Scouting the Senior Bowl

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Some weigh-in notes:

Two Up

• DE Tanoh Kpassagnon, Villanova. Kpassagnon (pronounced tawn-oh pass-in-yo) strolled onto the stage and looked like Mario Williams reborn. Kpassagnon towers at 6-foot-6, 280-pounds with great arm length at 34 7/8th-inches, plus basketball-sized hands at 10 7/8-inches width. Sculpted like a Greek god, Kpassagnon is a stellar athlete and should see his stock rise with a strong week of practice.
• CB Jourdan Lewis, Michigan. Similar to Iowa’s Desmond King, Jourdan Lewis is a shorter corner who fits zone coverage looks like Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s perfectly. Some scouts were concerned that Lewis would not meet height and arm length thresholds at weigh-ins, but he dispelled that issue by hitting the 5-foot-10 mark and measuring 31-inch arms. In a game of inches like pro football, those dimensions matter - remember Tom Brady’s game-winning touchdown pass outside the fingertips of Jabari Greer in 2013?
  

Two Down

• RB Donnell Pumphrey, San Diego State. College football’s leading rusher and a growing favorite of New Orleans Saints fans was known to be a diminutive player, but at just 5-foot-8 and 169-pounds he doesn’t meet size thresholds for some teams. A popular comparison for him is former Saints tailback Darren Sproles, but Sproles was 20 pounds heavier than Pumphrey when he entered the NFL (though Pumphrey stands two inches taller).
• OL Forrest Lamp, Western Kentucky. Lamp may be the most technically-sound offensive tackle in the draft, but he’s got hurdles ahead of him. The biggest is his height: no NFL team started a tackle shorter than 6-foot-4 in 2016, but Lamp checked in at just 6-foot-3 and a half. There is sure to be some hemming and hawing over that half of an inch come draft day, and it could be enough to make Lamp available at the Saints’ second round pick; but given the lack of depth at the position, Lamp’s height and length (arms just 31 1/8th-inch long) may be overlooked.