- Joined
- Oct 28, 2012
- Messages
- 2,215
- Name
- Dale
DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional scout or writer (duh). Just offering my two cents and making change for that.
I got a late start getting to camp but being that my work is only 15 minutes from UCI, I still made it in time to watch warm ups. I did bring my trusty Nikon and if you like, there are a ton of pictures at the link below (276 photos, not for the faint of heart).
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/daledouglass/library/Rams Camp Aug 17 2016?sort=3&page=1
Good size crowd, maybe 800-1000 but I’m not good at math so I may be exaggerating. What I really enjoy seeing at these practices, this is my fourth one, is the families. Dad’s with their kids, small kids, medium kids, large kids. Love seeing the kids and I love seeing parents with all their Ram gear on and the kids having matching outfits. There was even a couple of Pop Warner teams there. It was fun listening to the coaches and Dad’s talking about football, “Hey, we do those drills!” or “Maybe we should use that drill?”.
Weather was warm, no, hot is more like it. High 80’s, maybe low 90’s. Clear skies but off in the distance to the north you could see the smoke over the mountains from the fire in the Cajon pass. Pray no one gets hurt or killed. Possessions can be replaced.
My plan this camp was to focus on the lineman and the DB’s. That is so hard to do with the vantage points we have. I set up in the end zone bleachers and was treated to the 1x1 of the wide receivers and DB’s. Two lines, one on each side of the hash marks. QB’s rotated so I couldn’t see who was throwing while I was focusing (literally, had my camera) on the match ups. Now I had the big scissor lift blocking part of my view to the right so my area of focus was on my left or the QB’s right. Line of scrimmage was about the 5-yard line. Here is what I saw;
P. Cooper was lining up on the left side. Saw him make a move at the line, sprint to the back of the end zone, cut left (outside) and then immediately reverse direction to the middle of the end zone. It was fast, crisp and left the DB, who I didn’t see his number, in the dust. Nice move. Didn’t catch the ball IIRC.
K. Britt is a pro. He needs more targets. Leaping high to make the catch then coming down in bounds. Joyner playing him tight when they were matched up. One series Joyner leaps high and breaks up the pass. Nice D.
A. Hill, the son of former Ram TE David Hill and nephew of local CBS sportscaster Jim Hill is trying hard. He just doesn’t have the speed, the moves, the hands. He knows he has to impress and is maybe trying too hard? He had a drop in the end zone against Mike Jordan that upset him greatly. Later on, during 11x11, he made a great leaping catch on the far sideline the caused some cheers from the crowd. He seemed rejuvenated after that. Did catch a couple more during 11x11. He will be lucky to make the PS.
B. Quick knows he is on the bubble. During the first series of drills, he ran a simple out curl. The ball hit him in a bad place, his hands. Dropped. I have a picture of him after that walking around with his hands on his hips and his head down. Obviously upset with himself and like I said, I think he knows he may not make the team with all the younger talent at WR. He did redeem himself later by getting really open and a nice leaping catch then, fighting off Tru J. and using his size to score a TD. Doing what we expect him to do, fight for the ball, use his size and leaping ability. See the pics for this sequence.
B. Marquez got separation from Tru on one series but couldn’t hang on to an over throw. He also was WIDE open during 7x7. Blown coverage by either EJ Gains or #47 M. Roberson.
D. Williams, only saw one series with him. Shielded Tru with his body and made the catch at the goal line.
D. Richards, #12 made a nice move on T. Hill, was open for the over the shoulder throw but didn’t manage to hang on.
T. Austin didn’t do much of these drills that I saw but he did have a nice play during 11x11. Screen pass to the right, turns up field and lights his jets. Breaking away from all pursuers, Joyner comes full speed with a great angle to intercept the speeding Austin. Just as Joyner was within arm’s reach, Tavon takes a half step, cuts back to the middle of the field. Joyner never saw him again. Nice effort by Joyner, great move my Tavon. I posted that Joyner was still looking for his socks after that juke.
That was it for WR drills. I was hoping to use my zoom lens from the end zone to capture the linemen during 11x11 but the offense was moving towards the far end zone so all the players not participating were standing on the field and blocking my view. So I move to the south bleachers as far down as I could so I could get some good shots with players’ numbers. It worked out pretty well. Now I did focus almost exclusively on the line of scrimmage so I really didn’t see the end result of the plays ran. But that was the whole idea, watch the line.
This is for DaveFan51.
Battle didn’t play, was taken out due to injury earlier in practice. Pace Murphy took his place.
G. Rob had some good and some bad moments. He was going up against Sims.
C. Wichmann was at LG for the ones. Again, some good, some bad.
T. Barnes center did a good job from what I saw. Maybe the best of all the lineman not named Saffold.
J. Brown at RG. A. Donald 99 made him look bad but he really wasn’t. Everyone looks bad against Donald, but one series Brown did get all out of positon, his feet were not under him, reaching for Donald. Would have been a sack.
D. Williams was at RT for the second string. He did well! He was going up against Morgan Fox so that may be the reason.
R. Saffold against W. Hayes. Saffold is solid. Best multi position player on the team IMHO.
T. Gurley had a nice blitz pick up. Actually was able to take out two rushers by pushing his man (A. Ayers) into the other moving around to the outside (C. Lynch). Play would have resulted in a sack because G. Rob let Sims beat him with a speed rush.
There was a little scuffle between Chase Reynolds and Darreon Herring. They were so close, wrapped up tight, looked like they could have been dancing a slow dance. Not much more than that and some jaw jacking. It really didn’t even attract the attention of the other players. It must have affected Reynolds as he wasn’t performing well after that. Came to the sidelines after one series, Tavon was yelling his name to get his attention and Reynolds didn’t even acknowledge Tavon.
I can’t recall much more than this. Take a look at the pics and hopefully they loaded in the correct sequence so you can get a feel for the action. Maybe some of you with more football acumen could add some analysis from what you see.
Thanks!
I got a late start getting to camp but being that my work is only 15 minutes from UCI, I still made it in time to watch warm ups. I did bring my trusty Nikon and if you like, there are a ton of pictures at the link below (276 photos, not for the faint of heart).
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/daledouglass/library/Rams Camp Aug 17 2016?sort=3&page=1
Good size crowd, maybe 800-1000 but I’m not good at math so I may be exaggerating. What I really enjoy seeing at these practices, this is my fourth one, is the families. Dad’s with their kids, small kids, medium kids, large kids. Love seeing the kids and I love seeing parents with all their Ram gear on and the kids having matching outfits. There was even a couple of Pop Warner teams there. It was fun listening to the coaches and Dad’s talking about football, “Hey, we do those drills!” or “Maybe we should use that drill?”.
Weather was warm, no, hot is more like it. High 80’s, maybe low 90’s. Clear skies but off in the distance to the north you could see the smoke over the mountains from the fire in the Cajon pass. Pray no one gets hurt or killed. Possessions can be replaced.
My plan this camp was to focus on the lineman and the DB’s. That is so hard to do with the vantage points we have. I set up in the end zone bleachers and was treated to the 1x1 of the wide receivers and DB’s. Two lines, one on each side of the hash marks. QB’s rotated so I couldn’t see who was throwing while I was focusing (literally, had my camera) on the match ups. Now I had the big scissor lift blocking part of my view to the right so my area of focus was on my left or the QB’s right. Line of scrimmage was about the 5-yard line. Here is what I saw;
P. Cooper was lining up on the left side. Saw him make a move at the line, sprint to the back of the end zone, cut left (outside) and then immediately reverse direction to the middle of the end zone. It was fast, crisp and left the DB, who I didn’t see his number, in the dust. Nice move. Didn’t catch the ball IIRC.
K. Britt is a pro. He needs more targets. Leaping high to make the catch then coming down in bounds. Joyner playing him tight when they were matched up. One series Joyner leaps high and breaks up the pass. Nice D.
A. Hill, the son of former Ram TE David Hill and nephew of local CBS sportscaster Jim Hill is trying hard. He just doesn’t have the speed, the moves, the hands. He knows he has to impress and is maybe trying too hard? He had a drop in the end zone against Mike Jordan that upset him greatly. Later on, during 11x11, he made a great leaping catch on the far sideline the caused some cheers from the crowd. He seemed rejuvenated after that. Did catch a couple more during 11x11. He will be lucky to make the PS.
B. Quick knows he is on the bubble. During the first series of drills, he ran a simple out curl. The ball hit him in a bad place, his hands. Dropped. I have a picture of him after that walking around with his hands on his hips and his head down. Obviously upset with himself and like I said, I think he knows he may not make the team with all the younger talent at WR. He did redeem himself later by getting really open and a nice leaping catch then, fighting off Tru J. and using his size to score a TD. Doing what we expect him to do, fight for the ball, use his size and leaping ability. See the pics for this sequence.
B. Marquez got separation from Tru on one series but couldn’t hang on to an over throw. He also was WIDE open during 7x7. Blown coverage by either EJ Gains or #47 M. Roberson.
D. Williams, only saw one series with him. Shielded Tru with his body and made the catch at the goal line.
D. Richards, #12 made a nice move on T. Hill, was open for the over the shoulder throw but didn’t manage to hang on.
T. Austin didn’t do much of these drills that I saw but he did have a nice play during 11x11. Screen pass to the right, turns up field and lights his jets. Breaking away from all pursuers, Joyner comes full speed with a great angle to intercept the speeding Austin. Just as Joyner was within arm’s reach, Tavon takes a half step, cuts back to the middle of the field. Joyner never saw him again. Nice effort by Joyner, great move my Tavon. I posted that Joyner was still looking for his socks after that juke.
That was it for WR drills. I was hoping to use my zoom lens from the end zone to capture the linemen during 11x11 but the offense was moving towards the far end zone so all the players not participating were standing on the field and blocking my view. So I move to the south bleachers as far down as I could so I could get some good shots with players’ numbers. It worked out pretty well. Now I did focus almost exclusively on the line of scrimmage so I really didn’t see the end result of the plays ran. But that was the whole idea, watch the line.
This is for DaveFan51.
Battle didn’t play, was taken out due to injury earlier in practice. Pace Murphy took his place.
G. Rob had some good and some bad moments. He was going up against Sims.
C. Wichmann was at LG for the ones. Again, some good, some bad.
T. Barnes center did a good job from what I saw. Maybe the best of all the lineman not named Saffold.
J. Brown at RG. A. Donald 99 made him look bad but he really wasn’t. Everyone looks bad against Donald, but one series Brown did get all out of positon, his feet were not under him, reaching for Donald. Would have been a sack.
D. Williams was at RT for the second string. He did well! He was going up against Morgan Fox so that may be the reason.
R. Saffold against W. Hayes. Saffold is solid. Best multi position player on the team IMHO.
T. Gurley had a nice blitz pick up. Actually was able to take out two rushers by pushing his man (A. Ayers) into the other moving around to the outside (C. Lynch). Play would have resulted in a sack because G. Rob let Sims beat him with a speed rush.
There was a little scuffle between Chase Reynolds and Darreon Herring. They were so close, wrapped up tight, looked like they could have been dancing a slow dance. Not much more than that and some jaw jacking. It really didn’t even attract the attention of the other players. It must have affected Reynolds as he wasn’t performing well after that. Came to the sidelines after one series, Tavon was yelling his name to get his attention and Reynolds didn’t even acknowledge Tavon.
I can’t recall much more than this. Take a look at the pics and hopefully they loaded in the correct sequence so you can get a feel for the action. Maybe some of you with more football acumen could add some analysis from what you see.
Thanks!
