Anonymous
Guest
CoachO
Camp Report-8/15
Today's Theme: Turn up the intensity!
Quite a bit of contact, that has been noticebly missing up to now. pads popping in many of the drills, as close to full contact during 1 on 1 punt blocking drills.
No out and out scuffles, but even during some of the 11 on 11 work with 1's vs. 1's, there were a couple of shoving incidents with the extra emphasis on hitting. No full on tackling, but there was definitely a more aggressive approach to the practice. Lots of trash talking between offense and defense. At one point, Mario Haggan was having a running conversation with a few of the offensive players standing behind the huddle. It was good to see them being more rambunctious!
Players not participating:
Stewart, Fletcher, Johnson, Laws, Gibson, Alexander, Jarrett
Limited participation: WELLS (he did most of the individual drill work with the OLINE today, including the drive blocking work, worked with Bradford on snaps prior to practice, something he hasn't done before. Looks like they are taking the shackles off, albeit small steps)
First Roster move of camp:
Released TE Jamie Childers
Signed FA WRs Brandyn Harvey and Charles Gilbert
These moves were due to Gibson and Alexander still "being a couple of days away" and the reps starting to pile up on the WRs.
Fisher was quoted about Givens specifically, "having tired legs" so this should take some of the reps and help save their legs.
Pead had one of his best practices to date. He caught the ball better today than at any other time throughout camp.
Special teams got a lot of work today, with the punt teams working extensively on punt block techniques. They actually used volleyballs, and had guys working on BLOCKING kicks off the punters foot. Was very interesting drill.
Later in practice, they worked on both punt coverage unit, and punt return units. Its fairly obvious, that they put an emphasis on this facet of the game. And Coach Fassel is like the Everready bunny. He never stops coaching. Even after the team drills, he took both long snappers to the other field and worked with them on getting a release from the LOS and covering kicks. Impressive attention to detail.
No real changes in any of the units. OLine stayed the same as yesterday. I know this continues to contradict all the "expert" reports. But J. Smith is much more active and athletic than Richardson will ever be. They worked alot on getting to the edge in the running game today. Toss sweeps, and designed plays to get to the outside, and Richardson looked slow and lumbering trying to find someone to block in space. Smith , much quicker and more decisive in finding someone to block. TODAY anyway, ADVANTAGE SMITH!!! This position is NOT settled yet.
Pete Adkins
Camp Report-8/15
This was the first practice I've been able to attend all year. Really enjoyed it. Pead did appear to catch the ball fine from what I observed. The RB's were doing 1 on 1 pass route drills against the safety's, and he did a wheel and up route, and streaked down the sideline and caught a nice ball downfield that traveled about 30 yards through the air. He had about 10 yards of separation on the safety.
Other observations I came away with:
*Fisher is a vocal leader. I don't ever recall hearing Spags's voice from where the fans could observe practice in recent years. Fisher, however, is a horse of a different color. He was involved in positional drills and you could hear him very easily giving instruction. He wasn't yelling or being abrasive by any means, but had that "coach's voice" that carries.
*Jenoris Jenkins has the most fluid hips and balance of any player I have seen since Marshall Faulk. Seeing him in person going through DB drills really makes this clear. Seemed like he dropped a lot of punts, however, on special teams.
*Trumaine Johnson is really a big guy. He was off on the side with Gibson and Stewart going through exercises. So we went over to the season ticket holder area to observe. He kept looking up at us almost begging us with his eyes to watch him work out. Very impressive physically.
*Ditto with Mario Haggan. Very big man.
*LB's did a drill where they rush the QB and as they are getting washed down by the OT (or just running by), they were to work on stripping the ball from QB. Also worked on keeping their arms up as they close the running lane on the QB. Gotta give it up to Justin Cole, who looked smooth as silk in how he could zip in, swat the ball out, snatch in the air, and turn the other way. Looked like he knows some jiu jitsu in how fast and smooth he was with his hands. Rocky McIntosh also looked good in this drill, though he looked much skinnier than I remember seeing him in his Redskin days.
*The most impressive WR we saw today: Austin Pettis. Hands down. I posted when watching practice last year that he is a natural "fingers catcher," that is, the ball rarely hits his palms, let alone his chest. He showed that again today. You never hear the ball make a sound when he catches it. But not just his hands, his route-running was exceptional. The WR's were doing 1 on 1 drills with the corners. Pettis would run these super-sharp curl-routes about 15 yards deep, then break to the sideline, then break again to the post. No one could cover him. His feet were not this good a year ago.
*Givens ran a crossing route over the middle at one point, caught the ball in stride, and put on the afterburners. His speed is evident.
*Brian Quick didn't show me much at all today. I was pulling for him, but he dropped a couple and did not look that quick off the snap.
*Amendola was solid as ever. Finnegan held his own against him.
*Suprisingly, the DB that surprised me the most in this drill was Jerome Murphy. After doing the drill on the 10 yd line going out, the turned it around and did it on the 10 yd line going in (red zone). Murphy showed really well here.
*Top 3 DB's I saw, based on this limited sample, were Jenkins, Murphy, and Finnegan.
*Rock Watkins has a massive trunk and I can see how he could be great to run behind. But man, that dude is slow off the ball.
*Conversely, I was very impressed with how quick off the snap Michael Brockers was. Early on when they were scrimaging, he got in the backfield so quickly he nearly took the handoff from Bradford.
*Kendricks had a good practice. Some good catches and good in-line blocking.
*Don't kill the messenger, but Barry Richardson did have a very good seal block on a sweep to the right. He quickly got out and sealed the DE (Long). However, SJax had little room to run, as the LB's flowed quickly to the perimeter to cut it off. Nevertheless, Barry impressed me on that play (and I have not been impressed by what I have seen in the past).
*SJax made a great one-handed catch in 7 on 7's. His receiving skills are so under-appreciated.
*JL55 really has improved a ton in his coverage skills. Very evident when I look back to watching his drills as a rookie when he was getting beat in coverage frequently.
All in all, a great time. Thanks again, Rams, for giving us fans a peak into practice!
Rams Pad Up For Wednesday Practice/Wagoner
by nickwagoner
August 15, 2012
http://blog.stlouisrams.com/2012/08/16/ ... -practice/
- The weather continues to be downright gorgeous for the Rams in practice and they strapped the pads back on for Wednesday’s evening workout.
- Along with the pads comes a little more physical and intense workout. There was no shortage of any of that in this practice as the Rams got after it a bit.
- Some quick news on the roster:
The Rams released TE Jamie Childers.
They signed WRs Brandyn Harvey and Charles Gilbert.
Before the moves, the Rams were at 89 players on the roster, one below the limit of 90. Now they are the full 90.
- The additions come in light of some injuries at the WR position and some tired legs in camp. Harvey and Gilbert didn’t participate in practice, instead taking part in conditioning tests. Both should be able to chip in at Thursday’s practice.
- On the injury front: the Rams had a similar look on the sidelines as WRs Danario Alexander and Brandon Gibson, CBs Bradley Fletcher and Trumaine Johnson, S Darian Stewart, DE Jamaar Jarrett, C Scott Wells and DT Trevor Laws did not participate.
- Let me offer a little bit of a good sign on Wells’ progress: he participated in walk through line stuff with his group tonight, one of the first times he’s done something publicly aside from some individual work on the sideline. Still will be a little while but progress nonetheless.
- On to practice, the Rams worked on a lot of one on one things. One thing they do different from previous regimes: the one on one pass rush drills aren’t limited to D linemen and O linemen. Tight ends and linebackers integrate as well.
- In one extremely unfair matchup, Chris soundly defeated Joe in the battle of the Longs. To his credit, Joe Long fare a little better in his second try and Chris did his best to encourage and help Joe after the two reps were complete. That kind of competition is the best way to get better.
- TE Matthew Mulligan, who has been solid throughout camp, got introduced to the moves and ability that made LB Sammy Brown a pass rushing menace at Houston. Brown struck hard and quick, wobbling Mulligan on one down and blew by for what would have been a sack. One of the first noticeable flashes for Brown in this camp, let’s see if he is revving it up for a game this weekend.
- LB Aaron Brown might be the most overlooked player in this draft class but he continues to impress. He jumped in front of a receiver in a one on one drills for an interception. He’s also made a strong impression on special teams coach John Fassel. They say that for young defensive players to make an impression and make the squad, special teams is the way to do it. It would seem he’s doing just that so far.
- QB Sam Bradford has missed on his share of deep balls in this camp but showed some accuracy on some long ones in this practice including a nice long completion to WR Greg Salas early in practice.
- The Rams worked a lot of short yardage stuff in the red zone and had some success using a variety of looks. For obvious reasons, can’t go into much detail on specifics but some good production from that group near the goal line.
- One little known youngster who continues to jump out is S Rodney McLeod. Not sure what they put in the water down there in Virginia but there are two undrafted rookies from Charlottesville that figure to make things extremely difficult on the coaching staff when it’s roster cutdown time.
- That’s going to do it for today. As always, thanks for reading. Be sure to check out my piece on Danny Amendola on the front page with thoughts from him on moving into a leadership role. He’s really embraced it and has some interesting things to say about what this offense asks of him.
