camp thoughts

http://www.schuttsports.com/aspx/Sport/ProductCatalog.aspx?id=114

 

OL: The Offensive line is approaching training camp much more aggressively this year, which is ironic because Davidson appears to have a polar opposite personality compared to Maser. I’d expect more then a few scuffles between OL and DL as camp progresses because I could see already on Sunday that this new aggressiveness was wearing thin on the DL during drills.

Montgomery seems to be the loser in all of this as it doesn’t really fit him at all; frankly, he looks like garbage out there this year. The same goes for #61.

Jordon Gross has lost the crew cut and come out with a red neck country boy look this year, he also looks to be in much better shape then years past and did very well in drills against all that he faced.

I wouldn’t expect any real surprises here once the cut downs come, 63, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 79. None of the no-names impressed enough yet to make me think “practice squad” and that’s a little concerning if we start having injuries.

DL: This group is also already pretty well defined, and since it’s been beat to death already I didn’t spend a lot of time watching them in drills. Jenkins not only looks lighter but very well conditioned compared to years past. Somebody asked him for an autograph as he was walking out and without even turning his head yelled “not with that shirt on” the guy was wearing a Wake Forrest T-shirt.

The other sorta funny thing that happened was Sunseri demonstrated (on Peppers) how to swipe the Offensive lineman’s hands away, we swatted Julius across the forearm which left him shaking his wrist in pain and giving Sal a look like “no you didn’t just do that!”

Two that unexpectedly stood out a little were 62 & 91.

Kemo is less impressive every time I see him same for Moorehead, unfortunately we seem to pull all our diamonds in the rough out of the DE position rather then DT. I like the kid Curvey but man is he Short, uses it to his advantage though as he come of the line low with pretty good burst. Short list for the season would have 77, 91, 92, 99 on the roster at DT (with maybe 64 or 72 on the PS) at End the rookie Johnson was not spectacular, but didn’t make any real embarrassing rookie mistakes. McClover is truly looking like a beast both in physical appearance and in his play – He’s bad ass! The other on that look a little better then expected was Dave Ball. With Rucker on the mend I’d expect us to keep 5 here and stash another on the PS. 74, 90, 93, 95, and maybe 96. with 62 on the PS assuming eligibility.

LB: The one thing that became really clear is how much Beason is missing, case in point. Flajole was running alignment drills where he’d tell them that the Offense is in “formation X” he then point out that Dan will recognize this and call out “Defense Y” and then coordinating how everyone should react to what Dan called. I sat there thinking that not only is Beason missing what he needs to do but what he’ll need to call if (when) Dan goes down. If he isn’t in camp soon, like this week I’d expect somebody else to start getting serious consideration as the back-up MLB - Right now it’s Seward, who got in the first fight of camp yesterday, I thought it was against Goings but Steve Reed say’s it was Foster (see more on Goings below.) Anyway, Seward slammed into which ever one it was on a run up the middle and the RB took exception and the scuffle was on. Jenkins et al. broke it up. Mickey Pimental was better then expected but I’d still expect him to be the cut once Beason signs. The one that didn’t impress was Anderson, who had a terrible ime getting his hands on the ball during fumble drills. Gardent seemed a little lost but I guess that’s to be expected with him having so little experience. Jamison and Melton held their own pretty well. Projection? With Dan’s history we’ll keep 7 ~ 49, 52, 53, 54(?) 55, 58, 59. one note: Flajole called one assignment but was obviously not the one he intended to. Everybody reacted to the one he called prompting him to yell out “what are you all doing?” Somebody repeated to him that they were running “formation X” leaving Ken apologizing and saying “good job everybody”

QB: Jake is the starter, the only thing I saw in Carr that was better was that little quick hitter to the WR, (the one I call Magnus Right and Magnus left) Carr has a really fast release on that play) Jake is still locked in on #89. Jarrett, Carter and Colbert where all solid but unspectacular. Robinson ran some nice routes. Also, 81 and 19 weren’t horrible.
If I had to guess after watching one practice. 10, 18, 80, 81, 83 and 89 make it. And we’ll stash a couple of others on the PS.

RB: wondering what’s up with Goings? He isn’t getting a lot at either position. I though I sww him on the play that led to the fight but apparently it was DeShaun and not Nick. Haynes was the third RB in ahead of both Goings and Shelton (unless I missed something?) ~ Haynes continues to impress me. One item of note was that Foster left the field early and headed to the locker room, he was unattended and didn’t appear to have had anything happen to him on the field, looked more like maybe an equipment adjustment or a bathroom break or something. 34 will become the starter sometime during the early season, he’s just way more explosive.

TE: Gaines is falling down the depth chart at an alarming rate, King is clearly the starter and Rosario looked very good in his routes, might just be the result of our LB’s still being unable to cover the TE. King looked very solid though, I’m extremely optimistic this year about our TE play.

CB: not much to mote other then Strait looks like the #4 now. He was very solid.

Safety: Worse then I expected, Minter looks heavy, slow and uninspired. Salley wasn’t overwhelming but didn’t necessarily look like a liability either. CJ Wilson caught my eye with his positioning and ball skills, I’d expect that coming out of the bye week the Minter farewell tour will be over and the starting safety’s will be Wilson and TBD. Cooper is what he is and Cam Newton wasn’t horrible. Teal has a chance to make the PS.

 

One more thing about Charles Johnson, I can't quite put my finger on why, But I'm wondering about putting some weight on him and having him play the DE/DT flex position?

 

I was thinking we should take some weeight off of him and have him play safety.

 

Melton made 2 nice plays in coverage saturday morning, Steve Smith looks ready for the season opener.

Carr didn't impress me, Jake looked great for the most part, but we never know which Jake will show up on game day.

McClover stood out on the DL, he seemed very quick.

Pitch is right on about the LBs, I was about 10 yards from the "formation X" practice, and it was very interesting. LBs will probably be the hardest cuts to make imo.

Dwayne Jarrett made a nice catch, Carter practiced with the first team. Smith was lined up everywhere and in motion...one fake end around, one end around that the defense played well.

Very fun day, and I dont think most people minded the rain at all saturday morning.

 

He could come in on passing downs and would be better at that than Al Wallace was since he's a more physical player, but I don't see it as any sort of permanent move. He's very much a Rucker end.

Thanks for the thoughts. Also, I'm excited to hear that my hyping of McClover and King had some merit to it.

 

Thanks. Any thoughts to which position Minter is actually playing? Conflicting reports in the press. I'm really hoping Wilson comes on.

 

I have to look at my pictures when I get them back, but I'm thinking he was lined up on the same side as Davis/Rucker.

 

? At RDE, Rucker should generally be on the weakside, while Davis spent last year on the other side.

 

It's an answer with an escape clause