RamView, July 30, 2011
Training Camp Report from
Rams Park
Afternoon Practice
So far, so smooth as far as the first day of Rams
training camp went today. No significant injuries (but one scare),
and the offense does not appear to be in over its heads at all with
the new system. Training camp 2011 appears to be off to a good start.
Annual disclaimer: Observations are based mainly on
11-on-11, 7-on-7 and some of the position drills. I've been attending
training camp for years now, but so much changes, and so much happens
all at once, I'm resigned that I'll never get all its nuances. Stop
me from reporting on it? Never! I just try to do so very carefully.
Here we go, then...
* QB/RB: I all but ignored probably the most
important positions on the team because the Rams are so set with who
they have. Steven Jackson was worked very lightly, with Keith Toston
the #2. Odds of Kenneth Darby coming back must be long, since they've
re-assigned his #34 jersey. Jackson was thrown to a couple of times;
checkdown-type stuff. Sam Bradford's long ball looked good; he did
seem to overthrow three-four passes over the middle. I'll write that
off to first day of training camp, new receivers, etc. I hope,
though, that Sam won't throw the middle pass he threw to Danario
Alexander in 7-on-7 very often. He forced it into a crowd, with Craig
Dahl arriving right on time and another DB a step behind. Alexander
came out the loser in a collision with Dahl, who didn't have a lot of
room to pull up. In a real game, DX would have been a dead man. A.J.
Feeley's the #2, of course, and Thaddeus Lewis is the clear #3 at the
moment; Taylor Potts got maybe a couple of snaps. Lewis did make an
incorrect throw in 11-on-11, throwing an out with his intended
receiver running an in. Not that it was heated or anything, but I
reasoned from his discussion with Josh McDaniels after that play that
the mistake was his. You saw very little of that today, though. I was
worried that there'd be a lot of receivers running the wrong way or
balls thrown the wrong direction as the players worked their way into
the new offense. Nothing of the sort. Things ran pretty smoothly for
the first day of training camp.
* Receivers: A
lot of Rams receivers made impressions today, and a lot of them were
good. Brandon Gibson got off to a sloppy start in drills with a
couple of drops, but made a couple of eye-catching plays in 11-on-11
and 7-on-7. One was a terrific diving catch over the middle; the
other was a long touchdown catch where Gibson turned Ron Bartell
absolutely inside out. Beat him by yards. Gibson and Danario
Alexander tended to line up as the 1's. Alexander had kind of a scary
collision over the middle with Craig Dahl (and his reward for it was
to get scolded by coaches for losing the ball), and rode the dreaded
cart out at the very end of practice, but that's being widely
reported now as a case of cramps. Not a surprise given today's
weather. Mardy Gilyard, Lance Kendricks and Fendi Onobun look like
receivers the coaches are really working hard on. Gilyard beat Jerome
Murphy for a long TD in 11-on-11, and really seems to have the
coaches and fans pulling for him. He may have been the most targeted
receiver today. He had one frustrating drop, though, and got called
out for not finishing his routes sharply. It's still the best he's
looked in a Rams uniform, though, even when wearing the shortest
shorts on the team. I didn't notice that the tight ends were targeted
that much. Emphasis seemed to be more on them getting to the right
spot at the right time on running plays and running clear-out routes
for the other receivers correctly. Onobun did have a
forehead-smacking drop of a 5-yard pass in 7-on-7. Kendricks' head
may be swimming a bit right now. It seemed like a triumph just to get
him going in motion the proper way. Greg Salas looks like a very
smooth, very natural receiver, and if there is a football Austin
Pettis can't catch, I didn't see it. He had all kinds of balls thrown
behind him or outside his frame and he snagged every single one.
Donnie Avery does appear to have his old speed back, and little
(5'8”) Andrew Hawkins caught everything thrown to him. Kicking it
to him, that's another issue. With early positive showings from guys
down the depth chart like Gibson and Gilyard, this year's camp
competition at wide receiver promises to be epic.
* O-line/Defense: With Harvey Dahl, John Greco,
and the apparently returning-but-never-really-left Jacob Bell legally
unavailable to practice till the 4th, Drew Miller and Ryan
McKee stood in as the first unit guards amidst Jason Smith, Jason
Brown and Rodger Saffold. Darell Scott drew a starting tackle
position on the d-line, along with Fred Robbins, flanked by Chris
Long (yes, now wearing #91) and James Hall. Bryan Kehl was first unit
Will, lining up with James Laurinaitis and Na'il Diggs. With no pads
today, there were no offense vs. defense protection drills, so
there's not a ton of good evaluating I can do here. Eugene Sims would
have had a sack in 11-on-11. Rookie free agent Teryl White would have
scored a huge tackle-for-loss, but I don't think anyone blocked him.
Hall was pretty consistently jumping the tight end's blocks on
running plays and was happy to let them know about it. Looks like
he's ready to start the season today. The most interesting activity
for the linemen today was a drill on a far field where one lineman
would carry the ball and another lineman would try to strip him.
Sounds silly until you remember Steve Breaston stripping Cliff Ryan
at the goal line last year. George Selvie actually forced a fumble
during this drill. Craig Dahl caught a RB (may have been Toston)
running out one play unaware and stripped him of the ball. Believe he
and Darian Stewart were the starting safeties. Didn't see James
Butler at all. Dahl had a big collision over the middle with
Alexander, but Jermale Hines, wearing O.J. Atogwe's #21, probably had
the hit of the day, I think on Gilyard. Unfortunately, this was
supposed to be a no-contact practice. Jerome Murphy and Justin King
were the 2's at corner behind Ron Bartell and Bradley Fletcher. I've
already mentioned Murphy and Bartell getting beaten deep. To be fair
and balanced, there's no way for me to tell on those plays if there
was a breakdown in coverage (though I don't think so) or if the
defense was supposed to be going all out on the play. A lot of
drills, they're specifically instructed to let the offense make the
play, so to finish this copout, grading the defense from a no-contact
practice is probably asking for trouble.
* Special teams: Josh Brown appeared to hit every
FG he tried, most from around 40 yards. He might have missed once in
about 15-16 tries. Donnie Jones got his usual moon shots flying once
he got loose. Gilyard got the most work fielding punts; Murphy and
Andrew Hawkins also got work. Basically, we'll be a lot better off
when Danny Amendola's permitted to go. Punting drills were at the
beginning and end of practice. In the second session, Gilyard had two
go right through his arms before he got into a groove. Hawkins had a
just unfortunate finish to what had been a nice day. He had been
catching everything in passing drills, but in this last punt drill,
muffed almost every kick that came to him. Gilyard ended up getting a
lot of Hawkins' reps. Salas and Eddie Wide are the two I remember
getting kickoff return reps. There was also a lot of work for
gunners, as the coaches worked them out on when and how to arrive at
the returner. Mikail Baker appears to be getting worked into the mix
pretty early there.
* Strategery: Remember me complaining last year
about whole practices being nothing but two-yard passes? Well, that
has changed just a little bit. The offense ran 3-WR plays, 4-WR
plays, 3-WR plays with Jackson and the tight end in the pattern, and
all with very little dumpoff and checkdown stuff. I'm not talking
1970s-Raiders here, but Josh McDaniels is going to let Sam Bradford
throw downfield, and that? Is a good thing. McDaniels is very
involved in the offense, naturally, not just tutoring the QBs but
instructing the wideouts how he wants them to finish their routes.
And the man is versatile – he was pass-rushing Bradford during one
drill. I believe during one drill, the coaches were shouting signals
during the routes to force the QBs and receivers to adjust on the
fly, and the offense tended to get it right. Tight ends coach Frank
Leonard is a real hoot, easily the most vocal of the coaches. He
would cheer players getting the right explosion out of their stances
like he'd just won the lottery. And if you heard this once today,
from Leonard and others, you heard it a thousand times: “High and
tight!” The coaches really emphasized ball security, with the
receivers and with special teams. They yelled it so often I started
making sure to hold my camera high and tight on the sidelines. The
coaches are really into the details, too. The tight ends got a lot of
coaching on how to go into motion, and at the start of the practice,
it appeared they were instructing players on how to take their
stances.
* Cheers: It rained for at least an hour just
before practice, which held temperatures down in the 80s but also
held the crowd down to under 500 for sure. I'm thinking more like
300. Best viewing location today was on the rail all the way past the
bleachers across from the main building. Saw just about everything I
wanted to there. (The problem is remembering it all.) Security is
checking for video cameras, by the way, so don't get cute. From the
parking beanfield, they're routing fans through the team parking lot
and had some kid-friendly attractions (and souvenir stand) set up
there; too bad the rain put a damper on things today. Offensive
linemen and tight ends signed autographs post-practice, which is when
I figured out reports of Jacob Bell's departure had been quite
exaggerated.
* What's next?: My only remaining training camp
report will be from the annual scrimmage at Lindenwood, set for next
Sunday morning. Some real contact should give a better indication of
how the Rams are developing.
High and tight!
-- Mike
|
