CoachO, Camp Report 8/11/14 + follow-up

CoachO

Camp Report 8/11/14

Did Not Practice: Saffold, Brockers, Laurinaitis, Jenkins, Woodard, Daniels, K.Jones, Washington

Returned to Practice: T. Johnson, McGee, Hayes, Langford, Pead (Special Teams and Unit drill only)

Left Practice early: EJ Gaines (leg injury)

Roster Addition: #47 TE Brad Smelley (replaces Mason Brodine)
Height: 6-2 Weight: 235 Age: 25
Born: 4/20/1989 Tuscaloosa , AL
College: Alabama
Experience: 1st season

Started practice working on Punt Team drills.
Including punt block using volleyballs in place of footballs.

Pead and McGee were primary gunners on Punt coverage unit.

11 on 11 Drills:

1st Offense:

Long Robinson Wells Joseph Barksdale— Quick Austin Cook Kendricks Stacy Bradford

First time that they have changed up the tandem of WRs…
Quick & Austin; Britt & Bailey; Givens & Pettis

McDonald with a nice pass break up on a deep post to Austin.
Bradford to Quick hook up on a 22 yard dig route. Was one of those WOW! plays. Bradford’s arm strength on display.

2nd Offense:

Person Van Dyk Barnes Bond Hooey — Britt Bailey Bayer J. Cunnigham Stacy Hill

Hill to Britt on a deep corner route
Bayer made his presence felt again,, a couple of nice receptions

Overall, not much different from previous weeks practices….

Defense worked primarily on zone coverage, and did a much better job getting their hands on passes.

Dunbar with a nice pass break up
Millard had a pass break up that almost lead to an interception

Observations:

With Laurinaitis still sidelined, Dunbar was back at MLB with Armstrong at WLB

1st unit Defense:

Long Langford Donald Quinn— Ogletree Dunbar Armsrtong — Johnson McGee McLeod McDonald
Joyner in at Nickel (Armstrong off)
Joyner also took some reps in place of McDonald, depending on offensive personnel

2nd Defense:

Hayes Carrington Conrath Sims — Steward Bates L Wilson — Gaines Roberson Davis Alexander
Joyner still at Nickel

3rd Defense:

Sam Westbrooks Harlan K. Brown—Sabino Schiller Millard—Reid J. Bryant A. Cunningham C. Bryant
Michael Sam took reps at RDE in a rotation, with Sammy Brown coming in at LDE.
Christian Bryant starting to look more comfortable.
Reid gave up back to back completions, first to Givens, then to Bayer on sideline wheel routes. Just stopped in coverage, before safety could get over there. After second play, was “coached up” on how to play the coverage.

NEWSFLASH of the practice: BRIAN QUICK DROPS A PASS. I guess the magic is gone!

FOLLOW UP Story: on the very next play, BRADFORD COMES RIGHT BACK TO QUICK.

That certainly didn’t happen in previous years. So maybe the previous report of his demise may be premature!

One other note: Team ran “gassers” at the end of practice. Any player that committed a penalty on Friday night had the pleasure of it being called out, and his entire positional unit got to run an extra “gasser”. Which is a sprint from sideline to sideline and back.

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Michael Sam put an end to any thought of his being a 3-4 OLB in his Senior Bowl workouts. He is a DE. nothing more, nothing less. Its pretty obvious why he fell. He had 3-5th round grades on virtually every draft prognosticators “board”. [As for an article which says]…to make the comment that Westbrooks has out performed Sam at training camp? Really, in the 3 practices he’s had since he was activated from the Non-football injured list.

Westbrooks hasn’t been on the field long enough for anyone to make any sort of accurate evaluation at this point.

As to his performance in Fridays game as it compared to Sam’s, I will add this one tidbit. And I will qualify my comments by saying he can only perform against the guys lined up across from him. But lets not forget, he was in the game well into the second half, performing against other guys who are well down the depth chart. While Sam was on the field on the second defensive series, with more than 5 minutes remaining in the FIRST Quarter. He was lined up against mostly starters for NO. And played well.

[Bayer:]…Bayer has been working with the 2nd unit all throughout camp, so that’s hardly news. Bayer will serve the same role as McNeil did a year ago. Add depth as a receiving TE, if anyone goes down. But this group of Cook, Kendricks and Harkey is gonna be hard to beat if healthy. And that assumes Bayer is still ahead of J. Cunningham who left practice on a cart today. . . .if that is anything more than an further aggravated ankle sprain, it could impact the 4th TE competition.

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I wouldn’t read too much into the CB depth chart with Jenkins and Woodard both still being out. I think at this point, Roberson at best would be considered 6th.

Gaines appeared to twist a knee. He was gimpy and walking gingerly, not putting much weight on the leg while getting off the field, with the assistance of Reggie Scott. But he eventually started walking without favoring it too much. Doesn’t look to be serious, but could be day to day kinda thing.

[Joyner]…It’s actually kind of weird, I noticed this happened on a few occasions in the game Friday night. He’s still lining up as if he is the Nickel back, but they take McDonald off the field. He isn’t lining up in a traditional Safety Position, but more of a slot coverage position, with McLeod in a single high position.

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Givens has been getting this treatment going all the way back to the OTA I attended in June. He just doesn’t look invested anymore. He will show signs one day, then the next jsut goes thru the motions.

Part of that, is definitely because of the impact the other WRs are having. Bringing in Britt i think sounded the alarm for Givens. And it has made Quick a whole lot more comfortable. Bailey has improved, and Austin is Austin.

Of the rest of the WR group, Blake and Veltung continue to get most of the chances. Vletung hasn’t shown much to me. Blake has his moments. The guy that has been the biggest puzzle to me, in terms of his being buried on the depth chart, is TJ Moe. He flashes when he gets targerted, and catches everything throw his way.