- Joined
- Aug 21, 2011
- Messages
- 340
- Name
- Jim Fadler
This was all in shells as is expected. It was also about the nicest weather for the first day of camp that I can ever recall. It wasn't over 100 and as near as humid as usual. Ironically Coach Fisher came out in a short sleeve shirt this time instead of a long sleeved shirt.
Quarterbacks-Other than familiarity with Schottenheimer I really fail to see why Clemens keeps coming back. His arm strength doesn't fit the new offense at all and his lack of decisiveness drives me crazy. He has this knack of bailing in drills and scrambling for some reason, he did it last year and of course did it today. In 7 on 7 at one point he took off and ran around....there is no rush for goodness sakes. What in the world.
Since its shells and limited blitzing the offense has an edge in this stuff early. Sam looked tremendous and they aired it out. He just missed on two deep balls to Givens where the ground caused the ball to come out. But he also connected with Bailey, Tavon Austin and a kid named Andrew Helmick from a local small college called Lindenwood. Sam looked great, ball got out early with a lot of velocity and he seemed to be easing into his leadership role. He had Tavon Austin by him gesturing when they were not on the field.
Austin Davis threw one pass in particular that impressed me. It was a deep out to Helmick that had to cross both hashmarks to get there. I liked him last year but wondered about his arm strength.
The Rams have a camp arm named Tim Jenkins who got some reps late, didn't look good but before he could come out and throw there was a guest QB...
Johnny Hekker took reps with the offense in 7 on 7 drills as the QB and did very well.
Running Backs-Richardson took the bulk of the first string reps with Pead and Stacy also getting a few. Richardson looked the best overall of all of them. But its really hard to get a read on things in shells.
Stacy showed some good burst up field, takes one cut and plants his foot and goes. He did a wheel route wrong and very sloppy early but he frames the ball really well and even on the wrong route still caught the ball. He fumbled early but held on after that.
I thought Ganaway looked slow and his foot speed in the drills wasn't very good.
Bennie Cunningham on the other hand had quick, choppy feet and leans into his runs.
Wide Receiver-Tavon Austin caught this pass to the left hashmark on a circle route, stopped, pivoted and absolutely floored it.....if they had been tackling I don't think anyone could have caught him. He later fooled Finnegan on a double move and Sam hit him for what would have been about a 70 TD. He also took a handoff and flew through the middle.
It is startling to see him on the field and how little he is but on my Rams goodness can he just flat out fly.
Bailey also caught a bomb from Sam and was getting mixed into the first team reps.
Austin Pettis was in on all the offensive huddles and I couldn't figure out what exactly he was doing and then I finally saw he was helping the rookies and the younger players with the routes and assignments. If every Ram draftee improved as much from their rookie year to the current year this team would never had had all the losing years piled on top of each of other.
I thought Quick looked a lot more decisive in his cuts and routes, he was chopping his feet and not taking such long strides. He made a couple of really good catches on outs. He is running second to Pettis right now.
The kid from Lindenwood named Helmick can absolutely fly. He is generously listed at 6:00 and 192 but he went across the middle consistently and caught everything throw his way.
There was also a kid named Raymond Radway from Abeliene Christian that caught my eye a couple of times, he is a second year man.
Tight ends-Kendricks is on the PUP list and Cook and Harkey were the top two out there. Harkey played in the Kendricks role and moved all over the place and was a fullback at times. Cook was in the slot most of the time but came inline and they used a two tight formation a lot. They opened with a single back three wide one tight end formation with Cook in the slot and Austin as the third.
Oline-The Oline and Dline were in Oklahoma drills a lot and I watched the 7 on 7 more while that was going on. I did see Quinn knock Jake Long down on one rep. I also saw Brockers twist Chris Willliams every which way but loose. My son said Barksdale was abused a lot in the drills. The Oklahoma drill has both units line up on each other but only one position is live.
Dline-Later on they did have another segment of practice with the third and fourth string locked in Oklahoma drills. I watched that a lot more and a kid named Gerald Rivers was destroying everyone they put on him. He is undrafted rookie out of Ole Miss that is listed at 6:05 and 249. When I did catch the starters Eugene Sims won every match he was in.
Linebackers-I don't have much of a feel for this, they are so limited in what they can do early on and in shells. Ogletree looks cut and muscular and his talent is obvious.
DBacks-Darian Stewart and TJ McDonald started at safety. I saw Stewart helping McDonald line up on several occasions. When I did watch McDonald he was staying low and not as high as he did in college.
Jenkins and Givens jawed at each other almost all day. Jenkins clearly interfered with Givens early and it was on between the rest of the day.
Quinton Pointer still looks like one of the best special teams players the Rams have.
Special Teams-Greg The Leg nailed the tower several time today.
Back at it tomorrow.
Jimi
Quarterbacks-Other than familiarity with Schottenheimer I really fail to see why Clemens keeps coming back. His arm strength doesn't fit the new offense at all and his lack of decisiveness drives me crazy. He has this knack of bailing in drills and scrambling for some reason, he did it last year and of course did it today. In 7 on 7 at one point he took off and ran around....there is no rush for goodness sakes. What in the world.
Since its shells and limited blitzing the offense has an edge in this stuff early. Sam looked tremendous and they aired it out. He just missed on two deep balls to Givens where the ground caused the ball to come out. But he also connected with Bailey, Tavon Austin and a kid named Andrew Helmick from a local small college called Lindenwood. Sam looked great, ball got out early with a lot of velocity and he seemed to be easing into his leadership role. He had Tavon Austin by him gesturing when they were not on the field.
Austin Davis threw one pass in particular that impressed me. It was a deep out to Helmick that had to cross both hashmarks to get there. I liked him last year but wondered about his arm strength.
The Rams have a camp arm named Tim Jenkins who got some reps late, didn't look good but before he could come out and throw there was a guest QB...
Johnny Hekker took reps with the offense in 7 on 7 drills as the QB and did very well.
Running Backs-Richardson took the bulk of the first string reps with Pead and Stacy also getting a few. Richardson looked the best overall of all of them. But its really hard to get a read on things in shells.
Stacy showed some good burst up field, takes one cut and plants his foot and goes. He did a wheel route wrong and very sloppy early but he frames the ball really well and even on the wrong route still caught the ball. He fumbled early but held on after that.
I thought Ganaway looked slow and his foot speed in the drills wasn't very good.
Bennie Cunningham on the other hand had quick, choppy feet and leans into his runs.
Wide Receiver-Tavon Austin caught this pass to the left hashmark on a circle route, stopped, pivoted and absolutely floored it.....if they had been tackling I don't think anyone could have caught him. He later fooled Finnegan on a double move and Sam hit him for what would have been about a 70 TD. He also took a handoff and flew through the middle.
It is startling to see him on the field and how little he is but on my Rams goodness can he just flat out fly.
Bailey also caught a bomb from Sam and was getting mixed into the first team reps.
Austin Pettis was in on all the offensive huddles and I couldn't figure out what exactly he was doing and then I finally saw he was helping the rookies and the younger players with the routes and assignments. If every Ram draftee improved as much from their rookie year to the current year this team would never had had all the losing years piled on top of each of other.
I thought Quick looked a lot more decisive in his cuts and routes, he was chopping his feet and not taking such long strides. He made a couple of really good catches on outs. He is running second to Pettis right now.
The kid from Lindenwood named Helmick can absolutely fly. He is generously listed at 6:00 and 192 but he went across the middle consistently and caught everything throw his way.
There was also a kid named Raymond Radway from Abeliene Christian that caught my eye a couple of times, he is a second year man.
Tight ends-Kendricks is on the PUP list and Cook and Harkey were the top two out there. Harkey played in the Kendricks role and moved all over the place and was a fullback at times. Cook was in the slot most of the time but came inline and they used a two tight formation a lot. They opened with a single back three wide one tight end formation with Cook in the slot and Austin as the third.
Oline-The Oline and Dline were in Oklahoma drills a lot and I watched the 7 on 7 more while that was going on. I did see Quinn knock Jake Long down on one rep. I also saw Brockers twist Chris Willliams every which way but loose. My son said Barksdale was abused a lot in the drills. The Oklahoma drill has both units line up on each other but only one position is live.
Dline-Later on they did have another segment of practice with the third and fourth string locked in Oklahoma drills. I watched that a lot more and a kid named Gerald Rivers was destroying everyone they put on him. He is undrafted rookie out of Ole Miss that is listed at 6:05 and 249. When I did catch the starters Eugene Sims won every match he was in.
Linebackers-I don't have much of a feel for this, they are so limited in what they can do early on and in shells. Ogletree looks cut and muscular and his talent is obvious.
DBacks-Darian Stewart and TJ McDonald started at safety. I saw Stewart helping McDonald line up on several occasions. When I did watch McDonald he was staying low and not as high as he did in college.
Jenkins and Givens jawed at each other almost all day. Jenkins clearly interfered with Givens early and it was on between the rest of the day.
Quinton Pointer still looks like one of the best special teams players the Rams have.
Special Teams-Greg The Leg nailed the tower several time today.
Back at it tomorrow.
Jimi
