additional feedback: “The Senior Bowl centers proved that there is more center value behind (Iowa’s) Tyler Linderbaum, and that it’s not Linderbaum and then a total freefall of available centers,” an NFL scout said. “I think those Senior Bowl centers proved that there is a little bit more to this center class available than just Linderbaum. Really, those three guys — Cole Strange, (Boston College’s) Zion Johnson and Dylan Parham from Memphis — they were all guards that played center for the first time in Mobile and proved that they can do it at a high level.”

Liberty QB Malik Willis

2021 stats: 2,857 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions; 878 rushing yards, 13 rushing touchdowns
Feedback: “He’s just different,” an NFL scout said. “I told (a colleague in Mobile), I was like, ‘Hey, watch Sam Howell throw the ball with all the hype that he has, and then watch Malik Willis throw the ball and see how different it is.’ Like, it’s night and day. Malik Willis is by far the most physically gifted quarterback in this entire class. And he showcased that to all of the execs in Mobile that were probably seeing him live for the first time.”
Additional feedback: “People are going to say, ‘Well, he’s inconsistent and he’s up and down and his accuracy is still an issue,’ but everything that is wrong with Malik is totally fixable,” a scout said. “He’s just so physically gifted. People are going to worry about the height (measuring in at 6-0, 220) and the run-around, like, ‘Can he win from the pocket?’ Those are going to be question marks but at least his deficiencies (aside from the height) are all — maybe I shouldn’t say ‘fixable,’ but they’re all coachable deficiencies. Whereas Kenny Pickett, Sam Howell, Desmond Ridder, there are straight physical deficiencies you can’t do anything about.”