With time on my hands — or, more accurately, my right ankle as I recover from surgery — I thought I would try to record some things that I thought I saw in the morning Day 3 practice for the Senior Bowl. I haven’t had a chance to review the afternoon coverage yet, but will try to get to it soon.

The morning practice group was the National team, coached by former Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. While I wasn’t necessarily a fan of Graham’s defense in his time with the Giants, it’s easy to see why he is talked about as a future head coaching candidate. His practices are crisp and well organized, but what really comes across on camera is the energy. In my opinion his practices just seem to have a higher energy level than those of his counterpart from the American squad. He and his coaches are always in someone’s ear; it’s impressive how much teaching they seem to squeeze into the practice sessions.

Speaking of coaches, there’s no better highlight to any practice than a Wink Martindale sighting. One of the ESPN guys caught up to Wink while he was watching one of the team practice sessions, and asked Wink, "what are you looking for?" Wink’s response: "everything." Classic Wink, but he went on to explain that while you try to address weaknesses, it never hurts to double down on a position of strength. If I were a young NFL coach, I’d pay cash money to learn from Wink, Mike Tomlin, and a lot of the other guys walking around out there.

Anyway, on to some guys who I thought stood out.

A couple tight ends that I had pegged as possible Day 3 pickups are Purdue’s Payne Durham and Cincinnati’s Josh Whyle. Both are big, strong, physical players in that 6’6"/250 pound range — but the reason they had caught my eye is that both look like they could still get bigger and stronger. Durham, with 56 receptions last season, may be a bit more of a finished product. Whyle had thought about coming out of school last year but sustained a foot injury in a bowl game and opted to spend another year in school.

Both made some good plays in the morning session, but I thought Durham was notable. He caught multiple touchdowns in red-zone drills. One was on a nicely thrown 25-yard out from Jake Haener. Durham took a NFL-caliber hit from cornerback Riley Moss (more on him later) but held on for the score. Durham also lined up in the slot and made an excellent catch on a high ball over the middle in a two minute drill. He looks like a huge target with decent hands and appears to have some skill at boxing out defenders. I doubt that he has the downfield speed of a true "pass receiving" tight end, but I think he would be a great Day 3 addition, a significant upgrade to the tight end room, and the kind of player we want in 12 personnel.

Josh Whyle had a somewhat more quiet day, but made a couple nice plays also. In addition to some solid blocking reps in line, he grabbed a screen pass in one of the red zone drills and showed a nice transition from receiver to runner. On that play and an earlier reception he looked comfortable catching the ball with his hands rather than letting it get into his body. Like Durham, I think Whyle could still add some mass and be a useful contributor in 12 personnel. I think either one of these guys might be a good pickup in the later rounds.

We knew from various draft pundits that the cornerback position was deep in this year’s draft, which is certainly a good thing for the Giants. I’m starting to think that I had no idea just how deep it really is … there are guys with Day 3 grades who look like they know how to play this game. One of them is Riley Moss, from Iowa. The conventional wisdom on Moss is that he has track-athlete speed (he was a state champion hurdler), but limited flexibility and would be best suited to zone coverage. That may be the case, but in practice he stuck to receivers pretty well. On the Durham touchdown, he recognized the play, came off his man, and got to the boundary in time to lay a huge hit on the much larger tight end. Durham held on to the ball, but not for lack of effort by Moss. From what I’ve seen of Moss, he has a knack for staying in position and making plays. He had something like 10 interceptions in his Big 10 career, so the guy obviously has some ability. He’s another player who might be a Day 3 value.

A cornerback who won’t make it to Day 3 — or maybe not even Round 3 — is Stanford’s Kyu Blu Kelly. His father, Brian Kelly, played 11 NFL seasons and won a Super Bowl ring with Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay team. Kyu Blu Kelly looks like a well coached prospect. Although some of the draft scouting suggests that he is more suited to zone heavy schemes, it looks to me like he plays comfortably in phase with receivers. On Day 2 he had an interception; on Day 3 he made a couple pass breakups. From what I can see, he is very good when the ball is in the air. He also looks like he knows how to play defense without being overly — or obviously — grabby.

Speaking of grabbiness (is that a word? I guess it is now), one cornerback who perhaps attracted the wrong type of attention was Maryland’s Jakorian Bennett. He made a play in a red zone drill that was clearly either defensive holding or defensive pass interference — the latter, I think, as the ball was likely in the air. Defensive coordinator (and Pittsburgh DB coach) Grady Brown immediately called him out and explained that in the NFL, that penalty gets called every time. Maybe Grady didn’t watch the end of our second game against the Commies — when IMO Darnay Holmes got away with one — but his point is well taken.

One other defensive back who has put himself on the radar is Illinois’ Sydney Brown. His twin brother, running back Chase Brown, has gotten more attention up until now. But Sydney has been making plays all week. His scouting report was that he is a box safety type with limited coverage skills. Apparently, nobody told Sydney. He made a nice interception on a red zone play where he undercut the receiver and snatched a poorly thrown ball. Later in the day he diagnosed a pass into the flat and got downhill in a hurry to blow up the receiver. It was either no gain or a tackle for loss. Not a bad showing for a guy who was graded as late rounds or UDFA.

I would take a guy like Sydney Brown with a sixth or seventh round pick just to have him play special teams; from what I can see he plays every snap like his life depends on it. That kind of energy is contagious, and five years from now, when he is a special teams Pro Bowler, everyone else would be wondering how they missed him in the draft. Laugh if you’d like, but I’m sick of our lousy kick coverage.

Louis Riddick called out two players: DT Keanu Benton from Wisconsin and G/T Asim Richards from North Carolina. Apparently, pass rush guru Chuck Smith had identified Benton as a guy with unusual ability as an interior pass rusher. Riddick thought that Richards had looked particularly capable in the team sessions, both as a run blocker and pass protector. It would be ironic, I guess, if the one North Carolina lineman that the Giants didn’t draft turned out to be the best of the bunch.

A few other quick observations:

• Jake Haener is clearly QB1 on the National team. It’s not close, and it’s not even close to being close. He is much more decisive than the other two quarterbacks and his ball placement is consistently better.
• Trey Palmer, WR from Nebraska, hasn’t been mentioned much. But he always seems to be catching the ball. He made a nice diving grab on an out route.
• Grant DuBose, WR from Charlotte, caught a TD in a red zone drill and promptly busted out the Griddy. Maybe that’s the modern interpretation of Vince Lombardi’s advice that when you reach the end zone, "behave like you’ve been there before."