2023 East-West Shrine Bowl Preview

We have Thursday night football back already this week, by way of the East-West Shrine Bowl. Kickoff is at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on NFL Network. This game garners less coverage than its counterpart, the Senior Bowl, but these players warrant attention as well. There are quite a few quality players in this game this year – including a few marquee names. Let’s dive into a few below. 

Zay Flowers, WR, Boston College

(5-foot-9, 182 pounds)

Maybe the biggest name in this year’s edition of the Shrine Bowl, Zay Flowers had an impressive senior year at Boston College, producing over 1,000 receiving yards and double-digit touchdowns (12), both for the first time in his college career. 

This career year was no surprise — Flowers is an exquisite route runner who possesses a crazy suddenness within his routes. After he secures the catch, he is one of the best in the nation at creating yards — he was credited with 503 yards after the catch and 15 forced missed tackles via PFF. His toughness and physicality after the catch are extremely underrated parts of his game as well. As an electric playmaker, there is no doubt he flashes his immense upside in this game, so keep your eyes on him. 

A.T. Perry, WR, Wake Forest 

(6-foot-3, 195 pounds)

A.T. Perry has a traditional X wide receiver frame and uses all of it to excel as a physical field stretcher. Over the past two seasons, Perry has produced back-to-back seasons of 1,000 receiving yards and double-digit touchdowns, totaling 2,662 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns for the Demon Deacons, including 2,389 yards and 26 touchdowns the last two seasons. 

These impressive numbers show his knack for tracking the ball extremely well downfield, and he high points the ball incredibly well. He pairs this with reliable hands and a good release package to stack defensive backs regularly. However, he lacks suddenness in his route and has great acceleration and straight-line speed that have limited his route tree thus far in his career.

Jadon Haselwood, WR, Arkansas

(6-foot-2, 213 pounds)

Jadon Haselwood is a player who has not lived up to what many hoped he would when he arrived at Oklahoma in 2019. He never topped 1,000 receiving yards in college, even after transferring to Arkansas. That said, he is coming off his best season, producing 702 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 59 receptions in his first Razorbacks season in 2022. 

Pairing his stout frame with enough top-end speed, Haselwood is a tough cover downfield. He uses a quick release to stack pressing defenders and then has the ability to track the ball and take the top off the defense. Even though he possesses this straight-line speed he also has the strength and physicality to out-muscle defenders in contest catch situations in which he finds himself often as he lacks the ability to separate within his routes. 

Mohamed Ibrahim, RB, Minnesota

(5-foot-7, 203 pounds)

Mohamed Ibrahim is coming off his third 1,000-yard season in five years at Minnesota. In 2022, he set career highs in rushing yards (1,665) and touchdowns (20), the latter of which led the nation.

Ibrahim is one of the most well-rounded running backs in this class. He has great short-area burst and identifies run lanes well. He is also one of the toughest tackles in the open field and has the quickness to sidestep defenders, pairing that with enough power to run them over if needed. His ability to identify and pick up blitzes is another great strength of his and will draw the eyes of NFL teams. This week he showed off an ability as a receiver as well, displaying solid hands and OK routes — still not the most advance route runner in the class. 

Xazavian Valladay, RB, Arizona State 

(5-foot-11, 199 pounds) 

Xazavian Valladay is coming off his third season of at least 1,200 scrimmage yards in the last four years, with 1,000 rushing yards in all three of those years. He was second in the Pac-12 with 1,192 rushing yards while leading the Pac-12 with 16 rushing touchdowns and 18 total touchdowns. 

Valladay has created a ton of yardage in his career, though he does not possess crazy speed in his game. He has enough speed to outrun linebackers to the edge while exposing overcommitting defenses by finding cutback lanes that result in large chunk plays. He also lacks an elusiveness in the open field to force missed tackles in one-on-one situations. On the flip side, he does well to pick his way through the box avoiding contact before seeking it out to finish off the run. This physicality also translates to the blocking game as he is an above-average blocker. Valladay is also a quality dual-threat running back who can hurt a defense in the passing game. 

Additional Players to Watch 

Outside these few players, you should also keep an eye out for these players, who could emerge from the game as more household names. 

At quarterback we are going to see two dynamic players with different skill sets, Aidan O’Connell (Purdue) is a traditional pocket passer with a rocket launcher for an arm — passing for 3,490 yards and 22 touchdowns this season for the Boilermakers. We will also see a true dual-threat quarterback in UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who passed for over 3,000 yards and rushed for over 600 this season. 

At the skill positions, will see Utah’s Tavion Thomas, who is a load to bring down at over 240 pounds and has a physical running style. He produced over 650 yards on the ground and 7 touchdowns for the Utes. We also will see an explosive dual-threat runner in Travis Dye, who produced over 5,000 scrimmage yards and 38 total touchdowns in five seasons (four at Oregon and one at USC). 

At wide receiver, we will see three productive players who produced over 600 yards receiving and 7 touchdowns for their teams this season: Bryce Ford-Wheaton (West Virginia), Jake Bobo (UCLA) and Shaq Davis (SC State).