Icege

Dave Canales up first Great practice today. This week is critical as they ramp the guys up for gameplay. This is the last week to attack it volume-wise. After this, they've got a lot of decisions to make re: the roster. This is the week for guys to establish that they're ready to play. Threw a significant amount of volume at both the 1s and the 2s and was excited by their response to the challenges he laid out for them in the team meetings. Doesn't have to push guys to get the intensity that they want, they're pros and know how to work. Open to playing the 1s this week. They have to look at what the group looks like if they put them out there. Is there enough guys for them to say, "Man, these are valuable reps." Once they get into depth at different positions it forces their hand on "Can we play guys or do we need to?" Has to make sure that they get through these two days, collect the info, and then make the decision. Isn't worried about 2s for the other team hurting our 1s because they're playing too amped. It's just about the strength and health of their units and whether or not they can get a look at the guys in valuable game exp. Wants to see operation and things run smoothly from the starters if they go out there vs. the Bills including convos between the drives. Bryce has been around all of those things while they've been doing it. Big difference between snap in a joint practice vs. in a preseason game is tackling to the ground. Going to get an elevated speed (naturally) in a competitive moment against a different jersey. Not cut blocking anywhere nor doing some things that they'll do in a game setting, but there's a big difference. Always impressed by the different levels of speed that players take it to as excitement ramps up. Been a challenge for the younger players. They're throwing all of the vocab at them and all of the installs stopped about 2wks ago. Now what they get into is reformationing (doing it out of a different personnel/presentation). Same with defense, can they keep it tighter and tighter held together so that they don't give any tells. Those things make a difference on Sundays. Were purposeful in changing pieces so that guys were in different places that they were used to. Re-iterated that the offense has been in place for the last 10 days to 2 weeks. Now they're challenging the offense to run it out of different looks. Guys are working hard to come back from injury. Tommy is back and looking great, plan for him was fantastic and he's ramping up to go. Didn't see what happened to Diontae but he was fine afterwards. Was back out in a play or two. Zavala was back in pads and out there rolling despite early concerns that he had a significant hamstring issue. Looks at the exposure during practice to see whether any of the safeties can play at corner for the team. Luton had a muscular issue in his shoulder. Was grateful that he came on short notice and did a great job preparing under short notice. Unfortunately, unable to finish this part with him but now this is a great opportunity for Jack Plummer. Likely to be the last significant reps he's going to get for a little while since the starters and primary back-ups will be taking the bulk of them going forward. Staying away from timelines for injuries (was asked about Lamar Jackson being waived/injured and whether that was a timeline issue). Evaluating Dalton through the week. Jack is playing, he's playing at some point. What a great opportunity for guys that might be making the roster or starting due to injury (was asked specifically about the CBs). Hates when guys get hurt but there's an excitement had to check out new guys that get brought in to evaluate. Chau Smith-Wade did fantastic playing outside in the preseason game. Had played there in his college career without a lot of nickel exposure, but they showed them something cool in the game. Would love to come out and rip 50yd TDs from day 1. Quickest way to win is straight line, A to B, throw it to the guy for a TD. Our defensive scheme is fantastic; they play their leverages and have guys that know the scheme that are able to run. They got one today and have had some near misses leading up. That's a timing issue that will be figured out as they take those shots. Guys can make a huge difference in whether or not they make the team with how they play in this last preseason game. They go into all games with a game plan and treat them serious because these are career opportunities for the players. Today and tomorrow are full padded practice and they're going full speed without tackling to the ground. The ability to refocus after a good or bad play tells a lot about a player's resilience. The staff wants the decisions to be hard because that means they have to factor in everything and look at the finer details to see who has the edge. Trevin Wallace is a natural football player with a ways to go learning the scheme. When he's comfortable he's big, fast, and has great hands which is a rare combo for the ILB spot. They've got three fantastic LBs in Shaq, Josey, and Trevin that can do that. Shouted out the LB coach on emphasizing turnovers to the group.

Press conference is taking place. Waiting on the first speaker.

No idea if they're going to still do the presser afterwards. Will update with summaries if they do.

I see what you did there.

Injuries have made that difficult.

Video of the Trevin Wallace pick. Scouts weren't lying that they said he was good in coverage!

I think that if anything, it emphasizes the philosophical differences that we heard about taking place on the staff. Frank Reich and Thomas Brown, while both coming from west coast schemes, had very different approaches. Reich wanted a conservative, ball control reminiscent of what he experienced under Jim Caldwell (who, like Canales, was known to run very often on 1st down). Brown was coming from the Sean McVay/Mike Shanahan tree that emphasized a wide zone scheme and taking advantage of the "rules" that a defense uses to respond to a look. Reich more than likely had an offense that he was looking to implement when he came in. Once he got Brown as his OC, they had to work together on the system that they were going to run. There's a change right there. I can see at least one of those changes being due to what they believed would be best for Bryce to succeed, but having to change the offense three times for just one player is very difficult to believe. It's just too juicy of a story for a reporter to sit on. I'm also fairly sure with all of the falling out we saw towards the end with the coaching staff that somebody would've thrown Bryce directly under the bus had he been the primary driver behind those changes. Plus we have no real way of knowing what last year's staff went thru until one of them goes onto a former player's podcast, so I'm not concerned about it.

Training camp is over but the team is practicing today, tomorrow, and Thursday before taking off Friday and playing the Bills on Saturday afternoon. Roster cuts will be due next Tuesday by 4pm iirc.

Oh wow, I didn't know that Juston Burris is now a pro scout with the team.

Choose joy.

I'm fairly confident that if the reason for the changes were 1000% Bryce's fault that there'd have already been something leaked to the press about it like the "Hunger Games" atmosphere amongst the coaches.

Mike Boone and Dillon Johnson both deserve spots on the PS. Jalen Coker has not done enough to make the 53. I think that the team is looking at possibly only carrying 6 WRs and that David Moore has shown more than ISM in preseason. Plummer makes the PS unless they find a guy on waivers that they've been interested in. I think that they trust his understanding of the offense even though his execution isn't there. ILB and DB are a lot deeper than we originally anticipated. I think that those groups are going to be tough to trim down.

That isn't true. Peppers was not on either of those teams. Smitty had just been drafted for that first one and folks had him slotted as a return specialist.

I'll agree to disagree on that one. When JR gutted the roster, there was damn near nothing there. The team hadn't had a first rounder in two seasons. They had traded up in 2008 for Jeff Otah after selecting JStew in the 1st round, and in 2009 traded away another future first to move up for Everette Brown. The best pick from 2009 was 7th rounder Captain Munnerlyn. Then in 2010, the Panthers use their first pick (a second rounder) to select Clausen who at no point in time ever looked like he belonged in the league once he got there. The team went from 12-4 to 8-8 to 2-14 with a completely gutted roster. David Gettis was giving people hope while others were arguing over whether or not Armanti Edwards should have been traded up for. Delhomme had been released, Hoover had retired, Moose had retired, Peppers had gone to the Bears... and Fox was on his lame duck year. That season sucked so much and we knew it was going to be bad going in. This team? We've got an ascending HC as the DC who's side of the ball is looking prepared up and down the roster. The HC is an apparent QB Whisperer and has "his guys" on the offensive staff (meaning no multiple offensive changes in the offseason). There's a new decision maker at GM. To me, there's so much more to look forward to than what we had to deal with leading into that season. I'm sure for others that the sting of this season is a little extra for whatever reason(s) is/are important to them, but that 2010 - 2011 season was a special kind of terrible. 2001 - 2002's season where the team 1-15 season was a special kind of awful because the team didn't get the #1 overall pick for being so bad... that went to the Houston Texans who were debuting as an expansion. Those seasons sucked so, so much. I'd put last season up there in the top (bottom?) 5, but definitely not the worst.