8/10 camp reports

CodeMonkey

A Few Random Observations:

No massive new revelations today.

It rained about an hour before practice but it wasnt cancelled although the parking lot was closed. The sun came out and it was hot and humid as hell. I had to walk a mile from where I had to park. e.

The 101 crew was broadcasting next to us. Demarco Farr actually came over to chat with us (coach mostly) which was cool. Farr made a comment about having four probowl quality defensive linemen and wondered when coach Williams would realize he doesnt have to blitz all the time….probably a rhetorical question.

It is interesting the different perspectives people have. While most of us have expressed excitement at Grobs new body, Hammer raised a concern that Robinson has lost too much weight. People see different things when it comes to Havenstein as well. We will see soon see I suppose.

Punting was something they worked on quite a lot today… hmmmmm

Defense was not nearly as aggressive again today.

It seems odd to me that Jones is listed as the staring center this morning for pre game 1. He seemed to me to be third but what do I know.

They worked on the run game a lot but it was nice to see a little downfield passing as well. They got a nice one to Austin over the middle and and britt looks good running a seam.

in the individual drills Battle has struggled a bit, but those drills favor the D. Plus…we’re talking about the likes of Quinn Brockers and Donald. It evens out more in 11 on 11s. The oline is better judged working as a unit. Battle so far has been working, as far as I can tell, only at LT with the backup unit.

A concern was raised by hammer that they dont practice the 3 wide set enough.

One last practice tomorrow.

wv wrote:

I just dont think of Tavon as a ‘bust’
if for no other reason than he’s
one of the most dangerous return-men
in the game.

I was not crazy about the fact GRob lost
all that weight, either. I mean, i thought
he was drafted because he was a physical-freak —
A huge man, with power, who was quick on his feet.
Now, he’s not so huge. So, I dunno about the
wisdom of the weight-loss. It didnt seem like
he was getting beat last year because he was “too heavy”.

Good stuff from Hammer, as usual.
I hope he’s Wrong. We’ll see.

w
v

The thing about the hammer report, though, is that the other 2 reporters in this thread so far were sitting with him. The other 2 aren’t as pessimistic and one even states that people see different things: “it is interesting the different perspectives people have. … People see different things…” Plus hammer was promising negative reports before camp started. His claim was that he wasn’t going to sugarcoat things anymore. To me that’s like someone saying out of the blue, okay from now on I won’t lie anymore. I mean if he was sugarcoating things in previous reports, then, in effect he’s blaming his readers for him being wrong about things before—it’s more or less “enh I was just telling you what you wanted to hear.”

Personally, I think he;s disenchanted with the Rams for leaving.

So who knows. I personally have been saying that we need to see some game action to make better judgements. How does the line play as a unit, how does Foles look in the Rams offense when it’s really on the field.

Agamemnon wrote:

Hammer is interesting. I would rather read it than not.

Yeah, for certain. In spite of my comments…and yes there’s something going on with the guy ….there’s something wrong if all camp reports are the same.

PA Ram wrote:

Well, that’s an absolutely horrible camp report.

I want flowers and rainbows not turds in the punchbowl. Okay–I couldn’t think of anything.

In any case—if this team comes out of the gate slow–they’re done. That can’t happen this year. In fairness to the team–they may have to slow things down because of the young linemen. But at some point they have to sink or swim. They have to work on the long passes because I’m guessing they may need to throw one or two of them this year.

As for Robinson–I kind of agree with wv on this one. I’m just not sure why he lost so much weight. Was he really too slow last year? Last year he looked more confused to me than anything else. Things looked more mental than physical.

We’ll see.

Well fwiw here’s a camp reporter who went to virtually every practice (a lot of them anyway) and who even sat with hammer during the practice covered here. He is directly asked if he saw the same things:

———————-

RamzFanz

I don’t agree with his insights. Come Friday, we will all start to get glimpses.

From my discussions with him:

He doesn’t think much of TA and I disagree. I’m not a good judge of route running so I will leave that for the group in real games, but TA flashed many times during camp including long TDs, diving catches, and long runs. Times that Hammer wasn’t there. I would say, from my limited exposure, they are working to get TA the ball in the open field or in the flat behind blocking, and I think that is a successful formula for TA and his unique skill set.

He said Robinson lost too much weight and seemed weaker. We’ll see.

Foles has indeed looked pedestrian. But it’s a new team, a new scheme, and he’s in a deep learning curve. I don’t think that means Foles WILL be pedestrian in games. But maybe so and maybe it won’t even matter.

I don’t agree with anyone who has negative things to say about this defense in general.

In the end though, none of us know what this team will look like game one, but in general, I really like where they are going for the most part on both sides of the ball. My biggest concern for the offense at this point is a lack of practising downfield throws. There just wan’t much in the second half of the open days.