How are the players of the Senior Bowl selected?
The Reese’s Senior Bowl is always an exciting time to get a first glance at the coming crop of players who might achieve stardom in the NFL.
It’s that time of year again and we’ve got yet another batch of the country’s top prospects who are preparing for their moment in the sun. Will we get a look at the country’s next-best quarterback, or perhaps it’s a pass catcher? No matter how you cut it, the Reese’s Senior Bowl is always an exciting entry on the calendar, a moment when we get a look at the stars of the future.
The Reese’s Senior Bowl at a glance
It’s now less than three months before the 2024 NFL Draft, and with that, we will soon be seeing the top college prospects showcasing their talents in the hope of convincing an NFL team to sign them. What that also means is that opportunities to do so are becoming more limited with each passing day. Yet, perhaps one of the biggest chances for any young player to show what he’s got is the Senior Bowl, an All-Star game that features the best talent from around the nation. Of course, some questions need answering, such as “Who gets invited?” and “What’s the selection process?”
As for specifics, this year’s Reese’s Senior Bowl will take place at the University of South Alabama’s Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. Incidentally, this is only the second season in which the event will be staged at the venue, following five decades at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The event will run from Tuesday, January 30th to Thursday, February 1st, with coverage provided by ESPN and the NFL Network. Don’t miss it.
OK, So, how are players selected for the Reese’s Senior Bowl?
What’s interesting about the Senior Bowl is that it features a year-round evaluation process that begins in February with an extensive tape study of all college prospects. That process continues through the summer, with an initial 400-player watch list of returning starters and rising seniors which in turn is released in late August. The entire procedure is managed by executive director, Jim Nagy, the man who took over the role from former Cleveland Browns GM, Phil Savage, in 2018. Indeed, it’s Nagy who manages the identification, evaluation, and selection of the top NFL prospects to be invited to the game and serves as a liaison for the agents of the selected players.
According to the Senior Bowl website, the first round of 20 “automatic” invites are sent at the end of October, followed by another 40 “priority” invites which are sent a few weeks later. That’s to say that by the time December 1st rolls around, the next group of 40 “in-season” invites have been mailed. This, of course, allows the Senior Bowl to finalize both rosters between the end of the regular season and the college bowl games. Once all bowl games have been completed, “emergency” invites are used to fill any vacancies on either roster that develop due to injury. To be clear, the Senior Bowl is described as the “ultimate bridge between college and pro football,” which is to say an event that seeks to give folks a look at college standouts and potential prospects, while maintaining “...a particular interest in those that are rated above the fifth round.”