OK, I made it out to camp today, and man I must say the heat felt great! I absolutely love to see these type of days! But you could tell some of the newer players hate it! Lots of trips to the water barrel..
One note: Ricky Williams was excused from practice today for personal reasons, but should be back at it tomorrow.
I'm going to start out with the Qb's but first let me say that this was a very boring practice. One that only involved a short amount of team drills. And I'm giving my point of view as I see it. Liking one Qb over the other is not going to affect how I write these things up. I mean I want Feeley to win this thing hands down, but he still has to earn it.
OK lets start with A. J. Feeley. He was OK in the 11 on 11 drills. He overthrew a couple of passes, and was totally out of sync on two deeper out patterns. He's getting better on his timing with the shorter passes, but he still needs to get in a rhythm with the Wr's. He overthrew Boston on one out pattern, that had Howard ready to take his head off. He did throw a nice long pass to Boston. It was a real nice spiral, thrown into the wind, it may have tailed off at the end, but Boston made adjustments in his stride, to make the pass look perfect. Nice play for sure.
And I tell you that it's pretty obvious to me that the fans really want him to succeed Fiedler, myself included. Because on the last out pattern that he overthrew, drew an awwww from the crowd, which was very very small today, so anyone who attended saw me...lol
This is still understandable, because it is very obvious that he is still trying to cram all the different names of the plays into his head. The routes are basically the same, with the names or numbers changed. And having the defenders in his face so fast one almost every play don't help him.
Fiedler's first pass was knocked down, which should have been intercepted, by Junior SayOw. And his next pass was a bad pass to DT. Then he trips over the Center, or LG's foot dropping back to pass. It happened pretty quick so I'm not sure who was at fault. But still not a very good start. He made once nice zip pass to McMike, and hit Konrad on one as well, but he also missed a wide wide open Konrad on one play, instead he was zeroed in on DT the whole time. Probably by design, but I sure hope they see it on their film. He knows this offense so well, that it could give someone the wrong idea as to how he practiced today, but what I saw was that he was throwing a little behind on a few of his bread and butter short routes.
Sage? Well, Sage looked very debonair standing on the sidelines for, you got it, the whole practice.
I know A. J. Feeley's initials could spell out Another Jay Fiedler, but what we have here is two totally different types of a Qb. With Fiedler looking to move on every play if he needs to, and with Feeley using what the line gives him for a pocket. He also rolled out a couple of times today, and man he sure aint no track star, as a matter of fact when the nickname contest comes around, his name could be used with something like Molasses! J/K However, he did use his pocket presence on rollouts, making one of the two pretty effective.
OK the Wr's
Boston dropped too many balls today, not all his fault, but his mitts were on the ball. He did have the nice bomb from Feeley, which was a pretty spiral. But he showed what a Wr should show, and that's how he adjusted to a ball that was losing just a little steam. He made a pretty nice pass, look perfect! The dinky crowd loved it! But this play was in individual drills, no defense!
I really think that his chin was bothering him a little today, unless he looks down at his leg after every play?
Chambers got two catches in the 11 on 11 drills, one possibly going a long way, when he juked after the catch, but the play was blown dead after he was slightly touched.
McMike caught a couple as well, one was an overthrown pass, that McMike tipped up and while keeping great concentration, came down with a nice catch in a total traffic jam!
They're using the two new TE's a lot. Hart and Jones. Jones dropped one throw right in his mitts, but from what I've seen both these two TE's will be battling thruout camp. Not a bad set of hands on either of them. And Jones can move for a big man.
Minnis was being used across the middle on a lot of his patterns, and of course he was in the slot. One pass from Feeley was thrown a tad behind making Minnis stutter stop his route, but it was still a decent OJ McDuffie looking play.
Not much more to say on the other Wr's.
The Rb's
Travis Minor looked good today, taking quite a load with RW's absence.
But Fred Russell had probably the best day out of anyone. The little giant has some very nifty moves, making instant cutbacks. I mean on a dime cutbacks that left a couple of sets of cleats on the ground in his wake. Even catching the ball he looked pretty good. One play he stretched the D out and got around the corner, and before you knew it he was 20 yards downfield, but I'm sad to say that Chester had him in the backfield, and touched him. I'm not 100% sure if he could have tackled him in pads, but with no pads they call it one. All I want, is to see how he bounces or gets away from big hits with the pads on, because he is very small, but kind of thick for his size.
Konrad is getting some runs too, one of them a nice misdirection run, right up and in-between James, and I'm not sure but it looked like Yates.
Other little notes are
Larry Chester was in on a lot of plays today, driving the pile back for a sack, and in on quite a few run stops.
Look out for Grigsby!! This is the fourth time in a row I've seen him making some noise. He is my sleeper to make the team this year.
I think it was Howard that got an Int of a tipped ball thrown to Boston. Not a great play or anything, more like good presence for making a play, on a ball that pretty much landed in his hands while he was falling. He did hit Boston on one play that had one coach praising him, then saying now don't do it again...
Again folks these are only my opinions of what I saw, and could very well be seen differently by someone else.
If anyone has some questions feel free...
AND MOST OF ALL ........NO PADS, NO HITTING, SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.
Kind of a boring report for kind of a boring practice.
Hope you enjoy.
Peace.
One note: Ricky Williams was excused from practice today for personal reasons, but should be back at it tomorrow.
I'm going to start out with the Qb's but first let me say that this was a very boring practice. One that only involved a short amount of team drills. And I'm giving my point of view as I see it. Liking one Qb over the other is not going to affect how I write these things up. I mean I want Feeley to win this thing hands down, but he still has to earn it.
OK lets start with A. J. Feeley. He was OK in the 11 on 11 drills. He overthrew a couple of passes, and was totally out of sync on two deeper out patterns. He's getting better on his timing with the shorter passes, but he still needs to get in a rhythm with the Wr's. He overthrew Boston on one out pattern, that had Howard ready to take his head off. He did throw a nice long pass to Boston. It was a real nice spiral, thrown into the wind, it may have tailed off at the end, but Boston made adjustments in his stride, to make the pass look perfect. Nice play for sure.
And I tell you that it's pretty obvious to me that the fans really want him to succeed Fiedler, myself included. Because on the last out pattern that he overthrew, drew an awwww from the crowd, which was very very small today, so anyone who attended saw me...lol
This is still understandable, because it is very obvious that he is still trying to cram all the different names of the plays into his head. The routes are basically the same, with the names or numbers changed. And having the defenders in his face so fast one almost every play don't help him.
Fiedler's first pass was knocked down, which should have been intercepted, by Junior SayOw. And his next pass was a bad pass to DT. Then he trips over the Center, or LG's foot dropping back to pass. It happened pretty quick so I'm not sure who was at fault. But still not a very good start. He made once nice zip pass to McMike, and hit Konrad on one as well, but he also missed a wide wide open Konrad on one play, instead he was zeroed in on DT the whole time. Probably by design, but I sure hope they see it on their film. He knows this offense so well, that it could give someone the wrong idea as to how he practiced today, but what I saw was that he was throwing a little behind on a few of his bread and butter short routes.
Sage? Well, Sage looked very debonair standing on the sidelines for, you got it, the whole practice.
I know A. J. Feeley's initials could spell out Another Jay Fiedler, but what we have here is two totally different types of a Qb. With Fiedler looking to move on every play if he needs to, and with Feeley using what the line gives him for a pocket. He also rolled out a couple of times today, and man he sure aint no track star, as a matter of fact when the nickname contest comes around, his name could be used with something like Molasses! J/K However, he did use his pocket presence on rollouts, making one of the two pretty effective.
OK the Wr's
Boston dropped too many balls today, not all his fault, but his mitts were on the ball. He did have the nice bomb from Feeley, which was a pretty spiral. But he showed what a Wr should show, and that's how he adjusted to a ball that was losing just a little steam. He made a pretty nice pass, look perfect! The dinky crowd loved it! But this play was in individual drills, no defense!
I really think that his chin was bothering him a little today, unless he looks down at his leg after every play?
Chambers got two catches in the 11 on 11 drills, one possibly going a long way, when he juked after the catch, but the play was blown dead after he was slightly touched.
McMike caught a couple as well, one was an overthrown pass, that McMike tipped up and while keeping great concentration, came down with a nice catch in a total traffic jam!
They're using the two new TE's a lot. Hart and Jones. Jones dropped one throw right in his mitts, but from what I've seen both these two TE's will be battling thruout camp. Not a bad set of hands on either of them. And Jones can move for a big man.
Minnis was being used across the middle on a lot of his patterns, and of course he was in the slot. One pass from Feeley was thrown a tad behind making Minnis stutter stop his route, but it was still a decent OJ McDuffie looking play.
Not much more to say on the other Wr's.
The Rb's
Travis Minor looked good today, taking quite a load with RW's absence.
But Fred Russell had probably the best day out of anyone. The little giant has some very nifty moves, making instant cutbacks. I mean on a dime cutbacks that left a couple of sets of cleats on the ground in his wake. Even catching the ball he looked pretty good. One play he stretched the D out and got around the corner, and before you knew it he was 20 yards downfield, but I'm sad to say that Chester had him in the backfield, and touched him. I'm not 100% sure if he could have tackled him in pads, but with no pads they call it one. All I want, is to see how he bounces or gets away from big hits with the pads on, because he is very small, but kind of thick for his size.
Konrad is getting some runs too, one of them a nice misdirection run, right up and in-between James, and I'm not sure but it looked like Yates.
Other little notes are
Larry Chester was in on a lot of plays today, driving the pile back for a sack, and in on quite a few run stops.
Look out for Grigsby!! This is the fourth time in a row I've seen him making some noise. He is my sleeper to make the team this year.
I think it was Howard that got an Int of a tipped ball thrown to Boston. Not a great play or anything, more like good presence for making a play, on a ball that pretty much landed in his hands while he was falling. He did hit Boston on one play that had one coach praising him, then saying now don't do it again...
Again folks these are only my opinions of what I saw, and could very well be seen differently by someone else.
If anyone has some questions feel free...
AND MOST OF ALL ........NO PADS, NO HITTING, SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.
Kind of a boring report for kind of a boring practice.
Hope you enjoy.
Peace.
