One of the great advantages the Detroit Lions got from coaching the American team in the Senior Bowl last week was the ability to learn which players meshed with their coaching staff and style. Lions WR coach Antwaan Randle El offered a good look at how that can work in his comments on South Alabama wideout Jalen Tolbert.
Tolbert, a 6-1 outside receiver playing in his home stadium all week, drew mixed reviews from those of us in attendance in Mobile. Randle El effectively gave his young pupil a mixed review of his own.
“Jalen can play. Yeah, I have no question about Jalen in terms of him catching the ball, route-running and things of that nature,” Randle El offered up to reporters on Thursday in Mobile. “He’s just got to work on small stuff, like his stance. He stands very tall in his stance and in this league, like I’ve already told him, I said, ‘You’ve got no chance.’ Like, you can’t be at the line of scrimmage just standing (straight up).”
Randle El continued,
“So you’ll see in his work today and even yesterday, he started correcting. You can watch the film and you can see the improvement. Sometimes he’s standing up and you’ll see him start getting down and getting more in that defensive or that I’m-shot-out-of-a-cannon stance, and that helps him even with to get into his routes even quicker. And then you seen him make some plays down the field. That was the other thing, so that stood out to us.”
The ability to process constructive criticism and coaching and adapt to what these unfamiliar coaches want is something that separates prospects. Tolbert’s progress through the week showed he can incorporate how Randle El teaches and coaches directly into his game. That’s a feather in Tolbert’s cap in his quest to get drafted by the Lions, or any other team for that matter.
