8/8-8/9 CAMP REPORTS…

Rampage2K

Quick observations from Monday’s practice. I mostly focused on the QB’s and WR’s….they were in shells, so there wasn’t a full padded practice, but there was plenty of pads thumping.

This team looks bigger and quicker then last year.

WR’s look much better this year!!!

Groh is all over them….lots of coaching, barking and the occasional F bomb. I love it!!! A much needed shot in the arm to this group.

Goff has a rifle and very nice touch, in the one on one’s he looked great, but in the 11 on 11 he seemed to hold on to the ball way too long or just check it down.
Not too worried, it’s still very early…the defense has a huge advantage in shells anyway because the O-line cant go low and really block like the would in regular game.

Best looking QB in the 11 on 11 was Mannion…by far the most improved player on the team. Granted he was going against the 3’s, but he was the only one looking deep and dropping dimes.

it’s clear Case has been named the starter as he got all the 1’s, Goff 2’s and Mannion 3’s…. the other kid never even got in.

Quick, didn’t have a good practice…drop and a fumble on an end around. He might not make the team with all these youngsters hanging around. Hoping he can bounce back.

Duke Williams is a big kid!!! He looks the part that is for sure..If he has speed and learns how to run crisp routes…look out.

Britt had a great toe drag TD vs Tru on a dime in the back of the endzone from Goff in the 1 on 1 drills…. He also had a ball bounce off his chest on a quick slant in the 11 on 11.

The defense was dominant, as they should be…D-line is relentless and the DB’s are all over our WR’s. No worries in that dept. Stay healthy and they should make noise this year.

Greg Williams is the carbon copy of Groh on the defense…constantly coaching and dropping bombs when he see something he doesn’t like.

There was a scrum that had the whole team trying to pull apart……couldn’t exactly see who was involved, but from my photographic evidence it looked like Reynolds was one of them.

Tavon and Joyner seemed to be jawing quite a bit with each other…TA took a short out route that Joyner just missed on and would have gone to the house with…Fantasy owners better take him earlier then his ADP is or you might miss out on a late round gem on him this year, they seem to be involving him much more this year.

It’s clear from what they showed in practice that this offense is going to be up-tempo and quick striking…. I like it.

I got lucky and picked some great spots to head to as most of the action was on one of the two fields. crowd was nice and light maybe 1-2K mostly all one the side with the action.

Goff stayed late and worked out with Cooper and Thomas on some redzone routes Gurley stayed late and worked on jugs machine, Quick and Marquez also stayed on field and worked out together along with Mannion and some of the young RB’s…

All in all, it was a pretty good day of practice, no injuries.

You can tell this team is ready to hit somebody else…Saturday should be fun!!!

Hacksaw_64

notes from camp 8/9

Special teams work was big today. Fisher was hands on with the special teams unit. He was working with the speed guys lining up outside in punt coverage.

Hekker made some nice angled punts. Tavon was returning. Couldn’t tell if Pharoah Cooper was working back there with him today.

Hekker showed of his arm on a bullet sideline throw to….wait for it. #60 Eric Kush who made a nice catch RAC. He also threw a nice deep touchdown pass over the middle to the back of the endzone. Hekker may have the third best arm on the team, behind Goff and Mannion…

Brian Quick started off in drills by making a half hearted one handed drop on a ball he should easily catch. His woes continued by going up and getting his hands on two apparent TD passes that he was unable to come down with. You could here the resounding “thud” as the ball bounced of his not so soft hands. Sometimes you play like you practice. It looked like he got a lot of reps today with the 2’s. He may be moving down the depth chart.

Tavon looks great. Our db’s can’t cover him if they lay off him or he gets out of his break off the LOS. He still has some trouble with good press coverage. Not to knock him because he does stand out as our best receiver, but Tavon looks like a real liability blocking in the run game.

Mike Thomas had a couple uncharacteristic drops today. He did redeem himself after his last drop by running a great route and making a TD catch. Showing off his great hands, reach and balance to secure the ball before going out of bounds. Don’t worry he’ll be fine. This cat is so smooth. He just looks natural at all phases of the receiving game. He reminds me a little of Isaac Bruce when he was a rookie. We can only pray he can turnout to be anywhere close. I’ll take a young poor man’s Bruce for now…

Bradley Marquez got mixed time with ones and two’s. He does go all out all the time. Not a lot on the day that I noticed except for one great adjustment he made for a completion on about a 20 yard out to the wide side of the field. Goff got the ball out fast and on a rope but it was one of his rare off target throws that was behind Marquez. Bradley was able to reach back and haul it in. Sometimes you need your receivers to make you look good. He did just that.

Pharoah Cooper got a lot of time with the 1’s. In fact the starting receivers on the first series were Britt(wide), Cooper(Inside), Tavon(slot) one one side and I think It was Mike Thomas lined up wide on the other side of the field. Of course it was a clear out play that Keenum dumped to Tavon underneath.

Nelson Spruce may be moving up a notch. He split time with ones and two’s. He continues to get open in space somehow. He hauled in a nice grab on about a 25 yard toss by Keenum that took forever and all his strength to get there. But it just did drop in over the top. He is making a real push to make the final 53.

Duke Williams I have to say looks like he is taking this whole thing seriously. I noticed him giving max effort in drills. He seems to really stepped up his game that final notch. He was giving a 100 percent all the way to the end. Looked more focused and I didn’t see him not get to a ball in drills. The other day he kinda “hot dogged” a reception just going for the one handed highlight catch. It was questionable if he secured the ball for a catch before going out of bounds. If he goes up with two hands he probably wouldn’t have had that problem. There was none of that for Duke today. I’m guessing he got an earful from the coaches when reviewing tape. Its real nice to see Duke taking this opportunity serious given his past issues. I think the veteren support of guys like Tavon in combination with the tougher competition along with some marked success when he does everything right is going a long way to further his development. The question is. Can he keep his head down and keep up this new behavioral tact for the duration. If he can I think it will pay dividends. I don’t see Britt or Quick being long term solutions. If he can master the playbook and show that he can willingly block in the running game i think he has a chance to replace Quick. That is of course unless Quick somehow shocks me and has the breakout season we have all been all too patiently waiting for. I’m pretty sure the main reason Quick gets another chance is that he is probably our best blocking WR in the run game. I’m rooting for Duke.

Todd Gurley seems to be our new addition to our WR group. They split him out wide again. I think he needs some work making the right read on his routes. Goff threw the ball right to the spot where it looked like Gurley should have broken of his route. But he ran down the sideline oblivious. Gurley in drills looks like he has stepped up his game in pass protection. Which is great to see. Not that he was bad last year, but imo its something he needs to master. I like the idea of being able to keep Gurley in the game on third down. I’m not so sure I like him being lined up as a WR leaving no one to protect the QB. I much prefer him releasing out of the backfield after getting a chip block on the blitz pickup. Our biggest area of improvement needs to be converting on third down. Putting Goff, Gurley, Higbee and even Spruce on the field at the same time on third downs could be the gamechanger the Rams have desperately needed. Face it Fole/Keenum, Cook, Quick, and then inserting Benny as your 3rd down pass blocking back(telling the defense your gonna pass) wasn’t exactly putting the fear of God in NFL defenses.

Benny looks like a new back hes in great shape. Did you guys realize that Benny ran a sub 4.4 forty (I think it was 4.39) at Middle Tennessee St. That’s smokin’ for a guy his size.

” Cunningham was one of the state’s top performers in the sprinting events. At the 2009 TSSAA State T&F Championships, he took gold in both the 100 meters, with a time of 10.6 seconds, and in the 200 meters, at 21.86 seconds. In addition, he competed in the 800 meter run event and was a member of the 4x100m relay squad. He also recorded a 4.39 40-yard dash in practice.”

The only reason he didn’t get drafted was because he had a pretty bad knee injury. He was on everyones radar.:

Check out the 1:55 and 3:24 mark.

I think I would use Benny to spell Gurley during the season for more for as entire series than just on third downs. I think the Rams are going to try and limit Gurley’s workload more than you think this year. Which is fine by me Benny looks like he has finally fully recovered and got his “jets” back.

Kendricks had one real nice catch from Goff. Then later dropped a ball that hit him right in the hands. Seems like he has at least one of those every practice. Its a little alarming after his not so sure hands last season.

Hemmingway was finally in pads today but he was getting limited reps. No routes. They definitely have him throttled back. He had a trainer in tow with him all practice. Seemed to be really working on stretching out his calves. I have to surmise he’s coming off some kind leg/tissue of injury. He was really putting in the extra work before and after practice. Last week UDFA Benson Brown got most of his second and third team reps. Its too bad because Brown really doesn’t nearly as talented. But hey you need bodies in camp. Hemmingway did get a couple chances to show off his pass blocking skills in a one on one drill against a blitzing LB. I missed the first one but ramsman told me it wasn’t good. His second try he was up against a blitzing LB lined up on his outside shoulder. It looked like he beat bad coming of the snap but he made a quick adjustment and absolutley stoned the oncoming blitzer. He wasn’t getting anywhere near the QB once he got locked up.. Hopefully he heals up because being so raw he can’t afford to get behind on reps.

Harkey and Justice Cunningham both each had snot knocking wham blocks in the run game.

Keenum overall wasn’t horrible but I wouldn’t say he was good either. He gets the majority of his completions on checkdowns and underneath routes. And I think that is actually smart, because he has some real arm limitations. In fact Greg Williams pretty much ignored covering his receiver on the wide side of the field. Keenum had Thomas flaked out wide left and Williams decided to cover him with a Safety cheating toward the middle and about 20 yards of the receiver. Daring Keenum to loft one out there. Thank God he didn’t dare. I think Case had two picks today. A couple more that should have been. One was an easy pick six for any decent NFL db on one of the floating out routes to the short side of the field.

Goff got ended up getting first team reps towards the end of practice with Keenum moving down to the second team. He looked crisper at the LoS and getting his plays off.Threw a nice deep ball that landed in the corner of the endzone. Thomas stumbled on his break and couldn’t get to what should have been a TD. He moved the offense real well once again in the two-minute drill. Moving the chains by getting yards in chunks.

The defense looked like they had the upperhand today

Aaron Donald had a stripsack return for a TD>

Marcus Roberson continues to fly under the radar at TC. He had tight coverage all day. Didn’t see a ball thrown his way for good reason.

Ogletree looked like he was having trouble coming off blocks in the middle. Got completely engulfed and taken out of the play a couple times.

Greg Williams was yelling at his defense like it was the Super bowl.

Mike Singletary was watching the defense and taking notes on every play from a view behind the middle of the defense. He would get down in his LB stance before each play. I think he primarily was focusing on MLB.