Brenden Jaimes Senior Bowl Day 2 Report

After struggling for a better part of Tuesday’s Practice working at right tackle and a little at right guard, Jaimes was back for day two at his more familiar left tackle position looking to rebound. And that is exactly what Jaimes did, improving after a day one struggles and showing NFL teams what we saw all season long. Here is a look at how Brenden Jaimes did on day two of the Reeses’ Senior Bowl.

Pass Protection

Getting back to the left side did wonders for Jaimes in pass protection drills as he seemed more comfortable and was able to shut down pass rushers like he did during the season. Jaimes especially had success against speed rushers. Early on in practice Jaimes was able to get good depth against Pitt’s Patrick Jones to stay in front of him. Then in OL vs DL drills Jaimes was able to get good depth and ride Ohio State LB Baron Browning and Oregon State’s Hamilcar Rashed past the pocket.

In later OL vs DL drills Jaimes faced off against Notre Dame’s Daelin Hayes and did a good job of pushing him up the field but got pushed back a bit causing the coach to mimic the quarterback stepping up in the pocket.

In a full squad scrimmage to end practice, Jaimes took on Pitt’s powerful defensive end Rashad Weaver (6’5 265lbs) and was able to swat Weaver’s hands away from getting to him and then slide laterally before taking away the spin move back to the inside. After dealing with mainly speed rushers, it was nice to see Jaimes have success against power.

During the season Jaimes faced off against Penn State’s Shaka Toney and was able to hold his own. The two faced off again at the Senior Bowl during the full team scrimmage. In the first rep Toney got the best of Jaimes with a bull rush putting him on skates and driving him back to the quarterback. However Jaimes was able to recover on the second rep as he was able to redirect to take away Toney trying to shoot inside and then mirrored him back outside taking away the spin counter move.

Run Blocking

One thing we knew about Jaimes was that he can show good power in the run game and that was one of the few things that stood out for him on Tuesday. But Jaimes continued to show that Wednesday dominated double teams driving back a defensive end five yards and then later on engaging with Ohio State’s Jonathan Cooper sealing him off for an inside run.

But the highlight of the day for Jaimes was in a full team scrimmage and Jaimes was able to take on Ohio State’s Jonathan Cooper head up and then used his power to turn Cooper to the outside and then seal him off to open a running lane.

Overall

It was great to see Jaimes bounce back after his Tuesday struggles. Getting to play left tackle likely was more comfortable for Jaimes and allowed him to relax and just show off his skills and get noticed by both the teams and media. What surprised me was that Jaimes spent his entire time at left tackle and wasn’t moved inside to guard. Maybe because he was playing well at tackle, but it was surprising to see. I’m anxious to see whether Jaimes is moved back to the right side on Thursday or do they leave him on the left and try him some at guard.