Dude
Seasoned Veteran
- Joined
- May 5, 2003
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Today was not an especially impressive practice. It had rained some earlier, and everything was still a little wet. There was a couple of slips, a few bobbles, and at least 3 poor passes that I think (hope) can be blamed on a wet ball, slipping out of the QB’s hand during the throw. Even beyond the slick field and ball the guys didn’t look as sharp as in previous practices. It looked like everyone was a step slower.
The 3 QB’s were up and down and many passed hit the ground. There were even a few drops more then normal in the QB to WR drill which has no defender at all. There were also a couple of good passes, but not too many long balls attempted today.
#52 Greenwood was working lightly with a trainer and I didn’t see him participating in any drills.
#23 Surtain dressed but didn’t practice. Played assistant coach fetching balls for the DB drills again
#35 Irving was actively working with a trainer and didn’t practice
#33 Dyer didn’t practice and basically stood around and body language told me something was up with him. - He looked like a guy that just got demoted and was on his way out. (I peeked at the depth chart before I wrote my report)
#84 Chambers was involved with the position drills, but not in any of the contact stuff including the 11 vs 11.
#44 Konrad, #80 McKnight and #93 Wally were all back to full practice.
I noticed Spielman out there watching intently and taking a bunch of noted throughout the practice.
Practice started with field goals. The wet conditions obviously didn’t bother Olindo as he continually booted kicks right through the posts from about 37 yards out. And again they were kicking to the portable posts which are much narrower then normal goal posts. Also during this drill I noticed #25 Omare Lowe coming around the corner on the rush in great position to make an attempt to block the kick. He showed some real good speed and chose great angles. If he was laying out as he would in a game, he looked like he was close to getting a hand on a couple.
After the field goals came some kickoff practice. The drills were mostly for the coverage team fighting through blocks and keeping containment. The returners didn’t run more then 5-10 yards, but they practiced several fakes. Reverses, fake reverses and long lateral passes to the sideline. Nothing looked to smooth though, and there was more then a couple of bobbles. Simmons and Newson were getting the most reps as Rogers and Minor were with the RB’s.
When they split into position drills, Wanny spent all his time watching and actively coaching the DB’s. He had a few 1 vs 1 w/ #24 Knight that ended with a big pat on the butt for Sammy.
The 5 vs 4 didn’t start out so good when McMichael dropped a perfectly placed ball from Fiedler over Fletcher’s coverage. That play was followed closely by another horrible drop, but this time from Tolver. He was hit so perfectly in the shoulder pads, the ball made a loud THUD and then bounced in the air 5 yards back toward Fiedler…
Griese did not have a wonderful day either… On one play he had a definite pick go through #36 Donaldson’s hands on a pass intended for an open Tolver that was thrown short. Another time he missed an open Donald Lee in the middle of the field. Either Lee wasn’t supposed to stop, or the ball slipped out of Griese’s hand and caused a wide throw. He did have a nice completion to #16 Newson splitting the coverage of Freeman and Zach.
A few times today I noticed the Fins putting the FB in motion then splitting him out wide as a WR. Every time he drew the coverage of the RCB. While this is obviously a mismatch the DB should win, it left better match ups in the middle of the field. On this play, I saw 3 completions in the middle of the field: one from Jay to McKnight, one from Jay to McMichael, and one from Griese to Lee.
#45 Roundtree catches my eye at least once or twice a practice for being very aggressive with his press coverage. He hits the WR in front of him with such a jam, not only does he knock them off their route, but more then once I’ve seen him knock them off their feet! A few plays later though, he dropped a sure int on a bad throw from Sage to #19 Hooks that he was in great position for, but couldn’t haul in after hitting him in the hands.
#85 Lee had another good practice and made a several good catches including one in front of Fletcher, another he beat Seau for, a third he caught at the sideline in front of Freeman and I remember another late in the practice he caught in front of Madison. I was very surprised he had not passed #82 Battaglia for the #3 TE spot. Battaglia was dressed and practiced in all the drills, but I didn’t see him make 1 catch today…
#98 Grigsby had a great pass rush stripping the ball from Griese’s hands for a sack and fumble. Great play.
#55 Seau looks great rushing the passer. At least 3 times he got in the backfield and would have gotten a sack or at least disrupted the play. He is a difference maker, and he forces the action. He doesn’t sit back and wait for things to happen then react. I can’t say enough how his addition has changed the look and aggressiveness of our D. On one play he was rushing in at Jay on the blitz causing Jay to hurry to get rid of the pass. The rushed throw went right through #92 Zgonina’s hands as he had dropped back into coverage on a zone blitz. No sack, but his presence was felt! On another play he tipped the ball away from Thompson who looked open in the middle of the field. He looks Great!
#54 Thomas – He has been very quiet, but Zach is still having a fine camp. He has looked very quick, and his reps have been limited a little to save him for the season. On one play though, both Zach and JR blitzed through the same hole on the left side of the O line. The lineman picked up Seau who was on the outside leaving Zach running free at the QB. Jay tried to get rid of the ball and made an ill advised throw to the sideline. Madison easily stepped in front of the pass, picked it off and would have went for an easy 6 in a game! Zach was pumped! He started beating Seau’s helmet to celebrate.
#17 Simons had another good practice catching a few balls. After his first catch I noticed him reaching for his hip or the upper part of his hamstring in a little pain. Going for his next catch he went down to the ground hard going after it and definitely was reaching back there in pain as he got up. To his credit, he did not skip any reps and continued to make catches including a nice sideline ball he caught between Zach and Marion.
#88 Thompson was relatively quiet today except for a great catch deep down the middle of the field from Jay in front of tight coverage from Fletcher. He uses his body to shield the defender from the ball very well.
RW was also quiet today getting only a few reps. One was a pitch he bobbled (wet ball?) slowing him down and then got hit in the mouth by Marion at the LOS. RW looked better on a screen to the right. It was also good to see #66 Nails getting out in front of the play and making a good block 10 yards down field. I’m very glad Nails seems to be coming along nicely.
#28 Minor – Travis got a lot of reps in the middle drill. There weren’t many holes and he didn’t have any great runs, but it’s still good to see Travis back out there! Coming out of the backfield, he was covered by #58 Moore pretty well on one play, leaving Griese no where to go with the ball.
#65 C Andrew struggled with 3 shotgun snaps in a row. The first was snapped at Sage’s feet and fumbled, and the next 2 were short forcing Sage to take his eyes off the down field play and look for the ball. Not good!
#32 Rogers had 2 catches, with one leaving him where he looks his best in open space in the middle of the field. He is so quick and changes direction very well.
There was a little fight near the end of practice between #36 Donaldson and #15 Bellamy after a bad throw from Griese missing an open Baker who dove to the ground but couldn’t make a catch. It looked like no big deal pushing back and forth until Donaldson looked like he kicked Bellamy in the stomach causing a coach to break it up and get right in Donaldson’s face. Didn’t look like any big deal though.
The 3 QB’s were up and down and many passed hit the ground. There were even a few drops more then normal in the QB to WR drill which has no defender at all. There were also a couple of good passes, but not too many long balls attempted today.
#52 Greenwood was working lightly with a trainer and I didn’t see him participating in any drills.
#23 Surtain dressed but didn’t practice. Played assistant coach fetching balls for the DB drills again
#35 Irving was actively working with a trainer and didn’t practice
#33 Dyer didn’t practice and basically stood around and body language told me something was up with him. - He looked like a guy that just got demoted and was on his way out. (I peeked at the depth chart before I wrote my report)
#84 Chambers was involved with the position drills, but not in any of the contact stuff including the 11 vs 11.
#44 Konrad, #80 McKnight and #93 Wally were all back to full practice.
I noticed Spielman out there watching intently and taking a bunch of noted throughout the practice.
Practice started with field goals. The wet conditions obviously didn’t bother Olindo as he continually booted kicks right through the posts from about 37 yards out. And again they were kicking to the portable posts which are much narrower then normal goal posts. Also during this drill I noticed #25 Omare Lowe coming around the corner on the rush in great position to make an attempt to block the kick. He showed some real good speed and chose great angles. If he was laying out as he would in a game, he looked like he was close to getting a hand on a couple.
After the field goals came some kickoff practice. The drills were mostly for the coverage team fighting through blocks and keeping containment. The returners didn’t run more then 5-10 yards, but they practiced several fakes. Reverses, fake reverses and long lateral passes to the sideline. Nothing looked to smooth though, and there was more then a couple of bobbles. Simmons and Newson were getting the most reps as Rogers and Minor were with the RB’s.
When they split into position drills, Wanny spent all his time watching and actively coaching the DB’s. He had a few 1 vs 1 w/ #24 Knight that ended with a big pat on the butt for Sammy.
The 5 vs 4 didn’t start out so good when McMichael dropped a perfectly placed ball from Fiedler over Fletcher’s coverage. That play was followed closely by another horrible drop, but this time from Tolver. He was hit so perfectly in the shoulder pads, the ball made a loud THUD and then bounced in the air 5 yards back toward Fiedler…
Griese did not have a wonderful day either… On one play he had a definite pick go through #36 Donaldson’s hands on a pass intended for an open Tolver that was thrown short. Another time he missed an open Donald Lee in the middle of the field. Either Lee wasn’t supposed to stop, or the ball slipped out of Griese’s hand and caused a wide throw. He did have a nice completion to #16 Newson splitting the coverage of Freeman and Zach.
A few times today I noticed the Fins putting the FB in motion then splitting him out wide as a WR. Every time he drew the coverage of the RCB. While this is obviously a mismatch the DB should win, it left better match ups in the middle of the field. On this play, I saw 3 completions in the middle of the field: one from Jay to McKnight, one from Jay to McMichael, and one from Griese to Lee.
#45 Roundtree catches my eye at least once or twice a practice for being very aggressive with his press coverage. He hits the WR in front of him with such a jam, not only does he knock them off their route, but more then once I’ve seen him knock them off their feet! A few plays later though, he dropped a sure int on a bad throw from Sage to #19 Hooks that he was in great position for, but couldn’t haul in after hitting him in the hands.
#85 Lee had another good practice and made a several good catches including one in front of Fletcher, another he beat Seau for, a third he caught at the sideline in front of Freeman and I remember another late in the practice he caught in front of Madison. I was very surprised he had not passed #82 Battaglia for the #3 TE spot. Battaglia was dressed and practiced in all the drills, but I didn’t see him make 1 catch today…
#98 Grigsby had a great pass rush stripping the ball from Griese’s hands for a sack and fumble. Great play.
#55 Seau looks great rushing the passer. At least 3 times he got in the backfield and would have gotten a sack or at least disrupted the play. He is a difference maker, and he forces the action. He doesn’t sit back and wait for things to happen then react. I can’t say enough how his addition has changed the look and aggressiveness of our D. On one play he was rushing in at Jay on the blitz causing Jay to hurry to get rid of the pass. The rushed throw went right through #92 Zgonina’s hands as he had dropped back into coverage on a zone blitz. No sack, but his presence was felt! On another play he tipped the ball away from Thompson who looked open in the middle of the field. He looks Great!
#54 Thomas – He has been very quiet, but Zach is still having a fine camp. He has looked very quick, and his reps have been limited a little to save him for the season. On one play though, both Zach and JR blitzed through the same hole on the left side of the O line. The lineman picked up Seau who was on the outside leaving Zach running free at the QB. Jay tried to get rid of the ball and made an ill advised throw to the sideline. Madison easily stepped in front of the pass, picked it off and would have went for an easy 6 in a game! Zach was pumped! He started beating Seau’s helmet to celebrate.
#17 Simons had another good practice catching a few balls. After his first catch I noticed him reaching for his hip or the upper part of his hamstring in a little pain. Going for his next catch he went down to the ground hard going after it and definitely was reaching back there in pain as he got up. To his credit, he did not skip any reps and continued to make catches including a nice sideline ball he caught between Zach and Marion.
#88 Thompson was relatively quiet today except for a great catch deep down the middle of the field from Jay in front of tight coverage from Fletcher. He uses his body to shield the defender from the ball very well.
RW was also quiet today getting only a few reps. One was a pitch he bobbled (wet ball?) slowing him down and then got hit in the mouth by Marion at the LOS. RW looked better on a screen to the right. It was also good to see #66 Nails getting out in front of the play and making a good block 10 yards down field. I’m very glad Nails seems to be coming along nicely.
#28 Minor – Travis got a lot of reps in the middle drill. There weren’t many holes and he didn’t have any great runs, but it’s still good to see Travis back out there! Coming out of the backfield, he was covered by #58 Moore pretty well on one play, leaving Griese no where to go with the ball.
#65 C Andrew struggled with 3 shotgun snaps in a row. The first was snapped at Sage’s feet and fumbled, and the next 2 were short forcing Sage to take his eyes off the down field play and look for the ball. Not good!
#32 Rogers had 2 catches, with one leaving him where he looks his best in open space in the middle of the field. He is so quick and changes direction very well.
There was a little fight near the end of practice between #36 Donaldson and #15 Bellamy after a bad throw from Griese missing an open Baker who dove to the ground but couldn’t make a catch. It looked like no big deal pushing back and forth until Donaldson looked like he kicked Bellamy in the stomach causing a coach to break it up and get right in Donaldson’s face. Didn’t look like any big deal though.
