Carlisle Report

[rtandler]

Just got back from Carlisle. Could have gotten back hours ago had we known that the second practice wasn't going to happen, but Mother Nature wouldn't cooperate.

Some observations in no particular order:

--The Skins looked good, wearing the retro helmets.

--Ladell Betts looks like a slightly smaller Stephen Davis. Not in performance, mind you, but the same build only a couple of inches shorter and about ten pounds lighter. He was running hard and looks pretty quick.

--The three QB's present were clearly all equals in terms of who was doing what work. They all worked with and against the first, second, and third teams. There seemed to be a conscious effort to rotate them evenly.

--The three QB's were not equal in terms of how well they performed. Matthews was clearly better than the other two, who were about even. Matthews was throwing with confidence and velocity.

--Despite Matthews, the ball was on the ground too much. Receivers were dropping passes, backs were fumbling, all three QB's were misfiring. And the missed passes weren't the kind of thing where the timing was off, they were flat overthrows.

--Champ was extremely solid in coverage, Smoot was good but got emberassed a couple of times.

--It extrememly tough to tell anything about any other aspect of the team besides pass offense and pass defense in practice. The D doesn't do anything anywhere near full contact and the runners aren't getting tackled.

--There was much more encouragement and enthusiasm on the part of the coaches than seen from the Turner or Schottenheimer staffs. More like a, dare I say it, college atmosphere.

--Haven't seen how my pictures turned out yet, will post any of interest.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

Hey rtandler, thanks for the report.

You might check out Griff's "Just got back from Carlisle" report, which was posted this afternoon to much acclaim (it was extremely detailed). Specifically, the two of you have some mildly divergent observations in a few cases, and I'm curious about your response to his. Specifically:

-- he thought Smoot looked better than Champ; you the reverse

-- he thought the QBs all sucked and had weak velocity; you thought Matthews was better than the others

Also, he had some strong individual praise for a few players in addition to Smoot:

J. Green

Arrington

Wynn

Gillespie

He also thought Wilkinson, Trotter, Armstead, D.Green, Samuels, Jansen and a few others looked good. He thought Bauman looked lost, and Russell also to some extent.

Obviously different people have different impressions -- I'm just curious about your second thoughts on these folks.

[rtandler]

--Jacquez Green did look good, as did Thompson and McCants. Thompson, in particular, made a real nice catch of a good Matthews throw that dropped in over and through a couple of defenders.

--By pointing out Matthews' performance as superior to that of the others, I didn't mean to say that he was anything better than mediocre. I did think that they all threw the ball pretty hard, too hard at times (see the overthrows).

--There's a lot going on, so we may well differ on what we saw of Smooth and Champ. Bottom line is, though, that neither did anything to dispell the notion that they are the best corner tandem in the NFL.

--Again, I can't really comment on any of the linebackers or guys in the trenches. They didn't even go seven on seven so all I saw of the LB's was them going at three-quarters speed in scrimmage-type drills. I wasn't in a position to see the defense-only drills, which occur on an adjacent field.

--D. Green? He looked like D. Green.

[The Diesel]

Thanks for the report. It sounds like you weren't quite as unimpressed with the quarterbacks as Griff was. That makes me feel a little better. Frankly, I'm not going to worry about how the quarterbacks looked on the first day of camp. They'll work it out. I just wish Ramsey would get his *** in camp. He's got a real chance to be a fan favorite from day 1. I hope he doesn't pull a Heath Shuler and ruin all the good vibes before he ever suits up for us.

[Art]

Quite a bit different than Griff, but valuable nonetheless. I'm glad I never thought you were nothing but a self-promoting, drive-by windbag, Rich . Thanks for the post and keep bringing them.