• Jack Bech impresses once again: The TCU receiver stacked another good day down in Mobile, showing his ability to separate and run smooth routes.
• Darius Alexander proves he belongs: The small school defensive lineman showed off his explosiveness and power as an edge defender and interior player with an effective long arm. 
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

With three days of Senior Bowl practices in the books, we’ve seen plenty of reps from some of the top 2025 draft prospects. As we prepare for Saturday’s game in Mobile, several players have made a strong impression during the week’s festivities. Here’s a look at the biggest winners from Thursday’s practice.

TCU RECEIVER JACK BECH WINS ALL THREE DAYS

If you’ve read the PFF recaps each day, we might sound like a broken record, but you can’t talk about Thursday’s top performers without mentioning TCU wide receiver Jack Bech.

He once again gave us a play that could be considered the play of the day with a high-point red zone touchdown but also had a handful of other wins throughout the day due to his ability to separate and smooth route running. He is a bit reminiscent of Chris Godwin due to his overall size, his savviness to get open, and his contested catch ability. The NFL let Godwin get to the third round, but I don’t think that happens with Bech.

FLORIDA STATE CORNERBACK AZAREYE’H THOMAS LOCKED DOWN OPPOSING RECEIVERS

The Senior Bowl is naturally a tough event for defensive backs to stand out. They’re one-on-one with receivers quite a bit with no safety or linebacker help – if your specialty isn’t man coverage responsibilities, it can be a long three days.

Thankfully for Florida State cornerback Azareye’h Thomas, he can thrive in man coverage, earning a 77.4 grade in single coverage. On Thursday, he showcased the ability to succeed in those assignments while learning the tendencies he was going up against. He was sticky in coverage, especially in the red-zone drills.

WESTERN KENTUCKY DEFENSIVE BACK UPTON STOUT SHOWED OFF SLOT SKILLS

Staying on the cornerback train, Western Kentucky’s Upton Stout was a standout from the defensive back group on Thursday. He’s just 5-foot-8 and 174 pounds, so he likely lacks the size to be a consistent outside cornerback.

His home will be in the slot, and he sure showed he was comfortable in that spot Thursday. He was very sticky in one-on-one coverage in the red zone and was even strong when defending the run from the slot later in the scrimmages. He earned a 73.5 coverage grade in the slot this past season.

ALABAMA’S TIM SMITH SHOWED OFF THE POWER

Alabama interior defensive lineman Tim Smith was a standout on the final day of practice, as he was specifically chosen by the coaches for the competition period at the end of practice.

He one-on-one versus offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea, who comes in at a stout 339 pounds. Smith decided he didn’t need anything fancy to win the rep by bull-rushing his opponent six yards back into the quarterback. He was also a standout player in run defense on the first day of practice. He’s played more and more over the last five years and had his best season defending the run this past year with a 78.9 run-defense grade.

BIG DAY FOR TIGHT ENDS

The tight end class is one of the deeper position groups in the 2025 NFL Draft, and as an extension of that, the Senior Bowl’sgroup was full of notable names. On Day 3, Terrance Ferguson, Jackson Hawes and Mason Taylor all stood out, especially with their receiving abilities.

Ferguson showed off his separation skills, Taylor was great with contested catches, and Hawes was able to haul in red-zone targets, something that can be a big difference-maker in his scouting report as a player who will be drafted more for his blocking abilities.

DARIUS ALEXANDER REPRESENTS TOLEDO WELL

The defensive line has boasted some of the best players from the three practices at the Senior Bowl, and Alexander deserves to be mentioned among them.

He checks all the NFL size boxes at almost 6-foot-4, 305 pounds and 34-inch arms. He earned a 90.3 overall defensive grade this past season thanks to a 90.3 run-defense grade and 77.6 pass-rush grade.

In Thursday’s practice, he showed explosiveness and power both as an edge defender and an interior player with an effective long arm to base his pass rush effectiveness around. He was a big-time standout, and an overall riser this week.