Thor Nystrom will be reporting live from Mobile for the 2023 Senior Bowl. Thor shares NFL Draft prospects who have the most to gain at the 2023 Senior Bowl.
Check out all of our 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports & Prospect Profiles 
2023 NFL Draft Prospects With Most to Gain at Senior Bowl
Quarterbacks: Jaren Hall & Clayton Tune
Jaren Hall (BYU)
The tools are there. Hall has an exciting mix of athleticism and arm oomph. On his best reps, he looks like a potential top-50 pick. On his worst, he looks like an XFL backup.
Hall was a multi-sport athlete who comes from a family of athletes. That’s apparent when watching him. Hall has a big-league arm and can throw on the move. A former baseball player, he’s comfortable – even natural – throwing from different arm angles, and off-platform.
But Hall has never equaled the sum of his parts. And he regressed in 2021, with his PFF big-time throw rate dropping from 6.7 to 5.5 while his turnover-worth play rate rose from 2.1 to 2.7. Hall’s play under pressure summarily crumbled, with a grade of 61.3 falling to 44.9.
Toolsy but undisciplined – think a well-behaved Johnny Manziel – Hall has fans in the league but needs a big week to win more converts. Will he leave Mobile as a priority Day 2 developmental target? Or seen as an undisciplined late-Day 3 longshot?
What I appreciate about Tune is his consistency. Last year, he remained extremely steady despite circumstances around him beginning to crumble. No passer in this class was more victimized by drops (31), and Tune was forced to stay sharp playing with one of the nation’s worst defenses – every game turned into a shootout.
Tune is a heady, accurate passer who knows how to run a system, and he doesn’t get rattled by pressure. But he shied from testing tight windows, instead taking what the defense gives him. Was that a system-based preference? Or was he hiding his arm? Either way, Tune is more dangerous in the short-and-intermediate sectors than he is deep.
Quarterbacks like this are easy to discount. But the right one with the right staff is Brock Purdy.
Running Back: Tyjae Spears (Tulane)
Spears is a polarizing prospect. I’ve been a fan of his for years – when he flashes, hide your eyes or you’ll temporarily lose your vision. This past year, those flashes turned into consistent production.
The never-Spears camp will say he’s a durability concern (ACL in 2020). They’ll say he has a skinny build that may not be able to handle the full load. They’ll say he has questionable third-down utility besides, and that he has no special-teams experience.
With running backs, there’s a natural element to the best ones. An innate ability. Something that cannot be taught, something they couldn’t explain after the fact if they tried. Poetry in motion. You know it when you see it. Spears has that.
He’s super explosive. He’s eyes-in-his-ear-holes instinctive. He makes the correct decisions at high speeds like a NASCAR driver. He consistently clowns defenders in the open field. I can’t tell you how many times last season I saw him leave an open-field defender on the ground who didn’t come close to getting a finger on him.
Tyjae Spears plays his position like a boxer. A jab is not a jab – it is setting up the hook, or an upper-cut.
And it’s not just on any given run. Watch any of his games start-to-finish from last year. Notice how he’ll offer certain looks early. And then use the doubt introduced into the defender’s head to set up his next open-field subterfuge.
Spears does not slow down as the game progresses. But his opponents do, and they additionally become progressively more unsure of their decisions against him in space. Their feet tend to get stuck to the turf or tied into knots as Spears introduces his newest Guitar Hero flurry.
Spears isn’t a clean prospect. He’s just a natural one. That’s why he has as much on the line as any back heading into Mobile. He’s not going to convert the never-Spears camp. That shouldn’t be the goal. The goal is to get evaluators who already like his game to fall head-over-heels.
Wide Receiver: Puka Nacua (BYU)
Nacua flies in a bit under-the-radar because of a star-crossed career. He was a ballyhooed four-star recruit who signed with Washington. And while he saw the field immediately as a true frosh and flashed, he broke his foot.
The next year, on a dreadful offensive unit, Nacua again flashed, but appeared in only three games during the COVID-shortened season. So, in advance of the 2020 season, Nacua transferred to BYU.
Nacua made it through 12 games during a strong 2021 campaign, but was dogged by a pair of nagging injuries that cost him multiple games in 2022. He decided to declare for the draft anyway.
A fortified outside receiver (6’2/205) that BYU had great fun using on gadget plays, Nacua has a diverse skillset. He’s more dangerous with the ball in his hands than most receivers in this class who are this size.
Evaluators will fall in love with the way he plays. It’s full-go all the time – whether he has the ball, whether he’s blocking, whether he’s playing special teams, it doesn’t matter. And this perhaps explains the collegiate injuries – his staff wanted to get Nacua the ball, Nacua wanted the ball, and even on plays Nacua didn’t get it, Nacua had his foot on the gas pedal looking for more work. That’s something to keep an eye on long-term.
Short-term, in Mobile, it’s Nacua’s fleshed-out skillset and exuberance for the game that should carry the day and open eyes.
Tight End: Luke Musgrave (Oregon State)
Easy choice, here. Thin tight end crop in Mobile this year. And Musgrave is the only one with any shot whatsoever to crack Round 1. Musgrave has a three-step plan to crack Round 1 in April.
- Dominate the on-field drills in Mobile.
- Go ballistic in testing at the NFL Combine.
- Answer any other open question at Pro Day.
That’s the path. Let’s tackle why each is crucial.
On-field drills in Mobile: Scouts have only 13 starts of Musgrave to pour over, in part because he got hurt last season in what was expected to be his coming-out party. Musgrave caught only 47 balls in college. His drills will be scrutinized closer than any other player in his position group.
Go ballistic in testing at the NFL Combine: Musgrave is seen by several respected voices in the industry as a top-5 TE heading into the process. That is almost exclusively due to his athleticism and perceived upside. Musgrave must prove it in Indianapolis.
Answer any other other open question at Pro Day: Any worse-than-expected test at the NFL Combine, Musgrave must hit expectations with his second chance. It goes without saying that Musgrave must ace interviews throughout the process, but it is assumed that the nephew of Bill will do so.
The odds of the above happening are slim. But the scenario is in play. Musgrave’s work begins in Mobile. Few prospects have as much on the line as he does.
Offensive Lineman: Nick Saldiveri (Old Dominion)
Saldiveri allowed zero sacks and only two QB hits over 455 pass-pro reps this past season. Coming from Old Dominion, he now steps onto the big stage against high-end prospects.
A right tackle for the Monarchs who dabbled a little at guard, Saldiveri likely will be viewed as an NFL guard due to his lack of length.
He’ll shine in one-on-one pass-pro drills in Mobile – this is where scouts will fall in love with him. Saldiveri has an intuitive sense for this work. It’s difficult to get him off-balance or to fool him. Not the heaviest anchor, but Saldiveri’s wide-base and play-balance give him sufficient ammunition to deal with bull-rushers. On the edge in college, Saldiveri was happy to shuffle the arc-to-nowhere with defenders who chose the long way.
Assuming he gets guard work in Mobile, I’ll be watching how Saldiveri deals with defensive tackles in the run game. Saldiveri gets after it each rep, but power EDGEs could stymie him, slowing his leg churn to a halt. And while Saldiveri showed the ability to consistently get to the target shoulder in the run game at the line of scrimmage, his accuracy percentage with fleeter-footed linebackers at the second-level was mediocre. While Saldiveri posted an elite 85.1 PFF pass-blocking grade last fall, his mediocre run-blocking grade of 61.5 showed he still has plenty of work to do in this area.
Saldiveri’s mission in Mobile: Show out in every available pass-pro rep, and show that you’ve begun to make strides as a run blocker.
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