Interior defensive line- Adetomiwa Adebawore, Northwestern (6-2, 284)
Wisconsin’s Keeanu Benton went into the Senior Bowl as the best interior defensive line prospect in Mobile and he lived up to it, but a fellow Big Ten defensive lineman stole the show. The best performance of the week has to go to Adetomiwa Adebawore, he was a menace every single day in every single drill.
While Adebawore lacks size, he’s got shockingly long arms (34”) and he knows how to use them. The scariest part about him is the fact that he has natural leverage to go with that length and he’s a twitched up athlete (he was on Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List). Combined all of that and he’s a wrecking ball of power.
He had more than a few reps where he simply won by being more explosive and powerful than the guy in front of him. He frequently converted speed to power and would just run right through the lineman he was lined up against, this happened both as a pass rusher and run defender.
The thing that made his week so special though is the fact that he didn’t win by being a power rusher, he unleashed hell with his hands. Nobody in Mobile showed a deeper pass rush repertoire than Adebawore; he combo’d a euro step with a double swipe-rip, pulled off club-swims and club-rips with ease, and showed off a cross-chop.
Having spent most of his collegiate career as an edge rusher, while moonlighting at 5 and 3-Tech, Adebawore pretty much spent the entire week at 3-Tech. The size will always be the question with Adebawore, but his athleticism and length are impressive and in a weak interior defensive line class he certainly looks worthy of a top-100 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Honorable mention: Karl Brooks, Bowling Green (6-3, 303)
Northwestern’s Adetomiwa Adebawore is so fun, he’s just trying stuff at the #SeniorBowl. Leaping double swipe into a rip move here. Twitched up ball of anger on the D-line. pic.twitter.com/24p3O1sUYG
— Bobby Football (@Rob__Paul) February 2, 2023