Continuing on with my day one training camp notes. We are going to switch over to offense for this one and start with some of the passing drills. I tried to focus on Stafford the best I could but there will be some comments about Dano here and there.
Throwing Drills
- Stafford looked sharp throwing post routes to Calvin and Durham. Throws were accurate and in stride.
- On an out route there was a throw that was behind Calvin but he got his hands on it and then dropped it. I am not sure who was throwing to him but I think it was Stafford. A little later the Stafford, Calvin combo also had the same route behind him. In general Stafford seemed to struggle throwing the out route.
- Ross and Stafford seemed to be on the same page and if I had to guess at a depth chart right now I would guess Ross would be above Broyles.
- Tate had a nice catch with a lot of work to keep his toes in on an out route.
- Tate's catch was then followed by Broyles making a leaping grab on the same short out route. All the QBs seemed to have issues throwing the out routes.
- Stafford and Tate did not seem to be on the same page for the day as Stafford managed to miss him on a short curl/ screen pass. Though on the next play Stafford hit Broyles just fine suggesting it is probably just a timing issue.
Passing Practice with Multiple Routes
- On the first play in this drill they had Big Joe lining up inline and Tate coming across in motion. Big Joe ran a corner route but Stafford over threw him.
- It was interesting to note that Ebron was running with the defacto "third team" on these drills. It was mixed up later but he always seemed to start with the Patrick Edwards level group.
- They had an interesting line up where Ebron was the outside receiver and Big Joe was the slot receiver. Ebron ran a flat route under Joe's short curved out route. It had the feel of a redzone package to me.
- They also did an two running back set where Reddick was in the back field with Bush (I think) and they split Reddick out and the pass went to him. It was from Dano but it could have been one of those plays that Dano spoke of where it was designed for Reddick.
- Other than the time he lined up with Ebron, Big Joe seemed to always be lined up wide.
One on One WR-CB Drill
- First go was Slay v. CJ, mano a roboto and Calvin spun Slay like a top. Only to have Stafford deliver a bad pass...
- During this drill Stafford was 5 for 10
- One of those Stafford incompletetions was a drop from Big Joe on an short out route.
- Ross was running very crisp routes and getting a lot of separation form the corners. It is easy to see why he was getting so much buzz earlier in OTA's.
- Slay's next time up was against Broyles. Bryoles seemed to have beat him on a hesitate and go/corner route but Slay recovered really well and knocked it away. I feel though that if Dano had delivered it a little earlier and further it would have been an completion.
- Camp body 5, i.e. Wiggins did not get his head around and Stafford pass hit him in the side on what should have been an easy completion.
- This just in Calvin is good. He ran what we used to call a pig out against Mathis and really just made him his bitch.
- Bentley had good coverage on Durham on a short out from Stafford but Stafford put it where only Durham could get it and Durham showed some good hands to pull it in.
- Tate ran a curl against Slay and Slay was all over it. On the play there was a little confusion. I am not sure if Tate ran the wrong route or if the fact that Slay was all over the route caused Stafford to throw it a few yards wide to the side line but Stafford and Tate did not seem happy afterwards.
- Ebron had a good route on a crossing route with a good pass and just dropped it. Would have been a foot race to the endzone sort of play. It is a little worrisome when he is dropping those easy ones.
- Edwards had an highlight sort of catch along the sideline to keep a hold of his training camp hero status that he seems to be unable to apply to even preseason games. It was an out route and the coverage was just O.K
Full D on O
- On the first play with linemen the pocket seemed to get collapsed by Suh and Fairley (this was a trend) but Slay was on Broyles like white on rice and knocked away the pass.
- Through this section of practice there was a lot of short passes in the middle. Very safe throws but each play only seemed to have one vertical route. I can't say what they were practicing but the play design seemed intended to leave the receivers with room to run after but it just didn't work because the routes were all to short resulting in a lot of defenders around the ball.
- In the theme of the second bullet the next play was a play action resulting in a short pass to Grew.
- Bell had a nice run behind Sims where he popped out for a least a 5 yard run but likely to be a lot more than that.
- The next run play had what seemed to be Reggie breaking out for a long gain but I think that Suh would have stopped it in the back field if he was allowed to actually tackle. This one was a left side dive.
- When Bentley was lined up against Calvin they used a "press and bail" technique where Bentley never actually tried to press Calvin at the line but made it look like he was going to. The defense ended up forcing a short completion to Leshoure in the flats.
- Ebron actually had his best play of the day blocking, with a good seal block to catch the right DE scrapping down the line to allow Bell to bust free behind Warford. It was good to see, not devastating but very well timed.
- The offense seemed to be playing very conservative with a lot of short routes, including one in which Durham got the best of Bentley on a short out route. He used his body really well to make a nice long catch.
- Interesting note is that Whitehead continued to work as the second team MLB.
- The starting Oline was still in against the second string D at this point and Leshoure had a nice run where Warford parted the defense like it was the red sea. Its good to know he will dominate any lesser DTs.
- The last play of note for this section of practice was a play action role out to Grew in the right flat that was completely blown up by Ihedigbo. Who was playing much closer to the line that we have grown accustom to our safeties playing in the past few years.