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Rusty Costanza/Associated Press
The 2021 Senior Bowl went off without a hitch Saturday, with the National Team defeating the American Team 27-24 at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
Normally, that sentence might come off as mundane and uninspired. But in this case, the fact that the event and its accompanying week of festivities happened at all is a miracle unto itself after the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of numerous college football games (and in some cases, entire seasons) and the yearly NFL Scouting Combine.
The importance of this year s Senior Bowl to draft evaluation can t be overstated. So many mitigating factors made this the most important week of some of the participants lives whether they didn t play this season or because they won t have an opportunity to prove themselves elsewhere.
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DB Ifeatu Melifonwu of Syracuse tries to make a catch during practice for the Senior Bowl, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) 2 / 226
WR Tylan Wallace of Oklahoma State is pushed by DB Keith Taylor Jr. of Washington during practice for the Senior Bowl, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) 3 / 226
Players run on the field during the National Team practice for the Senior Bowl NCAA college football game in Mobile, Ala. Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) Matthew Hinton/Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 4 / 226
National Team running back Najee Harris of Alabama (22) catches a pass during practice for the Senior Bowl National Team in Mobile, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Rusty Costanza)
Jan 28, 2021
There was a single player who didn’t make it here on time, having missed his flight, and as Saturday morning turned to afternoon, and COVID-19 tests were taken and processed, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy was inching closer to having as a good a start as he possibly could have hoped for to what promised to be a challenging and hopefully one-time-only sort of game week.
One-hundred and thirty-six players were invited to Alabama’s Gulf Coast and confirmed for what’s annually the nation’s premier college all-star game. When Nagy went to bed Saturday night, he was 135 for 135 on players testing negative. When Nagy woke up Sunday morning, the bad news came: No. 136 was positive.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores was ecstatic to coach the Senior Bowl, which looks to be the last significant in-person and on-field football evaluation teams will get ahead of the draft now that the NFL scouting combine has been made largely virtual.
Miami (10-6) is far from a finished team. With nine total picks, including two in the first round and four in the top 50, Flores and general manager Chris Grier will be busy. I didn t think they had a very talented roster last year. Outside of a couple of guys, they didn t have much special talent. Flo did a great job getting the most out of their players, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said. I can only imagine how good they are going to be once they add even more talent.