2011 NFL Draft: Preston Dial Has Much to Prove at Senior Bowl

Of all the guys on this year's Alabama team, no one brings more smiles to players' faces than Preston Dial.

He was not only the Tide's go-to tight end for much of the season, but the team's almost unanimous pick for biggest practical joker.

But he enters the 2011 NFL draft on a bubble.

Yes, he has a national championship ring on his finger, and he's a good receiver and blocker.

But that's the problem: He's not a great receiver, or a great blocker.

The NFL has drafted 20 tight ends back-to-back the last two years. There is not a lot of demand for an average tight end in the NFL right now.

To make things worse, Dial won't be the best tight end being showcased in the Senior Bowl.

By all accounts, Dial could be the third- or fourth-best tight end at this all star-type game, depending on whose draft projections you believe.

Certainly Lance McKendricks of Wisconsin is the star of the field, and Luke Stocker from Tennessee will probably get the start for the South. D.J. Williams from Arkansas is seen as having a little more stock than Dial.

But the thing you hear from the "bubble" athletes year in and year out at the Senior Bowl is that "you only have to impress one team," and that is the mission of Dial.

NFLsoup.com has Dial rated as the the No. 15 tight end in the upcoming draft, and most believe that, at most, only 10 to 12 tight ends can make it this year.

So Dial's mission at this Senior Bowl is simple.

He's not going to prove to anybody that he's the best tight end available. He just has to prove he's in the top-10, and a big game and a good week of workouts can do just that.

The Senior Bowl very rarely washes out someone who was projected as a first- or second-round pick, but it has and does lift someone from the bottom into a sure late-round pick.

That is what Dial will have to do this coming week. It will be interesting to see if he pulls it off.