friday practice observations

[KillerKat]

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.

Someone else posted a video from fan fest and Lee looked absoultely horrible. He fumbled the ball on a sweep and dropped a pass and paid for it when the defender hit him and knocked his helmet off. I don't even believe we wanna keep him on the PS.

[Matt Foley]

The redzone is going to be sick this year with Barnidge and Jarrett.

The redzone is for loading and unloading only. There is no parking in the redzone.

[firstdayfan]

Its funny because a lot of "experts" talked about Jake's numbers and how they were not that great but honestly they didn't throw the ball much in the redzone. With the development of Jarrett and Barnidge, Jake will have a lot more targets that will be pretty attractive down there. I would bet that he ups his low 15 TD's to a impressive 21 to 23 TD's.

[MadHatter]

Heading down to today's practice with my 12yo son and 6 if his frieds. What the hell was I thinking.

If you see some poor sould chasing 7 boys ages 8-12 yo around, give me a shout out.

[rayzor]

Sorry it took so long to get these up. I got in late last night and slept in this morning.

Some of these things you've probably hear by now but anyway....

I got there a bit early and thought I'd hang around autographs but decided to just watch people. Guys who were very early out there on the field: Jason Chery, Hunter Cantwell and Jeff King. Usually the guys who are out there the earliest are guys that need some extra work and are really trying to fight for a position. It was kind of sad to see King out there and working with the 3s like I saw later but if it means improving at TE then I'm all for it.

Mike Goodson should never punt. He was messing around beforehand and was awful but he was a lot of fun to watch otherwise. Goodson is young and very much like a kid. He was doing a lot of playing around out there with some of the ball boys. Most of the guys have fun out there but he's very much like a kid. It was pretty fun to see that personality.

Ivy was back after a groin pull earlier in the day. Moose, TD, and Landon Johnson were out and of course Stewart was as well. It took me a while to find Stewart out there and it wasn't until the stretching and warm-ups that I saw him. He was moving around just fine. I don't think there is anything majorly wrong with him. Achilles might be a bit of a concern and there really isn't any reason to risk it. Rest is the best thing for it. Also it gives them a chance to look at Goodson who still doesn't fail to impress. That ball keeps on finding it's way into his hands whether a carry or a pass from Jake, McCown, or Moore.

The DL was practicing in front of me working on popping the ball loose from behind. It was kind of fun to watch the different guys and how they tried it. Some, like Peppers, tried to reach down over the top and knock it backward. Most tried to pop it loose from the bottom and out forward. Every once in a while you saw the guys just trying to pop it loose and knock it into the carriers helmet.

The LBs worked on covering the TE.

They then started working on the passing game as a whole using the back seven. They were doing a very good job of watching the QB and moving as a unit to get themselves in better position for when the QB throws. They were very good at following the ball and then swarming to it when it was thrown.

They practiced some goalline work as well and the DTs that they had working with the 1s were Lewis and Favorite.

When they finally had the offense and defense on the same field they worked on the two minute drill. I was watching to see who they had running with the ones and the DL was Peppers-Charles Johnson-Brayton-Brown.

Oh, when interesting thing. Jake and Peppers were the last on the field yesterday by quite a bit and they did a bit of joking around together during practice. I just thought that was interesting.

Godfrey had a really nice INT which was good to see. Very Ed Reed-like.

I know it's been said before but Goodson has some jets. if you aren't paying attention to everything and happen to be watching someone else if the crowd starts to cheer lot of the time it was when Goodson had the ball in his hands. There were lots of throws made to the RBs, in particular Goodson. He played with the 1s and 2s and sometimes with the 3s. When the 2nds were running the 2 minute drill it was all Goodson.

Rosario had a nice TD catch with the 2s on the 2 minutes but it was Goodson that got it down the field.

I was watching Munnerlynn a good bit. He is a bit undisciplined and had coaches yelling at him a bit to get in the huddle and other little things but when the play is on he is fierce. He has some good hands and looks like a ball magnet. Most likely if he is getting some PT he is going to be getting picked on by the QB just because he is so new and so small. I think he's up to the challenge. He does well in man coverage but I was also impressed with him when he was having to stick to a zone. He has good field vision and can cover a pretty good area. His speed is a definite bonus. He had a very nice INT off Cantwell.

I saw Hayden and Lewis at DT with the first team quite a bit. When it got to the goalline...let's just say I was less than impressed. Favorite might be a better option there over Hayden but neither did what they need to and let D-will through some big holes. Of course a lot of that may have to do with how well our Oline is. If Williams had been prevented from getting into the end zone I might be worried the other way. Still, we need help there. Someone has to be brought in or step up in a big way.

Jarrett had a very nice catch from Jake up the middle. Jason Chery made very good catch in traffic and had some very slick and quick elusive moves getting through the defenders and into the endzone. Kenny Moore made a pretty grab for a TD and Jason Carter had an impressive leaping grab. There are some very good young receivers on the team with good hands...of course it's training camp. I want to see what these guys can do in real game situations.

They worked on punting and the guys they had catching them were Robinson, Beavers, and Moore. Robinson is the only one I had any confidence in. I did notice that Sherrod Martin has some good speed as a gunner. He had one punt that got past the receiver and he got down the field and smacked it back into the field right at the last second before it bounced into the endzone. That was pretty impressive. Teal came close to doing the same thing but he wasn't quite as fast.

I saw a good bit of 4 receiver sets. They had Smith lining up on one side and on the other Barnidge, Moore, and Jarrett. They also had several using Smith on one side and Barnidge, Rosario, and Jarrett on the other.

There was one time that a ball was missed and fell to the ground that Meeks shouted, "Always pick it up and start running!" I like that. Every time the defense sees the ball loose it is a potential turnover. They are making it second nature to chase the ball.

One thing that I saw was interesting was they had Leman running with the first team on nickle packages I was in a bad spot to see who all else they had running with them and I think I was pretty shocked by seeing Leman in there.

Lee didn't drop the ball any that I saw but he still isn't wrapping up the ball very well. He was getting better trying to use both arms but he was letting that ball have too much breathing room.

On the jugs after practice were Fiammetta, Birmingham, Lee, Rosario, Hoover, Williams, Goodson, and Stewart (who was just hanging out with a towel on his head). Fiammetta and Rosario stayed for a good while longer after the other guys left. WHen those other guys were leaving they got a good laugh at Otah, Harvey, and Duke Robinson who were having to run sprints. I guess those were fat laps.

My plan is to go back next Wednesday for both practices...that is if they don't close training camp early. I wish I could have gone for more. That was the worse thing about moving away from the area. Hopefully I will have my camera with me.

[Delhommey]

Thank you so much rayzor.

[CharlotteBeer.com]

Rep you again when I can. I appreciate the updates, which have been among the best yet.

[Fireball77]

Once again, awesome stuff Rayzor! Thank you!

Sounds like Meeks is instilling a nice mindset in the defense.

[rayzor]

yeah, i love what meeks is doing. already stripping the ball and swarming to it are pretty much instinct. the rest of the coaches are doing a really good job of working on that on positional drills and work.

one thing that impressed me is how well these guys are at 'teaching' while coaching. it wasn't uncommon for questions to be asked and situations presented to them to tell them what to do. i know this happened to an extent in the past but it seemed a lot more prevalent this year. the first practice as i was walking around watching the defense drills i thought, "class is in session". it all seemed to be a lot more focused on a few things and helping to develop instinct, though.