friday practice observations

[rayzor]

Hey Rayzor can you keep a eye on the QB competition and let us know who you think has the upper hand. And also what about the DT rotation. Who's the first off the bench. I read an article the other day that when lewis was resting that Favorite took his spot instead of Irvin, made me wonder about Irvin.

jake

mccown

moore

hunter

that isn't just the depth chart....it's how they looked. mccown looked much more seasoned. moore more raw. not much more than that. hunter has a gun but is prone to overthrowing. i'll watch more, though.

favorite is looking like he deserves slot. there was a lot of stuff going on that i was trying to pay attention to but he was pretty impressive blocking that pass of moore's. like i said, i'll be watching the DTs more tonight.

[Darth Biscuit]

Yes, thanks Razor. Nice.

[KillerKat]

Did they work on kick and punt returns today? If so, who was doing them and how did they look?

[rayzor]

Did they work on kick and punt returns today? If so, who was doing them and how did they look?

yes and no. they did something with the return game but i couldn't tell what it was they were doing. it had more to do with covering and defending the return than actually returning. there were i think 5 guys lined up for returns that they switched out and in front of them guys with blocking shields and they were telling the guys running in what direction the returner was going to be running so they could make adjustments after hitting the blockers.

they also worked on FG blocking as well. that is where lloyd was doing the kicking. i thought he and kasay were switching off but others say that lloyd had all of them. i was on the other end of the field and they were doing some work with the WRs and DBs on my end that i was more interested in because i could see more.

[dksmith17]

The part about Goodson surprises me. Until reading this I thought if Stewart went down then DeAngelo would get most if not all of the carries.

I still think if it is a playoff implication type game Williams will get a 80/20 split or possibly more without Stewart. That could be possible even if Stewart is healthy.

[Salescall]

I was there with my kids for the last hour+ of practice. We stood right behind Smitty. He has the shoulder taped up REALLY good, but seemed to be in good spirits. He gave out autograhs at the end of practice to both kids. Told everyone that he was only giving them to the kids. Gave one of our friends kids a signed picture - We were all like...WOW where did you get that? He just said....Steve gave it to me! Thought it was pretty nice.

Kids also got autos from Beason, Foxy, Moose, Captian, and a couple others that I can't remember right now.

As for practice, it looked very spirited. I don't have too many specifics, but I am not as worried about the D as before.....and they (the D) was talking a lot of trash on the sidelines.

My daughter took a few pics that I'll try to post later.

[rayzor]

I was there with my kids for the last hour+ of practice. We stood right behind Smitty. He has the shoulder taped up REALLY good, but seemed to be in good spirits. He gave out autograhs at the end of practice to both kids. Told everyone that he was only giving them to the kids. Gave one of our friends kids a signed picture - Wew were all like...WOW where did you get that? He just said....Steve gave it to me! Thought it was pretty nice.

Kids also got autos from Beason, Foxy, Moose, Captian, and a couple others that I can't remember right now.

As for practice, it looked very spirited. I don't have too many specifics, but I am not as worried about the D as before.....and they (the D) was talking a lot of trash on the sidelines.

My daughter took a few pics that I'll try to post later.

very good. one thing that i heard about munnerlyn is he s one of the best at autographs and he will go to places that most don't get to. great fopr the kids. look forward to the picks.

speaking of which...i meant to take my camera but i got 45 minutes from home and realized that i left it. that was a bummer.

[prowler2k8]

i went to the first practice today and will be back at the 2nd this evening. if you were there and have some i'd like to see it. here's mine.

first thing....like has already been said, smith was practicing. he looked really good like usual. didn't notice any restriction of motion. he didn't take part in the contact drills but was active in all the rest of the passing drills.

second thing....no stewart. starting to worry just a tad. 3rd day in a row but word is he's resting his ankle/achilles. probably the best thing for him if it's sore. he knows what he's supposed to do. no sense in risking it.

i will say regarding stewart if he, or williams, for that matter miss any time mike goodson is in there a lot taking up the slack. they aren't going to be messing around with shuffling the load to one of them. they have a formula that works in splitting the carries between two RBs pretty evenly and it will shift to goodson. he as working with the 1s just as much as stewart does. he's not as powerful but he's got some awesome speed and moves and more power than you would expect with a nice push up the middle. i didn't see any stiff arm but i did see him run in goal line situations along with williams.

oh...RBs were catching a lot out of the backfield. a couple times lined up as WRs, especially goodson. both were targeted in goal line work as well.

when i first arrived the DBs were working on breaking up passes and the LBs were working on stripping the ball and then getting after it on the ground.

one thing to look for....17 to 82. jake has a favorite TE target. gary barnidge. i saw quite a few passes go to him. there were several times that they had him line up WR. one particular formation had moose and barnidge on the right with 82 on the inside and smith and jarrett on the left side...89 inside. barnidge was jake's target. on the end zone and red zone work i saw some 2 TE sets with rosario and barnidge and the ball went to barnidge. king was working out with the 2nd and third team. he's still solid, he's just been passed by someone that jake like to throw to and can do something after the catch other than fall down.

defense is working hard on causing turnovers. every play they have to be trying to get that ball away. as a result the offense is doing a better job with protecting it. they have it wrapped up well all the time. if a weak attempt is made to take away the ball you hear it from the rest of the defense on the sideline. their swarming to the ball is no joke either. one guy may be working on getting that ball loose or getting the INT but the rest of the defense is crowding around the ball carrier so if he gets loose he gets gang tackled. pass D is quick and relentless.i didn't see anyone take it easy. if someone did you heard about across the field from the D coaches. those guys are harsh.

saw some good catches. smith made a nice jump. jason carter made a really nice diving catch in the end zone. jarret made a really good one handed catch right in front of me. there were some good INTs as well. Gamble and CJ wilson had some pretty ones. captain munnerlyn and richard marshall are very similar. they don't give their man any room. marshall did get burned once by jason chery, but he corrected himself and made it back quick enough to break up the pass.

moose made a nice cut back when gamble was covering him and then had gamble on his heels the whole time after the catch but made it into the endzone. one of them was screaming like a girl but i couldn't tell who but it had everyone laughing including them when the play was done. gamble said when they were walking back that he was hoping that moose wasn't going to keep running.

ryne robinson ran some good routes and made a couple nice grabs. marcus monk is tall but not very good (in case you are wondering). kenny moore and jason carter can make some really good catches. they have talent.

oh, and rhys lloyd was doing field goals today. that dude has a leg on him. if there are any FG attempts from 50+ yards that guy is all over it.

one of the things i saw rip working with the QBs on was making them throw over defenders with their hands up. he had one of those blocking shields and was running up to the QB and raised it high forcing the throw over it. good thing to do after favorite blocked one of moore's throws.

thats about it. i'll be back tonight for more.

Awesome post, Rayzor. Thanks alot.

[jbland]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to rayzor again.

[PantherExpress]

thanks Rayzor, rep.

[Troy17289TD]

Just getting online after attending practice, went to Beacon and movie, now in hotel.

Rayzor...awesome post.

Only things I can think of to add was that Jamal Lee and Larry Beavers will not make the team IMO. Both were making mental errors left and right, Beavers especially in special team drills. The coach kept say "Larry! Watch what the two guys in front of you are doing or, Larry...watch what Richard (Marshall) does."

Lee got stripped pretty easily by Mortty Ivy in an 11 on 11 drill too. Didn't impress.

I thought Jarrett had a good practice, strong hands on a slant over the middle for a TD during 11 on 11 red zone practice.

As Rayzor and other have said, Smitty was in good spirits and seemed to have full range of motion.

To answer the DT question, it seemed to me to be a rotation between Hayden, Favorite, Lonnie Harvey, and Irvin with Damione Lewis in the other DT position most of the time. Could have been just regular rotation. I didn't notice Brayton or Johnson being moved inside much but I could have missed it.

[rayzor]

i guess i saw the same thing with the rotation and suspect that it will be a lot of that through the season which is fine by me.

gotta second the remarks about lee. i felt the same way.

in my notes i wrote "Lee=CFL can't hold onto the ball"

thing is i don't think that foster could hold onto the ball much better. he would have had a miserable camp with the way everyone is reaching for that ball and stripping it out. you have to secure that thing in a huge way or they are going to steal it from you. you have to know that everytime you have that ball those guys are going to be doing everything they can to ****** it. if you can't secure it, you won't have a spot on this team, imo.

i believe that the defense is outshining the offense, fwiw. it isn't the offenses fault, either. the defense is just so aggressive. i don't know how the offense will look this year compared to last year. they could be better but you won't see as much an improvement from them as you will the defense. i think most of the discussion nationally about them will be focused on the defense.

[Sultan33g]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to rayzor again.

Neg Rep for Asking for rep...Opps...lol I did the same thing yesterday

[Troy17289TD]

One other thing I thought was funny was when Fox came over to the sidelines one time, he said "I watched the first half of the game and the team used all three timeouts...bunch of knuckleheads...we can't do that" or something close to that. He was referring to Arizona in the Thursday night game, I believe. The rivalry is turning nasty already.