Reese's Senior Bowl Watch List: 3 Players Commanders Should Draft

If the NFL Draft begins in Mobile, that gets started in the next week, and there are several prospects the Washington Commanders should have on their radar.
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The Washington Commanders will have four assistant coaches on the ground in Mobile, Alabama for the 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl. 

Joining those coaches will be scouts and decision-makers for not just the Commanders, but all 32 NFL teams. 

And there are a lot of players in Mobile getting ready to make an early impression in the NFL Draft evaluation process, but here are three we're watching who should be on Washington's big board.

National Team OT Cody Mauch (North Dakota State)

At six-foot-six and over 300 pounds, it won't be hard to spot Mauch on the Hancock Whitney Stadium surface. 

Currently a solid Day 2 prospect, Mauch could work his way into the back end of many Day 1 draft boards with a strong showing against a really good defensive rush group in Mobile this year. 

And that could be exactly where Washington targets a guy like Mauch in a first-round trade-back scenario.

American Team LB Dorian Williams (Tulane)

Williams is what we might call a 'high motor guy', and while that'll help him stand out to practice observers and in a locker room, he'll need to flash the tools necessary to succeed in the NFL while at the Senior Bowl. 

The biggest area to watch with this prospect in Mobile is how he clears blockers and navigates in traffic against more talented competition than he commonly saw playing for Tulane. 

If he does well, then he'll catch someone's eye as a solid depth player with special teams ability who just might surprise people if he develops under the right coaching staff. 

National Team CB Kyu Blu Kelly (Stanford)

Cornerbacks in today's NFL need to be able to play well in man and zone coverage, but all have a strength. 

For Kelly, that strength is in man coverage where he can use his length and athleticism to his advantage. 

This makes zone and off coverage his weakness, meaning that's where we'll be watching him the most during Senior Bowl practices. 

He's got an NFL pedigree as the son of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions cornerback Brian Kelly.

Plenty of people want to see the Commanders add another cornerback in the early stages of the NFL Draft this year, and this could be the guy if the team goes a different direction on Day 1.

Those are just three names to watch, all projected to come off draft boards at different points during April's selection meeting. 

And we'll be back throughout the week with daily notebooks and analysis of the players participating in the 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl.

Find David Harrison on Twitter @DHarrison82 and on the Locked On Commanders podcast.

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David Harrison
DAVID HARRISON

David Harrison has covered the NFL since 2015 as a digital content creator in both written and audio media. He is the host of Locked On Commanders and a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. His previous career was as a Military Working Dog Handler for the United States Army. Contact David via email at david.w.harrison82@gmail.com or on Twitter @DHarrison82.