Sen'Derrick Marks Scouting Report

Auburn's defense looked dominant early in the 2008 season and Marks was a big reason why. An ankle injury, however, hobbled him throughout the second half of the year and Auburn stumbled as well; all in all it was a relatively disappointing season for Marks, but he is still leaving after his junior campaign. At 6'1'' and 295 pounds, Marks is not one of those interior linemen who just takes up space on the line and causes havoc with his size. Instead, Marks is a great athlete who can use his agility to be a force against both the run and the pass. He can run under 4.9 in the 40. NFL teams that want a huge space-eater in the middle will pass, but athletic linemen seem to be more and more valued with the passing of time. Experience is also a nice positive for Marks, who redshirted at the start of his Auburn career. He started 26 consecutive games and recorded 82 tackles--20 for a loss--and 5.5 sacks in his first two seasons at Auburn, so it's not like he is lacking experience despite coming out early. Drawbacks are his lack of size (relatively speaking) and questionable durability, which is perhaps related to the size issue. That will probably cause Marks to slip out of the first round in this month's NFL Draft, but he should be off the board before the end of round two.