For a team that languished in the Big 10 standings, fired its coach midseason and ham-handedly stayed the course by retaining an underwhelming interim in Bill Cubit, the Fighting Illini featured several NFL draft prospects.

Okay, “featured” is probably the wrong word choice. In watching their games against North Carolina, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Northwestern in 2015 as well as their bowl loss to Louisiana Tech in 2014, Illinois didn’t exactly play to the strengths of the talent listed here.

All the players here made postseason all-star games. Ward and Allison earned Senior Bowl berths, the latter after he tore up the practice fields at the Shrine Game with Karras, Ferguson, Fejedelem and Bentley also in St. Pete. No Illini player has been drafted since 2013, but that will emphatically change this year.

Jihad Ward--I went into the season with Ward on a watch list with a question mark next to his name. A JUCO transfer (where he arrived as a wide receiver!), he had flashed the athletic potential in his first year in Champaign but didn’t do much with it. At 6’5” and 296, he played tackle, uh, awkwardly. Leverage was not his strong suit, and he didn’t have much of a concept of how to use his length to his advantage.

Flash forward to the 2015 season and I saw a lot of the same issues. Ward would flash the occasional drop-dead gorgeous burst, or a powerful swim move to rip past blockers. Once free from encumbrance, few people his size have his speed or agility.

Here’s the rub: Ward is still not very good at getting off blocks. Or locating the football in a timely fashion on run plays. Or understanding the offensive concepts coming at him, like a wham block or a designed cutback run or a tunnel screen. Every time I watched I came away with the same take…

“This is an athlete, not a football player, and he’s playing the wrong position to boot”

My game notes are peppered with comments like:

  • Uses his shoulder instead of his hands to try and win leverage
  • Has the bend of an edge player but it doesn’t work inside
  • Doesn’t have a secondary move once the guard recovers

The hand usage and move progression can be developed. And putting him further outside helps that excellent bend quality. Everyone got to see that during Senior Bowl practices, when he got some work at end and looked a whole lot like Ziggy Ansah. That’s not a stretch either; Ward has the length, brute power, speed and bend that echo Detroit’s sack master. Ansah wasn’t close to a finished product when he entered the league out of BYU, either.

Even so, that’s a wildly optimistic best-case for the Illini lineman. Because of his size, he’s not going to play so far out in space other than on the occasional twist or overload line. 3-4 defenses will like him as a 5-technique and hope he turns out as good as Denver’s Derek Wolfe, who was the same size and had some of the same questions coming out of Cincinnati. I believe that is Ward’s optimal NFL position.

Wolfe went 36th overall and that is the range I see Ward coming off the board. It’s just hard for me to ignore the very legit flaws in his game and scant production in 2015 (3.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks) to merit that high of a selection. Even misaligned athletic freaks should stumble into at least 4.5 sacks and 10 TFLs. Ward’s game tape earned a sixth-round grade. His potential is high enough to split the difference. I’d be happy taking Ward in the late-2nd/early 3rd round with the knowledge he’s probably going to struggle early on, as Wolfe did.

Draft projection: 25-40 overall 

Geronimo Allison--the wideout was handily one of the biggest winners coming out of Shrine Game week in the six years I’ve attended. On the (scruffy, gnarled) turf in practices, Allison proved both impossible to cover and incredibly sure-handed. The JUCO transfer consistently snatched the ball out of the air away from his body, and he showed a fantastic ability to track the deep ball and position himself to make a play on it. Here’s one of many examples:

Those qualities were evident at Illinois too. It’s just that a combination of spotty QB play from Wes Lunt, poor scheming for his skills and overwhelming attention from opposing defenses left the evidence as nothing more than fleeting. Allison made several catches which showed off burst to the ball, body control and strong hands, notably a route up the right sideline against Penn State.

When watching him, keep in mind this is a young man who didn’t play football before his senior year of high school. Despite that, I liked what I saw with his route running. For a long guy (he’s 6’4” and 200 pounds), he showed the ability to shorten his stride when pressed and lengthen it out in the open space. He must learn to run at more than one speed, and his playing top speed is no better than average.

Illinois asked him to be a vertical threat too much. That’s (hopefully) not his NFL role. I loved watching him work on drags, crosses and hooks in the intermediate range. His size and hand strength are major assets here and his lack of rocket fuel in his cleats doesn’t matter so much. I’d like to see him bulk up another 5-10 pounds to better fit that role. He’s already a tenacious and pretty effective blocker.

Think of Allen Hurns with the Jaguars. Undrafted out of Miami for many of the same issues which dog Allison, Hurns (6’3”, 195) has caught 115 passes at a 14.8 yards per catch and scored 16 touchdowns in his first two seasons. I 100% believe Geronimo Allison can do the same, given the right opportunity. He’s worth a fourth or fifth round pick on my board.

Draft projection: If he runs under 4.5, 3rd or 4th round. Higher than 4.5, he goes 6th or 7th round 

Ted Karras--yes, he’s from that Karras line of NFL priory. The right guard is the grandson of Ted Karras, who played for the Bears in the 1960s and just recently passed away. His great uncle is Hall of Famer Alex Karras, and young Ted is the seventh member of his family to play Big Ten football.

It’s easy to see he grew up around football. He’s one of the most intense competitors around, but does so with excellent football fundamentals and a polished technique that comes from having a father who’s a football coach. ESPN writer Josh Moyer wrote a great feature from last fall about Karras dialing back the intensity, and that showed too. He definitely played with a more even keel. The highs might not have been as devastating to defenders, but he made fewer mistakes too. That portends well for his football future.

Karras has good size at 6’3.5” and 308 pounds, and his arm length and is just fine at over 32”. His upper body strength is one of the best in class, but even better is that he has the technique to put it to good use. His hand placement is very refined and consistent. Karras excels at torqueing his shoulders while engaged to turn the defender out of the hole in the run game. His leg drive is solid, but others have quicker feet and more base power.

His failure to garner a Combine invite is puzzling. Here’s a player with a recognizable name and NFL pedigree, proved himself the best offensive line prospect at the Shrine Game since Terron Armstead and played well against top-level competition in the defensively loaded Big 10. In the games and practices I watched, I saw an NFL-ready starting guard for a team which values power over zone movement. He even has played a little center too. I graded him out better than Travis Swanson, Detroit’s third-round pick in 2014 and a similar style of player. His ceiling isn’t sky high, but few teams ask their guards to be more than solid all-around players. Ted Karras will be just that, for years.

Draft projection: late 4th-early 6th round 

Josh Ferguson--player comparisons are always a tricky venture. When I do them I try to find players who are stylistically similar, not necessarily physically close matches, with an idea on their NFL roles. Some players (Derrick Henry as a prime example) can be quite tough to come up with an accurate comparison.

I had little such trouble with Joshua Ferguson, the diminutive running back. He’s a 5’9” water bug of a runner, but his best NFL trait will be his work in the passing game and making guys miss in space. Ferguson has the ability to make guys miss in a phone booth, including a lightning quick spin move that he sets up nicely too. While he’s more powerfully built all-around, his game sure harkens to Ameer Abdullah out of Nebraska. They even have the same jump cut…

 

The Joliet Catholic product only topped 100 yards rushing three times as a senior (he missed three full games and part of a fourth with a shoulder injury), but he showed his versatility by catching 25 passes for over 200 yards in the final four games.

Those receiving skills made him some money during Shrine Game week. He’s incredibly natural catching the ball but also at running the full route tree any NFL team will ask from a running back. Pass protection also stood out, as it did in the North Carolina game.

It’s important for Ferguson to market himself in that role, because as an actual rusher his skills underwhelm. He’s got a low center of gravity and above-average wiggle and balance, but he can be both impatient and indecisive. There were instances where he left some yards on the field by tacking out of bounds or losing his leg drive after contact. Like Abdullah, he had some ball security issues--an alarming seven fumbles in under 200 touches in 2014. He will never be more than a change-of-pace scatback as a runner.

The durability issue always comes up with shorter backs, even though having seen Ferguson in person he’s definitely not small or slightly built. The fumbling and relative ineffectiveness as a runner are also concerns. He’s not as visionary or aggressive of a runner as Abdullah or Gio Bernard, another player he’ll be compare with by some. Yet the guy I saw consistently get to the edge and turn the corner during Shrine practices, the one who looked amazing as a receiver, that Josh Ferguson is going to be a versatile weapon for an NFL offense. If a team can live with the warts, he could rush for 400 yards and top 600 yards receiving. I gave him a fourth-round grade and if he does what is expected in the agility drills in Indy, that’s about where I see him coming off the board.

Draft projection: 4th-5th round 

Clayton Fejedelem--the hirsute safety is perhaps the most anonymous player to ever lead the Big Ten in tackles. It’s not by accident “Fej” racked up 140 total tackles, 74 of them solo in 2015. A transfer from NAIA St. Xavier, the Joliet area native continually proved he has legit NFL ability.

Any doubts about his closing speed or overall athleticism were quieted during Shrine Game week. Fejedelem was all over the field, repeatedly catching my eye. He also impressed Mike Mayock, who asked how to pronounce his name at least three times,

 

(and to answer Mayock’s question, nope)

He made a leaping interception during the Shrine Game that had us oohing in the press box. Fej flashed that sort of range, burst to the ball and playmaking ability all week. It was evident during the season too, as demonstrated on this play against Penn State…

What I like about him is that he can seal the deal when approaching at warp speed like that. Not all defenders can break down and control their momentum into a functional tackle at top speed, but Fej does just that, consistently too.

Coverage instincts and diagnosis are the biggest questions. He’s proven vulnerable to quarterbacks who can look him off, and Fej doesn’t pick up on the route combos coming at him as adeptly as other safeties in this class. At 5’11” and 200 he’s on the smaller side, and with 30.5” arms he doesn’t make himself longer either.

His low profile and omission from the Combine won’t help his draft stock, but I believe Fejedelem is going to do more than just make an NFL team as a rookie. I see a player who can be the third safety as a rookie and emerge as an eventual starter. His lack of size will not fit with certain teams, but for my money he’s a better prospect than Tre Boston, a fourth round pick of the Panthers in 2014 who has started several games for a very good defense. I’d consider Fej in the late third round. He’s my 8th-rated safety overall.

Draft projection: 5th-7th round

V’Angelo Bentley--Bentley is a 5’8.5” corner, and that in itself makes him a longshot. His estimated speed runs between 4.48 and 4.55, which is on the slower side. In watching Bentley, I would rate his agility as no better than slightly above-average. The Cleveland native has solid coverage instincts but is most notable for being a guy who makes the quick tackle right after the catch instead of disrupting the pass itself.

His NFL chances lie squarely with his return ability. Teams will make room for a 5th CB if they can also double as the primary return specialist. Bentley has been good-not-great in that capacity at Illinois, consistently fielding the ball cleanly and making the first guy miss. He doesn’t break many long ones, however. If he gets hot with his returns in preseason he’ll make a team, as coaches will be looking for a way to keep his positive attitude and lauded work ethic on the roster somehow.

Draft projection: UDFA

There is one other Illini prospect who might get a look in camp, LB Mason Monheim. He’s got the size and instincts but falls short in the range and speed department. He’s also an aspiring dentist, so his post-football life looks very promising.