Panthers/Patriots Joint Practice Day 1 Write-up

[t96]

As some of you know I attended our joint practices with the cheaters here in MA, finally got around to organizing my notes and pictures/videos from day 1, so here’s some good stuff for you guys to hold you over until 7. Overall I think it was very positive and we got the better of the Pats these 2 days but of course as Allen Iverson said, we’re talking ‘bout practice so read into it as much as you want…

 

My main biggest takeaways from both these days:

-          The energy was incredible. The guys on the team really seem fully bought into Rhule and his “process” right from the first drills with the Pats. Compared to last year’s joint practices with the Colts where reports were we lacked energy and looked flat I see this as a big positive. Maybe it really did take 3 years for Rhule to build his program and he can still be successful. Lots of cheering from our sideline through both days and obviously the fights.

-          We all know by now and have known all along but Baker took more 1^st team reps than Darnold and did much more with them. He is so obviously the starter.

-          Starting OL was consistently Icky, BC, Elflein, Corbett, Moton, they started together even before the Bozeman injury. That was really unfortunate timing for him as now I’m positive Elflein will get first dibs even if Boze is cleared for week 1. It will take Pat struggling for Boze to get a shot. Hopefully he just plays lights out but I am happy to still have a decent backup plan at our weakest spot on the OL. Jordan didn’t see any team reps at 1^st team LG so looks like that spot is Brady’s, so hold off on the torches and pitchforks for now. This unit actually performed solid together, some hiccups on day 1 but much better day 2. I think as they continue to gel together they’ll only get better

-          McCaffrey dominated, pure cheat code all camp. If he stays healthy I really think his presence is game changing, of course we all know that health is his only question mark at this point and it is a real one.

-          Horn, Henderson, DJax and Taylor is about as good of a CB group as we’ve ever had. All 4 of these guys were impressive.

 

Some highlights and general observations from day 1:

-          Baker deep shot to TMJ, nice pass maybe a bit out of his reach but could’ve caught it:

 

-          Shi hanging on through a hold in 1v1s. He had a really nice couple of days and looks like a roster lock with a potential role in our offense too:

 

-          Burns was all over the place talking to guys, hyping them up, watching the 11v11s with Matt Rhule, etc. Only player near the head coaches watching those plays. Looks like he’s developing into more and more of a leader:

 

-          Horn, Shaq and Chinn were inseparable on the sidelines. I see all 3 of these guys being core pieces of our D for years to come:

 

-          Solid run 

 

-          Swing route from Baker to McCaffrey for a big gain in 2min drill:

 

-          A nice play from the D on a HB screen pass:

 

-          Horn near interception of Mac Jones. Nice coverage but I think he was out of bounds:

 

-          Keith Taylor with a nice PBU on Mac Jones:

 

-          Mac Jones under heavy pressure and intercepted by Luvu in 2min. drill:

 

-          Baker deep shot to DJ:

 

-          Horn and the defense celebrating DJ’s catch:

 

 

-          Kirkwood had a great day, several contested catches. Higgins was solid too. WR group is really deep and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

-          Several plays by our D that were clear and obvious sacks but play continued and the Pats would come up with positive plays after it would’ve been dead anyways. I noticed this caused a fair amount of bias and inaccuracy in reports/tweets from Pats writers

 

 

 

Some play by play notes:

*note I missed several plays and my notes were not perfect but here’s what I got for play by play. Also, when uploading my pictures/videos they got all out of order so can’t say exactly where all of those fit in, when I was filming I wasn’t taking notes too so those plays likely won’t be listed below.

After warmups practice started out with 1v1 drills against the Pats. I was seated closer to the WR/CB matchups and the HB/LB and TE/LB matchups so focused mostly on those, wasn’t able to see much of the DL/OL matchups from where I sat.

-          Baker and Robbie seem to have developed pretty solid chemistry, they had a few nice plays in these drills.

-          Zylstra and Shi both stood out in their route running in these drills. Saunders was pretty invisible, I don’t think he has a shot at the roster this year with other WRs stepping up despite some of the early hype.

-          McCaffrey destroyed the Pats LBs every snap running routes.

-          TEs and HBs generally looked good in pass protection which was nice to see. I thought Foreman did a better job than Chuba, he may have a leg up for backup RB because of that but I think this is close and both will likely see snaps in the regular season.

Next was Panthers punt return, Shi saw most of the time there and looked pretty comfortable but had a bobble on a high wobbly punt. He recovered it quickly but not ideal. Pressure on the punter looked good to me, had a near block.

 

Next up was 11v11s, our offense was on the field nearest to me. Our D was on the far field and I really couldn’t see those plays very well so mostly focused on the offense. One thing I’ll note about our D on the opposite field, there was more cheering coming from our sideline than the Pats’, and it seemed like we were stopping the run pretty well and not allowing anything deep but did allow a fair amount of shorter passes.

Baker started with 1^st team, starting OL 79/70/60/63/72.

-          Baker nearly picked on first play but it was dropped, was a bad pass and not sure who he was targeting.

-          McC with a nice run with some big holes, Baker sold the play action fake well in my opinion

-          Next play was a run bottled up easily by their D

-          Baked found Robbie open in the middle of the zone D, good pass and good protection, decent gain.

-          McC with another nice gain for 5-10 yards

Sam in:

-          Run stuffed

-          False start called by refs on Daley

-          Sam PA to Jared Scott for about 10 yards

-          Run stuffed x2

-          Zylstra quick out for just a few yards

-          Break/I think this is roughly when Bozeman got hurt, I did not get a good look at what happened to him.

7v7s:

-          Sam to DJ for about 7 yards

-          Sam targeted Shi short, broken up by the DB. Shi probably could’ve caught it but just couldn’t hold on with the contact.

-          Next play right back to Shi for about 10 yards

-          Higgins open down the middle for 15-20 yards

-          Dump off to Chuba for a few yards

-          Zylstra wide open down field but Sam missed him, looked like a miscommunication.

-          Didn’t see much of our D during this period but heard some cheers and what may have been an interception from our 2^nd team?

Baker in:

-          Baker to Kirkwood for a short gain

-          Baker broken up intended for Derek Wright

-          Baker deep to Kirkwood for 25-30 yards, really nice catch in tight coverage

-          Baker pass tipped and could’ve been picked but still caught off the tip by Higgins, nice concentration from him a decent gain of 15 or so

Sam in:

-          Swing to McCaffrey who made a nice move on the Pats defender for a first down

-          Really nice corned fade to Higgins but he couldn’t hold on

-          McCaffrey run through a big hole for a first down

-          Fight on far field happened, I didn’t see it at all but our entire offense ran over to join so practice stopped briefly

 

Did not take good notes on the 2min. drills from this practice. Much better notes and more video from that for Day 2 which is coming next.

[TheCasillas]

typical homer. Rhule sucks. The footage is homerism and write up too

Thanks for this @t96- you are the hero we dont deserve.

Edited August 19, 2022 by TheCasillas

[kungfoodude]

This is the best content from camp basically all offseason.

Bravo, sir.

[exactlyzack]

This is the type of content I absolutely love. Thanks for the in-depth details. Really appreciate it. 

[Pejorative Miscreant]

Damn. Awesome write up. Only thing missing is BB shoelace color. 

Thank you for the great content. 

[Panthera onca]

Thanks for this, nice work.

[coffee]

Awesome job, t96!!  Thank you!!

[Jon Snow]

Finally! Someone posting something we can actually use to form some clarity with. Thank you @t96for doing all this. I'm out of pie but If i could i would give you a whole pie.

[t96]

Can't edit the post any more but the "solid run" bullet point obviously should read "solid run defense." It's hard to judge the run game in the camp but I think they look better this year than last year, not a high bar, I know. But that would be really nice if that isn't a weakness this year. And you're all welcome.

[Louie]

Great job!!!!!!!!!! Sounds like they have the starting OL sorted out.

[Khyber53]

That was great @t96! Thanks for the excellent write up!

 

[DJ feed me moore]

enjoy your pie! thank you

[Mr. Scot]

Nice work, dude. I'll have to give it a more thorough read later when I have more time.

Stuff like this really makes me.miss the days when I was able to go to camp.

[PantherKyle]

Thank you so much man! Hope you enjoyed yourself.