- Joined
- Aug 21, 2011
- Messages
- 340
- Name
- Jim Fadler
It was really hard to see most of the action when they went 7 on 7. They can't use the same field every practice and all the 7 on 7 action and 11 on 11 took place on the second field away from the spectators. But about half way through a front office staffer that I know came and got Michael and I and we got to take a short tour of the first floor. Then we were able to watch the rest of the practice with the families and kids of the players.
And lo and behold a friend with us told me to look behind me and there was Road Warrior Animal Joe Laurinaitis in the flesh but sadly no studded collar. My son saw my excitement and told me "be cool Dad." So I was able to restrain myself but did get a picture of Joe and James together at the fence after practice.
And Mr. Animal did not clothesline me off the rope much to my chagrin.
QB-Austin Davis took the reps with the second team today again. I think that what this ultimately means will be more clear as the pre-season games start up and we see who is the second QB out there after Sam.
In the 7 on 7 it seemed the game plan was to work on short crossing stuff, circles out of the backfield and check downs. Toward the end of Sam's run he did go deep to both Quick and Austin for big gains.
RB-They did a long drill with the linebackers matched up on them in pass blocking. Both Richardson and Pead really struggled. Richardson just gave and tackled the guy on his first rep. Pead did pretty much the same thing on his first one. He later got rag dolled and tossed away by Ogletree.
Clay just needs some work on his technique and hand placement. Each of his reps started out great but right toward the end he would lose his form grab shirt and hold on.
Cunningham did very well on all his reps. He has looked very good on both the bag and sled drills.
Stacy had one of the best runs of the day where he slammed up a hole and had about 30 yards straight up the gut before they whistled it dead.
Pead had a draw play that picked up about 8 yards but he would have had more if he hadn't bounced it outside into traffic. He had a tendency last year to not stay with the hole and try to bounce everything to the edge. That was the first real time I saw him do that this year.
Pead however still looks very good catching the ball and is running crisp routes.
WR-I have been able to make a friend out of Andy Helmick's mother. I have been talking to her off and on tonight and so far no word on her son's hamstring injury. He did get a rep early with Sam at QB and caught a long pass.
Givens early on caught a medium out and got popped really good but hung onto the ball. His first few days he was getting open deep but the ground was popping the ball loose most of the time.
Quick did well early in all the drills but dropped a pass late in 11 on 11 when he broke open in the seam. It was right in front of me and it looked like he took his head off the ball to check downfield. The only part that really concerned me was he walked slowly back to the huddle with his head down shaking it from side to side. Get over it and go on.
In the early drills it looked like Austin was running a full route tree consistently for the first time. Up to this point he was mostly running deep nines, swings and digs out of motion. Today I saw him running outs and quite a few skinny posts. He had one carry early but it was before I moved and couldn't tell if it was out of the tailback spot or an end around.
Phil Lutz got lit up late in the day on an out but still held onto it.
Oline/Dline-I was too far away to see any of the matchup drills. After I moved I did get a really good view of Jake Long and Quinn and Long won today.
Most of the time in the 11 on 11 the offense was coming right at me and I got a really good look at Wells. He does a really good job chipping to the side in pass blocking if he isn't matched up on someone. He also is a great cop out there directing the traffic and making the line calls. You could see the rest repond to him.
Linebackers-I kept watching for Ray Ray on the third team and could never find him and the reason turned to be that he was on the second team today with Witherspoon and Hull.
There is a view out among some of the working press that Ogletree doesn't take on blockers very well and tried to run around the blocking. I watched for it and from what I saw today both he and Ray Ray do that to some extent. But they both have great range in their drops and are ahead of the rookie curve in pass coverage. It is really hard to see what their ability is in blitzing due to the nature of practice but they have to speed to get there.
DBacks-For most of the first few practices you could see McDonald catch Stewart's eye to get in the right place. Today I saw them develop some chemistry in coverage that was really nice to see.
It was 11 on 11 and Sam put up a deep ball for Quick. When he let it go it looked like Quick was going to catch up to it but both Stewart and McDonald ran the route with him and kept him for accelerating into the pass.
McGee is running the with second unit.
It looks like Matt Daniels is very close to coming back. He worked on sprints and back pedals with a trainer and I saw no limp.
They are off tomorrow.
And lo and behold a friend with us told me to look behind me and there was Road Warrior Animal Joe Laurinaitis in the flesh but sadly no studded collar. My son saw my excitement and told me "be cool Dad." So I was able to restrain myself but did get a picture of Joe and James together at the fence after practice.
And Mr. Animal did not clothesline me off the rope much to my chagrin.
QB-Austin Davis took the reps with the second team today again. I think that what this ultimately means will be more clear as the pre-season games start up and we see who is the second QB out there after Sam.
In the 7 on 7 it seemed the game plan was to work on short crossing stuff, circles out of the backfield and check downs. Toward the end of Sam's run he did go deep to both Quick and Austin for big gains.
RB-They did a long drill with the linebackers matched up on them in pass blocking. Both Richardson and Pead really struggled. Richardson just gave and tackled the guy on his first rep. Pead did pretty much the same thing on his first one. He later got rag dolled and tossed away by Ogletree.
Clay just needs some work on his technique and hand placement. Each of his reps started out great but right toward the end he would lose his form grab shirt and hold on.
Cunningham did very well on all his reps. He has looked very good on both the bag and sled drills.
Stacy had one of the best runs of the day where he slammed up a hole and had about 30 yards straight up the gut before they whistled it dead.
Pead had a draw play that picked up about 8 yards but he would have had more if he hadn't bounced it outside into traffic. He had a tendency last year to not stay with the hole and try to bounce everything to the edge. That was the first real time I saw him do that this year.
Pead however still looks very good catching the ball and is running crisp routes.
WR-I have been able to make a friend out of Andy Helmick's mother. I have been talking to her off and on tonight and so far no word on her son's hamstring injury. He did get a rep early with Sam at QB and caught a long pass.
Givens early on caught a medium out and got popped really good but hung onto the ball. His first few days he was getting open deep but the ground was popping the ball loose most of the time.
Quick did well early in all the drills but dropped a pass late in 11 on 11 when he broke open in the seam. It was right in front of me and it looked like he took his head off the ball to check downfield. The only part that really concerned me was he walked slowly back to the huddle with his head down shaking it from side to side. Get over it and go on.
In the early drills it looked like Austin was running a full route tree consistently for the first time. Up to this point he was mostly running deep nines, swings and digs out of motion. Today I saw him running outs and quite a few skinny posts. He had one carry early but it was before I moved and couldn't tell if it was out of the tailback spot or an end around.
Phil Lutz got lit up late in the day on an out but still held onto it.
Oline/Dline-I was too far away to see any of the matchup drills. After I moved I did get a really good view of Jake Long and Quinn and Long won today.
Most of the time in the 11 on 11 the offense was coming right at me and I got a really good look at Wells. He does a really good job chipping to the side in pass blocking if he isn't matched up on someone. He also is a great cop out there directing the traffic and making the line calls. You could see the rest repond to him.
Linebackers-I kept watching for Ray Ray on the third team and could never find him and the reason turned to be that he was on the second team today with Witherspoon and Hull.
There is a view out among some of the working press that Ogletree doesn't take on blockers very well and tried to run around the blocking. I watched for it and from what I saw today both he and Ray Ray do that to some extent. But they both have great range in their drops and are ahead of the rookie curve in pass coverage. It is really hard to see what their ability is in blitzing due to the nature of practice but they have to speed to get there.
DBacks-For most of the first few practices you could see McDonald catch Stewart's eye to get in the right place. Today I saw them develop some chemistry in coverage that was really nice to see.
It was 11 on 11 and Sam put up a deep ball for Quick. When he let it go it looked like Quick was going to catch up to it but both Stewart and McDonald ran the route with him and kept him for accelerating into the pass.
McGee is running the with second unit.
It looks like Matt Daniels is very close to coming back. He worked on sprints and back pedals with a trainer and I saw no limp.
They are off tomorrow.
