NFL scouts, coaches, and front office personnel are on their way home after spending the better part of ten days on the road at the Shrine Bowl then Senior Bowl.  Yet even as the exodus from Mobile, Alabama, is complete, there is still plenty of news and buzz floating around.

Bart Scott wants to coach for the New York Jets

The Jets need a new linebackers coach, a position expected to be filled soon, as the franchise recently hired Brian Duker to be the team’s defensive coordinator. Former Jets linebacker and current ESPN radio host Bart Scott is interested in the vacant linebackers coach position, though he has not yet been approached.

Scott’s representative, Harold Lewis, told me the former Pro Bowl linebacker wants to get into coaching and help his former team, the New York Jets, turn the franchise around.

Scott himself said that he would love to coach for the Jets or Ravens, and he’s eager to pass on his intellectual knowledge of the game to younger players. Scott made the point that former players such as Mike Vrabel and DeMeco Ryans have had great success coaching in the league because they relate to players and have experience with situations players face daily. He is also concerned that most organizations in the NFL just mold players to schemes implemented by their coaches rather than helping them learn the entire game and become complete players.  Scott told me outright that the league lacks teachers.

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Scott went undrafted out of Southern Illinois in 2002 and was eventually signed by the Baltimore Ravens, spending seven years with the organization. He later signed with the Jets as a free agent in 2009 and was a catalyst for a defense ranked number 1 in the league that season.  He was also part of Jets teams that went to the AFC title game in back-to-back seasons (2009 and 2010), the last time the organization has been part of the postseason.

Scott stepped away from football after the 2012 season to spend more time with his three children. He compared his present situation to Mike Singletary, his first linebacker coach in the NFL. He compared his situation to Mike Singletary, his first linebackers coach. Singletary, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, stepped away from the game for eleven years before returning to coach the Ravens linebackers in 2003.

McDonald is on a mission

After a sensational 2024 campaign when he totaled 10.5 sacks, Will McDonald watched his play slip a bit last season. His total dropped to 8 sacks, helped by a 4 sack performance against the Cleveland Browns in the middle of the season. The pass rusher missed the final two games of the season with a knee injury.

The 2026 season is a big one for McDonald as it will be his fourth year in the league after the Jets selected him during the first round of the 2023 draft. I’m told there are high hopes for Brian Duker, the team’s new defensive coordinator, and McDonald is determined to make the upcoming season his best. He intends to get his playing weight over 250 pounds (lack of bulk has been an issue for McDonald) and prove he can rush the passer from any spot on the defense.

Teams love the new Senior Bowl format

There was a lot of grumbling when Senior Bowl director Drew Fabianich changed the times of practices, moving them back 4 hours.  In the past, Senior Bowl practices started at 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM. This year, the first practice started at 1:30 PM and the second practice began at 4 PM, meaning people were not leaving Hancock Whitney Stadium until 6 PM.

Fabianich said during the telecast of the game that teams love the new format, something I can confirm.

On Thursday, the final day of practice, I caught up with a decades-long friend and NFL executive presently with the Buffalo Bills. When I asked about the time change of the practices, he told me they (Bills) love it as the team completes all the player interviews in the morning, gets a quick break, then it’s off to practice. Their evenings are then free as opposed to the past when player interviews ran up until 11 PM. On my flight home, I caught up with a scout from the Green Bay Packers who reiterated that same sentiment.

Toledo safety is concerned about his speed

The Senior Bowl offers players an opportunity to showcase their skills for NFL teams and improve their draft stock.  It can also expose weaknesses, which is often the reason some players back out of the event.

Such was the case of Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, or so I was told at the Shrine Bowl.

Toledo had three defensive backs scheduled to participate in the Shrine Bowl (2) and Senior Bowl (1). The conversation in Frisco with people from the Toledo program eventually turned to safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, projected by some as a top 45 selection.

People from Toledo told me point blank McNeil-Warren pulled out of the Senior Bowl because he was concerned about his lack of speed, which would be exposed during drills. Entering the season, scouts estimated his forty time to be 4.55 seconds. Keep this in mind when the defensive backs work out at the Combine on Friday, February 27.