Senior Bowl 2015: Which Players Have the Most on the Line?

The Senior Bowl isn't the be-all, end-all of draft analysis, but it's becoming a pretty big part of the process.

In the grand list of checkmarks that players need before a team is ready to draft them in April, the Senior Bowl may be a smaller check than the scads of tape teams will be watching and even the combine workouts. Much of what happens in Mobile, Alabama, is dotting of I's and crossing of T's, but teams value the event, and it has grown immensely under the careful eye of former NFL personnel man Phil Savage. 

One of the big reasons the Senior Bowl is so valued is that it allows NFL teams to see prospects on a level playing field and under the tutelage of NFL coaching staffs doing NFL-type things. Because of that, it's often a showcase to prove one can do something that people may still have questions about. 

The 10 prospects on this list have that chance this year in Mobile. Some of these players entered the draft process with everything to prove. Others simply must answer questions that could keep them from an eventual early-round selection. Whatever the case, these players could stand to lose (or gain) more than anyone else at the 2015 Senior Bowl. 

Ty Montgomery (WR Stanford)

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At this point last season, we were talking about Montgomery as a consistent game-changer on a Stanford team that had a real chance to be real good in 2014. He's got some injury history, but he's a specimen out on the perimeter with an NFL-caliber game on an NFL-ready frame. He wasn't a lock as a first-rounder (clearly in hindsight), but he was in the discussion. 

Then, Montgomery had an up-and-down final season in college. And the entire team floundered to a five-loss campaign, and its talented receiver only hauled in three touchdowns. 

This week, Montgomery has a chance to prove he wasn't the issue in Palo Alto. 

Nick Marshall (QB/CB Auburn)

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Honestly, if I were a team with long-term question marks at quarterback, I wouldn't have had an issue with Nick Marshall staying at quarterback. He clearly has the athleticism and arm, even if he wouldn't have nearly the same support or environment that Cam Newton had transitioning from the Auburn offense. 

In an NFL where teams have less and less time for long-term projects, he probably made the best decision in his switch to cornerback. In Mobile, he's literally fighting for his NFL career and football future because teams aren't going to spend any more time on him developing in the defensive backfield if he doesn't show some glimmer of promise. 

Clive Walford (TE Miami, Fla.)

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The tight end crop in this draft is not nearly as impressive as things have been in recent years, and it's likely we won't see a tight end drafted until Minnesota's Maxx Williams goes anywhere from the end of the first round to the middle/late second.

After Williams...crickets. 

With a good week at the Senior Bowl, there's a solid chance that Walford (who has the size at 6'4", 258 pounds and athleticism to compete at a high level in the NFL) can move to the top of the list behind Williams and take a slot on the second day of the draft. 

Ali Marpet (OL Hobart)

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Who?

No, seriously...who?

Ali Marpet sounds like a fake name in either a Peter Jackson or possibly a Jim Henson movie. I'm not 100 percent sure if this is a Division III uber-talented lineman or a wizard who lives in a secluded wood somewhere. 

I'm only half-kidding. 

This is the beauty of the Senior Bowl (and other collegiate All-Star games): Players who are often the men among boys at lower levels of competition get a shot against players who will almost certainly be playing on Sundays. 

Hobart is holding his own in Mobile, and that gives him a real shot to make sure more people recognize his name in the very real future. 

Ameer Abdullah (RB Nebraska)

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Here's a dirty little secret of the NFL and the draft process: If you're a running back and you give the NFL a reason not to keep you around, it'll find every reason to get rid of you. 

Abdullah is one of the more talented natural runners in the class, but he projects more as a third-down back in the NFL, and he can't pass block—at all. We're talking a very thin margin here between being a mid-round pick, given a real chance to play a real role on Sunday afternoons, and applying for a Canadian work visa. 

Carl Davis (DT Iowa)

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As mentioned a few slides ago with Ty Montgomery, a lot can change in a year. 

Carl Davis is one of the more talented defensive linemen in college and could easily be a first-round prospect in this class. Yet, in the past year, Davis was rarely the best lineman on his own defensive line. He ran the gamut between mediocre and completely terrible in so many games this season that it's very possible his play in Mobile could be his best tape of the year. 

He'll have plenty of questions to answer about what happened on the field this season, but he could definitely turn things around if he shows up big both in Senior Bowl practices and in the game itself. 

Danny Shelton (DT Washington)

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Rarely does the size of the buzz so perfectly fit the size of the prospect. 

Shelton is a mammoth man (6'2", 343 lbs) and moves about as well as a football player (literally) half his size. His "stock" and "buzz" have a chance to mimic that of now-Kansas City Chiefs big man Dontari Poe of a few years ago, but he's got some of the same question marks—motor, production and NFL fit. 

He's going to get drafted on potential alone, and there's a solid chance his draft-stock floor is still in the first round anyway, but he could make a huge splash toward the top of the first round if he keeps impressing between now and April. 

T.J. Clemmings (OT Pittsburgh)

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Though he's unlikely to be the top tackle in the entire draft, Clemmings has a long-shot chance to be so or go awfully high as the second or third lineman overall. The question marks, though, have the potential to drop him way down the tackle pecking order and thus far out of the discussion toward the top of the draft. 

Clemmings has struggled this week at Mobile, and it could end up showcasing that the stage is a little too big for him at this point in his development. He still has a chance to turn things around, though. 

Bryce Petty (QB Baylor)

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Who wants to be drafted at quarterback after Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota?

Really, who? Hello? Buehler? Buehler?

We've all sort of assumed UCLA's Brett Hundley is that No. 3, and that's still likely the case. And Bryce Petty has given us all sorts of reasons to ignore him. At a Senior Bowl Hundley ran away from, Petty's got a chance to sneak up on him, show he can manage in an NFL-style offense and show off some pretty tremendous physical skills. 

Josh Shaw (CB USC)

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A subplot of this slideshow is how things can change for a prospect over a year, and I'm not sure anyone fits that bill in quite the same way as Josh Shaw. 

Shaw was once considered an afterthought in the discussion of which cornerbacks could go in the first round...in that we all assumed Shaw would go there, and we weren't sure who else in this class would join him. Then, all sorts of weirdness happened around his final year at USC, and he's fighting just to prove he's worth taking up a roster spot in the pros. 

Shaw had a great week in St. Petersburg at the East-West Shrine Game, and that resulted in a call-up to Mobile. With a great week in Mobile, teams may start overlooking some of his indiscretions and start remembering what a promising young player he is. 

Michael Schottey is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Find more of his stuff on his archive page and follow him on Twitter.