East-West Shrine game preview: Winterswyk, Johnson, Thompson, Venable in action on Saturday

Surprised to hear Thompson is doing the best out of all four. Good for him.

Terrific and by far the best and most complete defensive back on the West. Terrific mechanics and top ball skills. Broke-up a number of passes and came away with a pick, never getting beaten.

Head Pounding Desk…. Yep, I guess the scab is still raw and the wounds are still there.

Boise State’s Jeron Johnson were the cream of the crop at the safety position( EDITED OUT ALL REF. TO THAT U of I SAFETY DUE TO RISK OF ILLNESS HERE AT OBNUG). Johnson is the classic free safety who patrols the middle of the field. At the corner position, Boise State’s Brandyn Thompson often blanketed his receivers and picked off multiple bad throws (see: Enderle) by the West team quarterbacks.

—From someone at the practices from the sb nation Jaguars page….

Now the whole world will get to see him be mediocre.

How again did he get the invite?

I’ve always thought Thompson had a real chance to make an NFL roster. I really think his skills were overlooked playing along side Wilson most of his collegiate career.

Say what you want about some single game performances, but Boise State still ended 2010 with the 4th ranked passing defense, and Thompson is a big reason why. Besides, If Scandrick was able to work his way into a draft pick, there’s no reason Thompson can’t.

Swyk should have no problems making a team. Maybe in Free Agency, but he will find his way to a roster.

Johnson and Venable will take some angling I think. Johnson to me, is an undersized Taylor Mays, he’ll lay you out and make big hits, but lacked elite skills he’s probably gonna need in th NFL. Not saying he can’t do it, but it will be work. Even so, his upside is huge just like Mays was, so I think he’ll go in the 2,3, or 4th rounds, if not by then, he may go undrafted. Venable will probably make a spot through free agency unless he lights up this game and the combine, I don’t think he gets drafted. I say this becuase I was positive that Ian Johnson would be picked up in later rounds, only to be letdown. I hope Venable is drafted, but I’m preparing for the worst.

East players of note: Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech), Ricky Dobbs (Navy), Marvin Austin (North Carolina), Kenny Rowe (Oregon)

As well for all the Senior Bowl practices and game. Damn I love football. I’m ready to watch some BSU players show off what they can do.

thought i was gonna be without it until tomorrow….

I’m at work today but was hoping to catch some of the game on the computer.

Heres link to game Link

With the interception! I love that guy!

Where is Jeron? I saw him early in the game, but why isn’t he playing? Great interception, Winston! Swyk is in there and pushing hard, as is Brandyn…but what happened to Jeron?

A box score and stats??

From “Stampede Blue”:

Perhaps the most visible player on the night, though, was Boise State linebacker Winston Vernable. I saw Boise State play a handful of times this season and Vernable made noise every time. Again, this is a player that probably doesn’t have a future as an NFL starter and won’t be mistaken for Patrick Willis any time soon, but he’s just a fundamentally-sound, playmaking linebacker. Sometimes, you just have to invest in good football players. Vernable is one of those.

Finally, Idaho SS Shiloh Keo had a beautiful blocked extra point, prompting one of the announcers (forget who) to claim: “he reminds me of Jamie Silva.”

He goes on to say that Thompson played well and that he was really looking forward to the Senior Bowl and Pettis and Young. He opines that Pettis would be a great pickup for the Colts but is afraid he will be gone by mid second round.

“Pettis is one of my favorite prospects in this draft. I’ll write more about him later, but it’s just a shame that the Colts probably can’t afford to spend their first-round pick on him, because I’ve rarely seen a player that just screamed “future Colt” more than Pettis did at Boise State. He’ll almost certainly be gone by the time the Pacers pick in the second round, though, so I highly doubt he’s a realistic target."

I am in complete agreement with the comments above how the announcers downplayed the talent of the BSU players.

Venable had the best game out of the four. The kid is just a straight baller. He was always around the ball just like he always is. He had the pick and had a nice return off the INT. Venable deserves a shot somewhere in the NFL. He can play the game. A team just needs to decide where he fits and plug him in.

Thompson did pretty well too. He played pretty much the whole game and played tight coverage on the receivers. You can see the talent is there with Thompson. But we all know the other Thompson can show up and ruin plays. I read on SI “a good forty time at the combine could push him into the draft’s top 100 selections.”

I think Winterswyk did okay. Swyk plays 110% on every single play and that has led to some good success in college. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m not sure Swyk is quite athletic enough for defensive end in the NFL. He is definitely capable of making some plays here and there and I think he’ll catch on with a team initially….I just don’t know how long it will last.

And last there’s Jeron Johnson. The kid played one series, maybe two. He rode the bench almost the entire game. According to Johnson’s Twitter, he wasn’t hurt, he just didn’t play. Lame-o.

All right, I’m done pretending to be Mel Kiper now.

but slept through the third quarter. I’m pretty proud of the Bronco players. the fact that the game’s rules didn’t allow press coverage was kind of disappointing. and the cover 1/cover 3 defenses made it pretty basic for any of the qb’s. kind of a boring game after the 1st quarter.