Chad Reuter on East-West Practices

He's not really contradicting what I think much, if at all.

I will say this. I think the Shrine practices helped identify for me five stars that actually practiced really well this week and so they're not a star because I would have called them a star before, they're a star because I thought well of them before and then they SHOWED that they were a star. Anyway the five are:

1. G/T Kyle Callaway
2. G/T Rodger Saffold
3. TE Dennis Pitta
4. SS Kam Chancellor
5. CB Devin Ross

These guys were consistent performers from start to finish, most of them have ideal measurables for what they are as professionals, and I'm pretty sure all of them should end up NFL starters.

The fact that there are only five of them, when I really force myself to be disciplined about handing this kind of accolade out...speaks volumes to the talent level at this year's Shrine Game.

Now, if we were to broaden this out to players that showed me real nice things on the field this week and I have generally positive feelings about, then I could include QB Matt Nichols, RB Dimitri Nance, WR Blair White, WR Freddie Barnes, WR Seyi Ajirotutu, TE Andrew Quarless, OC John Estes, OG Brandon Carter, DE Jeffery Fitzgerald, DE Greg Hardy, DT Doug Worthington, DT Mike Neal, OLB Dexter Davis, OLB Keaton Kristick, LB Stevenson Sylvester, LB Reggie Carter and FS Van Eskridge.

 

Kristick is an interesting name to me IMO. I watched him against Oregon and he did a nice job covering but was nothing in run support. He's a hitter though and IIRC, he was named the biggest hitter on the team.

Worthington's played end and tackle for OSU. I like him quite a bit because of his versatility and he's not a bad player overall.

I look forward to seeing Dexter Davis. Like him a lot.

 

I forgot to mention that Dexter Davis may not play in the game. He suffered a bad ankle injury during today's practice. I was talking with a Jacksonville scout about him, and we both watched it happen right in front of us, it was almost like we accidentally jinxed him. He tried to play through it, got it taped up, but had to leave the field early anyway.

Kristick's hard hitting and coverage prowess showed up this week. The hard hitting showed up early and often. The coverage came on late. He jammed the hell out of Nathan Overbay actually knocking him to the ground legally. And then later in two-minute work he ended up DEEP down the field with Emmanuel Sanders the Wide Receiver, and had him fully covered.

He's not much to look at, physically speaking. He's got some height to him at 6'2.5"...but when I look at him at 226 lbs I can't help but think...you're not even close to what you could be if you had an NFL weight and conditioning program on you for a few years.

 

That's a shame if he can't play. I would have loved to see him one more time.

I agree on Kristick. He has room to fill out. He's almost built like a muscular wide receiver. He's got room to add quite a bit of weight, I'd say up to around 245 ala Sean Weatherspoon.

 

If someone could stash him on a special teams squad while he bulks up they could have a really good player in a couple of seasons

 

I love this stuff. Thanks to all of you!!

 

It was definitely a unique experience, and very valuable.