Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins
Forum Rules and Guidelines

VOR/STB21's Training Camp Recap (Day 4)

CRobi21

By CRobi21
in The Stadium

Recommended Posts

CRobi21

CRobi21

Posted
Posted

Day 1: http://extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=292731

Day 2: http://extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=292910

Day 3: http://extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=293003

Good afternoon ladies and gents. Just got back from a rather soggy morning in Ashburn, VA. There was a steady drizzle most of practice, with a couple periods of steady downpour. But I'm happy to say that I saw pretty much everyone there stick it out and root for the guys on the field. Today was probably the most spirited the fans were for the days I've been there.

So, we got to talking, and Voice_of_Reason and I decided to tag team these training camp recap threads. He spent all day keeping a keen eye on the offense, while I took the defense. Up first, VOR on the offense:

Voice_of_Reason : Offense

General Comments:

(fit of swearing)

Ok, now that that is out of the day, offensively, this practice was like the weather. Sloppy. Again.

One of the early drills was the drill where they throw the pads at the QBs, who have to drop back, get hit with the pads, then throw a strike in the middle of the field. All of the QBs did pretty well. The humorous moment was when somebody hit JC square in the noggin and he fell over. Everybody laughed. It was pretty funny.

I'm officially going to push the panic button on day 4 of camp on the OL. The starters got beat by the starting D, the backup D, and the backups got beat by everybody. It was a miserable performance. I'll get into individuals farther down. But Vinny had better figure something out quick, because I'm thinking the guys on the field right now are not going to get a lot better, and this unit could sink the entire season.

They did some running drills, and I saw mostly zone blocking, like before, but there were a few wrinkles. They lined Davis and Cooley next to each other on the right side of the line a couple times, and then ran some type of a counter. They ran 3-4 counters, pulling either TEs, Ts, or Guards to lead the RB from a 2 TE set several times. I don't think it ever really worked, but the didn't really do that last year, so I'm happy they are trying it.

When they were doing some basic route running/pitch-n-catch drills, the offensive players who were not playing offense played defense, and it was amusing to see CD and CB playing safety against the 1st string offense, but even more amusing to see JC and TC playing safety against the backups.

There were A LOT of drops. More drops that I would like to see. Even Cooley got into the act by dropping an easy screen play. Some of the drops were from the guys shooting for the 5th WR spot, which won't do them any favors. More later.

They did practice the no huddle a couple of times with the first and second string offenses. Reasonably good, a little shaky. They converted a 4th down.

This is more for STB, but Haynsworth was destroying whoever he lined up in front of. I think he put a beautiful swim move on Rabach, and was at the QB's face before Rabach was out of his stance. From the offensive perspective, not so good.

Player Specific Comments:

QB

JC: I actually think he had a better practice today that yesterday. He drilled a few beautiful balls in there.

He had 2 INTs. 1 hit the receiver in the hands, and it was a combination of a good defensive play and a bad catch, but the ball when straight up, and was picked off. The other, Yoder was trying to block Andre Carter, couldn't, JC stepped up and unloaded inaccurately to Moss, and it went right to a defender.

He was going through read progressions all day, made some snappy throws, but never really went deep in 11-11 or 9-9 drills, because the defense was all over him.

One interesting pattern, Betts ran some type of an up and out to the far sideline twice, and JC threw it to exactly the same spot twice, both times overthrown. I don't know what happened there. Those were his worst throws of the day. But, I'm not sure that he didn't expect Betts to be in a different place.

TC: I thought he struggled again.

He threw a great, perfect between the numbers ball to Michael Grant. Who, unfortunately, is a safety. Worst throw of the day by any of the QBs.

He had a couple good throws here and there, but nothing spectacular. He seemed to get the ball out of his hands a little faster than yesterday, but was very inconsistent.

He had a sure fire TD dropped. His best throw of the day was a deep ball to Shelton, who had gotten behind the defense, and dropped it.

CB: He got less of a chance today. In team drills, CD came in before CB. Colt got the reps yesterday, Chase got the reps today. It does say something that they are alternating giving Chase and Colt reps.

He played average. Had a few pretty good throws, some bum throws. Footwork is what I said yesterday, much improved from last year, but not good. Ploddy and mechanical is how I would describe it. He went through read progressions. He had a few very good throws, but none that were as good as the ones he had yesterday.

He tripped over his own guy once, and dropped a snap during drills throwing to RBs against air. Neither of these things is good.

CD: Ok, this guy just impressed me for the second day in a row. He might have the best throwing mechanics of any of the QBs. Zorn is working on his footwork. He probably has the second strongest arm on the club behind JC. When he was in there, he was accurate with the ball, the balls were coming out on time and on rhythm.

He actually, to me, looks more like a WCO QB than any of the other QBs on the team.

He had a couple beautiful passes, one drop, and one throw to Fred Davis that was high, but Davis still got 2 hands on it, but couldn't pull it in.

Look out for this guy. I think he's going to push Colt for that third spot if he keeps playing the way he's playing.

WRs

Moss: Nothing new to report. Guy is quick. Fast. Catches the ball well. Newsflash.

ARE: Had a pretty good practice. Caught a couple good balls. Looks great in the slot.

Thomas: I think he looked real good. Made some good cuts, came back to the ball a couple times, used his body to fend off defenders. I would like to see him stretch the field, all the routes were cut off, nothing down field, but he looks good.

Kelly: If dude can stay healthy, and the QB has time to throw, he's going to have 10 TD catches this year, all from 20+ yards out. He has glue in his gloves, is fast as a cat, quick in and out of breaks, and makes good adjustments. He's got sneaky speed.

He caught a ball from JC today, and went down hard, skidding on the turf, and popped right back up. 2 days in a row. I held my breath. But he seems fine. Which is such a relief.

Eloi: Did not have a good practice. He had at least one drop. He doesn't seem to have top end speed, but he's pretty sharp in and out of his cuts.

Roydell Williams: Did not have a good practice. Dropped several balls. From all the QBs. 2 drops back to back. Did not help himself today.

He also had a ball that was absolutely on the money on some type of a fade route hit him in his head. Not good.

Shelton: Doesn't look as quick as the other WRs, and dropped a sure TD from TC. Boo.

TE:

Cooley: Good practice in general, caught a lot of balls, made some good adjustments, but dropped the one screen play.

Davis: Looks quick, made a few good catches, but nothing spectacular.

Yoder

: Somebody forgot to tell him that he's going to be #3 on the depth chart. Because the guy just comes out and makes plays.

RB:

Portis/Betts/Sellers: No comments. Except Sellers looks faster than last year, and is freaking huge.

Mason: Clearly a different type of back than Aldridge and Dorsey, and it looks like he was getting reps before them. Big guy, not as fast, runs hard. Same as before.

Aldridge: Dudes got some quicks. He made a couple good cuts and worked his way up field. Didn't get a lot of opportunities in team drills. Tough to tell on individual drills against Air. But he's fast.

Dorsey: Also very quick. took a pitch near side, and outran the defense to the sideline, but when he tried to turn up field, he got crunched. Same as above. Didn't get a lot of opportunities. But ran hard when he did get them.

OL:

Samuels: Orakpo make Samuels his **** again. Not good. Could he be done? Hope not. But he didn't look good.

Dock: Could barely see him.

Rabach: Looked like a matador almost all day.

Thomas: Actually looked ok to me. Got some good push.

Heyer: Sheesh. Not a good practice for Stephan. He was beat by just about everybody who lined up in front of him. Carter, Wilson, Daniels, whoever they put over there gave him fits.

BMW: Dude is a great story, but he can't block anybody yet. As I said, it might be a matter of time. But right now, the DEs from Langley High School could get around him.

Rinehart: Didn't look particularly good either. On one running play, he knocked over BMW, ran right into the back of him.

STBonecrusher21 : Defense

General Comments:

The defense put forth a pretty solid effort today. And I don't wanna jinx it, but I have a VERY good feeling about our D-Line this year, wow. VOR touched on it in his recap, how the OL isn't looking too sharp, but a cause of that may be due to the play of the D-Line. They are lights out right now.

Orakpo worked with both the LBs and DL again today, as to be expected, and looked great with both groups. Carlos Rogers warmed up, but then sat out the rest of practice. He was fully dressed, but was on a knee while drills were going on. Smoot took his place as 2nd CB.

I really think Tryon is having one of the best camps out of all the people on the defense, let alone the secondary. Last year we heard Tryon's name a lot, but that was because it was the guy we heard yelling and talking trash. This year, he's very quiet, but his play is doing all the talking for him.

Zorn had the guys running the 2-minute drill at the end of practice, and the D held up well. But one thing I noticed is that many of the guys were sucking wind out there. I know its only the 4th day of camp, but the guys will need to continue to work hard out there if they wanna shut teams down in the 4th quarter. But I have all the confidence in the world that they can do it.

DL:

Haynesworth: Guys is an absolute monster. It didn't matter who the offense put in front of him today, Big Al was a force to be wreckened with. He got constant pressure up the middle. And probably my highlight of the day right here: Big Al and Orakpo ran a stunt that brought tears to my eyes. Al lined up outside at DE, with Rak at DT. At the snap of the ball, Al slanted in very hard and took on both the guard and tackle, occupying both of them. Orakpo then looped around to the outside and had a free shot at the QB. If it were game day the QB might not have gotten back up.

Andre Carter: Dre performed pretty well today. Got some pressure on the QB a couple times, but Big Al totally stole the show on the DL.

Phillip Daniels: Looks healthy, and adds great depth out there being able to play both DE and DT which he proved out there today.

C. Griffin - He had a little scare out there today with big Griff. He tangled legs with another lineman in the trenches and was slow getting up. But thankfully he did and returned in the lineup later on.

J. Jarmon - I really like this guy. He made a few plays out there today. Batted down a few balls that were gonna be quick screens or slants. But most of all, I love his motor. He's 100% from whistle to whistle.

Chris Wilson - Chris worked out at both DE and LB. He was relatively quiet, but looked good at LB scraping down the line on a run play that went away from him.

Golston/Montgomery - Both guys had okay days. Again, it's hard to go out there and look good after #92 just completely blew up the OL the play before.

LBs

London - As usual, solid performance. Captain of the ship out there, shouting orders. Love that guy.

Rocky - He had a GREAT day today I thought. Was solid against the run, and even better in pass coverages, breaking up multiple passes and almost coming down with some INTs.

Orakpo - Rak looked great at both LB and DE today. I paid special attention to when he was dropping back in coverage, and to be honest he looks very natural out there. Very little stiffness if any running in the open field. Quite simply, he looks like the real deal out there people, a steal at the #13 pick. Can't wait to see him out there going full speed against other teams.

H.B./Fincher/R. Thomas - The second group looked pretty good out there today. Flying to the ball and making plays. Robert Thomas put a pretty good shot on the ball carrier along the sideliens that madethe crowd go "ooooo."

Henson/Glenn/C. Wilson - This was the third group in. I really like Henson and Glenn out there. Two young guys with non-stop motors flying around the ball at all times. Can't ask for much more in our rookie LBs. Can't wait to see them in special teams though, I think they could really do some damage there.

DBs

LaRon/Horton - Yet again the two young safeties looked great out there, LaRon playing deep and Chris in the box. Horton had a pick on a ball thrown over the middle that was mishandled and tossed into the air. Chris was there to bring it in and turn up field.

D Hall/Smoot/Tryon - D Hall had a rather quiet practice today compared to the first 3 days. But Tryon had another strong performance out there today, batting away about three balls. Smoot had good coverage today, his guys went on rather short routes and Smoot was right there to make the plays. But still not that impressive. Tryon is having a much better camp.

Kareem Moore/Reed Doughty - These guys look great as the #2 safetys. Reed looks back and 100% from his back injury. He was flying around all over the place and almost had a INT along the sideline but the ball went just over his finger tips. Kareem had another solid day playing center field. Didn't really make any plays that I can remember, but didn't give up any either.

Kevin Barnes - The terp didn't have a very good practice today. He was one-on-one with a receiver on the outside. The WR ran like a 10 yard comeback to the inside. Kevin overpurued after the WR caught it and he got to the outside for a big gain. A good thing though is that he seems to be pretty hard on himself. After that play he slapped himself in the helmet and lined back up and made a good play on the WR stopping him for a short gain.

Byron Westbrook/Michael Grant - These were the other two guys who had INTs today. Byron snatched one that sailed over Santana's head, thrown by JC. Grant baited Todd Collins into throwing into zone coverage and Grant stepped right in front of the defener.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Warhead36

Warhead36

Posted
Posted

Good information man. I love how you listed more of the negatives, most peoples reports are nothing but "Devin Thomas and Albert Haynesworth pwn!!!1~" I'm really starting to worry about our OL. I think Samuels will be okay, as he's still recovering from a major injury, but the rest of the line? Yuck. Hopefully our DL is just that good, but a Skins DL dominating? I'll believe it when I see it in live action. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rhyno

rhyno

Posted
Posted

Again, great coverage. I'm kind of torn on the double team thing though. One part of me loves that you are able to go a little more in depth when covering one side of the ball but the other part of me likes to read about the same practice from 2 perspectives. No offense to anyone but you can read both of your synopses along with the ones from redskins.com and any others that are out there and get completely different viewpoints and opinions about players and the practice in general. It's the nature of the beast (and the reason I got into psychology) that different people can watch the exact same event and each person interpret it in a completely different way. I find the best way to get a feel for what is going on, as a 2nd hand observer, is to read each of the perspectives and look for the trends between these perspectives. Either way, fantastic job and keep up the good work!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Voice_of_Reason

Voice_of_Reason

Posted
Posted
No problem guys.

Leave comments and quesitons and I'll be back later to answer them as best I can. I'm a bit water logged right now, and put all this up on a just a couple hours of sleep last night. I'll be on later.

Thanks STB21 for compiling and getting this up. Appreciate it. :)

Same goes for me, I'm off the computer for a little while, but if you have questions/comments/snide remarks, put them down and I will reply later this evening.

Good information man. I love how you listed more of the negatives, most peoples reports are nothing but "Devin Thomas and Albert Haynesworth pwn!!!1~" I'm really starting to worry about our OL. I think Samuels will be okay, as he's still recovering from a major injury, but the rest of the line? Yuck. Hopefully our DL is just that good, but a Skins DL dominating? I'll believe it when I see it in live action. :)

I hope Samuels is going to be ok. I've honestly never been a fan. But, hopefully he can at least be a better than average LT.

And I will just go all nuts if the 'Skins have a dominant defensive line. Couple that with a pretty good LB and secondary, the defense would be championship caliber. Would only need 20 ppg to win 10-12 games. Question is, can the offense get 20 ppg? That's one more figgie per game than last year. I think they CAN, if the OL holds up it's end.

It honestly looks to me like the QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs are all doing adequate jobs, but right now they are waiting for the OL to step it up.

But it would surely take them awhile.

Well, he is a pretty big guy. It would take most people a long time to run around him. (ps: I chose Langley because I went there. Years ago. :) )

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RocketCitySkins

RocketCitySkins

Posted
Posted
Thanks for thre recaps. Great job! I'm sill holding out hope that the o-line will improve by the end of camp.

I'm holding out hope that the o-line will hold up until the end of camp.

Per WarpathConfidential

"The team does not allow quarterbacks to be hit in camp, which is good. Otherwise the Redskins might be looking to sign Michael Vick just to have a quarterback that can still stand."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Voice_of_Reason

Voice_of_Reason

Posted
Posted
Again, great coverage. I'm kind of torn on the double team thing though. One part of me loves that you are able to go a little more in depth when covering one side of the ball but the other part of me likes to read about the same practice from 2 perspectives. No offense to anyone but you can read both of your synopses along with the ones from redskins.com and any others that are out there and get completely different viewpoints and opinions about players and the practice in general. It's the nature of the beast (and the reason I got into psychology) that different people can watch the exact same event and each person interpret it in a completely different way. I find the best way to get a feel for what is going on, as a 2nd hand observer, is to read each of the perspectives and look for the trends between these perspectives. Either way, fantastic job and keep up the good work!

This is a good point. However, I'm going to give mad props to STB21, because even if I was watching the defense the whole time, I'd never pick up on what he does. I'm just not very good at recognizing what I see on defense. I know offense a whole lot more.

You can't really focus on one area without seeing the other. If you're watching the OL get destroyed by the DL, you're going to see both. I don't kow that I would have recognised the stunt that STB21 pointed out real time. Probably would have noticed it on "film"

But yeah, I think that everybody who is interested should read as many recaps as possible. They will all be different.

I had a difference of opinion with somebody yesterday on the JC to MK fade route. I think it was a drop because MK got 2 hands on it, the other person thinks it was a great play by Smoot to break it up. Both are probably true, depending on your point of view.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Voice_of_Reason

Voice_of_Reason

Posted
Posted
I'm holding out hope that the o-line will hold up until the end of camp.

Per WarpathConfidential

"The team does not allow quarterbacks to be hit in camp, which is good. Otherwise the Redskins might be looking to sign Michael Vick just to have a quarterback that can still stand."

Yeah, I decided against putting in that I think that the 'Skins need to keep all 4 QBs, and sign one more. If this keeps up, we're going to see JC, CB, TC, and CD all play, and probably play more than once. If the OL is truly this horrid, Vick actually wouldn't be a bad option. Snap it to him and tell him to run for his life. He could do that better than any of the folks we have on the team now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SWFLSkins

SWFLSkins

Posted
Posted
I'm really gettin nervous over the OL.This is not good

Well now they know what it is like in Pitts., Balt. and NY. Facing a dominate DL will prepare them for the season. They will get tired of getting beat up at practice and in the film room then start hitting back.

I think I would be more concerned if this were not the case, meaning this DL is really not up to it's billing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SirClintonPortis

SirClintonPortis

Posted
Posted
Yeah, I decided against putting in that I think that the 'Skins need to keep all 4 QBs, and sign one more. If this keeps up, we're going to see JC, CB, TC, and CD all play, and probably play more than once. If the OL is truly this horrid, Vick actually wouldn't be a bad option. Snap it to him and tell him to run for his life. He could do that better than any of the folks we have on the team now.

Hagans and Randle El for Wildcat. :evilg:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Voice_of_Reason

Voice_of_Reason

Posted
Posted
Well now they know what it is like in Pitts., Balt. and NY. Facing a dominate DL will prepare them for the season. They will get tired of getting beat up at practice and in the film room then start hitting back.

I think I would be more concerned if this were not the case, meaning this DL is really not up to it's billing.

One can only hope. Zorn did say that the DBs are going to help the WRs, because we have good DBs. Let's hope the same holds true for the DL/OL.

But, to counter point, the Steelers OL last year was reasonably putrid through most of the season. They couldn't run the ball, and they got Big Ben almost killed. They tightened up a little at the end. But that defense carried that team from gun to gun. And it didn't really help that OL protect the QB or develop a running game.

Hagans and Randle El for Wildcat. :evilg:

Now THAT's not a bad idea. Grin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...