> Posted by Dave Hyde on February 9, 2010 11:12 AM
Last year, London draftnik Simon Clancy wrote the longest, most in-depth posts available examining the Dolphins needs leading into the NFL draft. This year, Simon will take turns with his cohorts at UniversalDraft.com , Richard Lines and Chris Kouffman.

This week, RIchard tackles and Senior Bowl and Simon talks of the Dolphins meetings:


Chris on the Senior Bowl:

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Tennessee’s Dan Williams drew rave reviews all week long, and he carried his practice habits into the game as he showed he has the base strength to hold up against the double team; allowing the South’s linebackers free lanes to the ball whilst proving capable of covering ground down the line of scrimmage.

Williams’ base strength has really shown through during his week in Mobile. #55 has repeatedly shown the ability to explode off the ball; creating a good initial surge and pop. Williams regularly stuns his opponent off the snap of the ball, however, he does not have the quickness to drive past his man and into the pocket with regularity. Williams does not use his hands to clear his man and make plays.

Rather, #55 stays engaged, tying up an offensive lineman and clogging up the middle of the line of scrimmage. In doing so, Dan does not allow his man to reach the second level very often. You can see how Williams comes off the ball, stays engaged while keeping his body parallel to the line of scrimmage; which combined with his lateral quickness makes Williams appear to be a natural fit at NT.

Obviously, he needs to learn the position, but in my opinion he displayed the nuances needed to play NT such as staying alert for the ball sliding down the line without allowing his shoulders to be turned. Once a defensive tackle’s shoulders are turned, his ability to control his matchup is over as his opponent has the upper hand.

But Williams could do to show a greater tendency to lock out his arms, providing him with more separation from his opponent; which should help his ability to shed his man and make that tackle. Currently, he can have trouble disengaging early enough in the play to take advantage of his otherwise fundamentally sound gap control ability.

Williams also showed that while he is not an explosive up the field player that can defeat his man off the snap that he does in fact have decent speed for a man of his size. On more than one occasion, he was seen running down the field after the ball carrier. Williams is the more active of the two players, showcasing his ability to slide and control gaps along the defensive front.

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Dan Williams was an absolute monster. I finally got to breaking the game down on Saturday, and man was he a force in the middle of that line. Way more so than Cody.

The guy is rellentless. He's jumped into my top 3 as far as who I'd like to see Miami draft.