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Wth the practice just about to enter the best 20 minutes of the day ( Team GL and 2 minute), the sky literally opened up. I mean it went from dry to you are totally soaked in less than a minute If you were looking to describe a "down pour" this was it. Within a 2 minutes even the Pats left the field.
But before that there was still a lot to see on a typical New England day which saw the practice start under cloudy sky, endure a long stretch of sunshine, and end with the deluge. Here are some things I thought were interesting.
1. Gronk actually did a bit less today. He didn't even wear padded pants. They are taking him very slow.
2. Social media is an amazing thing to an old foggy like me. When the team first breaks down into position groups we couldn't help notice that there were 2 new WR's, 84 and 14. Within a few minutes you have people checking their phones and voila, we get the info.
What was even more interesting was that Tyms looked like he belonged right away. Tall and lanky he made a few nice catches an made an impression. Since I got home, I found out he's had 2 years in the league (mostly on PS) so it made more sense. Both the new kids have some size.
3 Josh Boyce is very slowly putting together a very nic camp for himself. He consistently is getting behind CB's on deep routes and has been much more consistent in catching the ball than last season.
4. Also it was DJ Williams turn to shine among the TE's. He had a couple of tightly contested catches against the D in group work..
5. I took the time to watch closely the DL today. And as a former coach, I'd like to give a tip of the hat to the Pats DLine coaches Brendon Daly and Patrick Graham. As a group I was very impressed on how low they played and with good leverage. To a man they all showed great knee bend and strong hands. When an entire groups of mostly tall guys do that consistently, that my friend is due to good coaching.
6. Someone asked about Zack Moore in my last post, so I tried to get a better look at him today. I think the best description of him I can give is....Michael Buchannon of last year. He certainly looks the part. He consistently plays with a great knee bend, good arm position and seems very athletic. But like Buchannon of last season, he seems a little "light in the pants" vs the run. Nate Solder moved him down the line rather easily on a couple of occasions I noticed.
As of this minute, I he looks exactly like he's supposed to be, given his draft status and where he played in college. A perfect prospect for the PS. Like Buchannon I like what I saw. He has a good burst, speed and athleticism, but needs more strength and bulk, and hundreds of more reps. The gap between his initial move and finding the ball is too big right now. Not surprising like I said. The fact he plays with such good leverage tells me he's coachable. In 2-3 years, this could be turn out to be a great pick.
7. I took a look at Flemming as well. Certainly big and powerful enough, but I wonder if he has the quickness and agility to be a starter on this level. Very early in the process, but comparing him and Solder athletically right now is like comparing Jupiter with Pluto
8 The OL mixed and matched a lot with the first group, with Kline getting a lot of reps at both RG, and LG. Wendell, Connolly and Stork all took reps at C. Cannon got the majority of the starting reps at RT, while Volmer subbed in with him as well as playing back up LT.
9. It looks to me that Volmer is not to where he was before his injury. He doesn't seem quite as quick and agile. Hopefully that will come as camp moves on. However anyone looking for clues as to what the starting OL is going to look like by who is playing with what group, is purely guessing
10. Interesting that in the 3 practices that I've been to, I have yet to see the dreaded "back shoulder" throw thrown even once. Maybe they are waiting for Dobson to return to bring that out.
11. They did spend a lot of time on one of my favorite routes. Its the one where the receiver sprints up field and at 5 yed fakes an in cut, and breaks it back up the seam. When Welker ever got deep, this was the route he usually used
12. 4 two hour practices and a day off. As a former coach and player this almost offends me. Its the fundamentals that get lost when you lose this much practice time. That and player development. Guys like Moore will loose more than half the reps he would have gotten if TC were run like it was prior to the new CBA. That's almost a year of development time lost. Reps that could mean the difference between him having an NFL career and not having one. It also means I am going to have to endure ANOTHER season of watching pro tackle in a manner I wouldn't expect HS kids to tackle. Today the Pats spent a total of 7 minutes working on open field form tackling,
13. Muck like the OL, the "other safety" was also a mix and match with Wilson, Harmon and Chung all getting work with McCourty. On one play where Wilson ended up with deep responsibility, he made it all the way to the sideline to break up a pass where Boyce had beaten the CB. That's good range for a guy some think of as a SS.
Well that's my 2 cents. The rest you can get from the many other sources available. I'm constantly amazed by how much I miss and how much more there is to see. See you next week.
But before that there was still a lot to see on a typical New England day which saw the practice start under cloudy sky, endure a long stretch of sunshine, and end with the deluge. Here are some things I thought were interesting.
1. Gronk actually did a bit less today. He didn't even wear padded pants. They are taking him very slow.
2. Social media is an amazing thing to an old foggy like me. When the team first breaks down into position groups we couldn't help notice that there were 2 new WR's, 84 and 14. Within a few minutes you have people checking their phones and voila, we get the info.
What was even more interesting was that Tyms looked like he belonged right away. Tall and lanky he made a few nice catches an made an impression. Since I got home, I found out he's had 2 years in the league (mostly on PS) so it made more sense. Both the new kids have some size.
3 Josh Boyce is very slowly putting together a very nic camp for himself. He consistently is getting behind CB's on deep routes and has been much more consistent in catching the ball than last season.
4. Also it was DJ Williams turn to shine among the TE's. He had a couple of tightly contested catches against the D in group work..
5. I took the time to watch closely the DL today. And as a former coach, I'd like to give a tip of the hat to the Pats DLine coaches Brendon Daly and Patrick Graham. As a group I was very impressed on how low they played and with good leverage. To a man they all showed great knee bend and strong hands. When an entire groups of mostly tall guys do that consistently, that my friend is due to good coaching.
6. Someone asked about Zack Moore in my last post, so I tried to get a better look at him today. I think the best description of him I can give is....Michael Buchannon of last year. He certainly looks the part. He consistently plays with a great knee bend, good arm position and seems very athletic. But like Buchannon of last season, he seems a little "light in the pants" vs the run. Nate Solder moved him down the line rather easily on a couple of occasions I noticed.
As of this minute, I he looks exactly like he's supposed to be, given his draft status and where he played in college. A perfect prospect for the PS. Like Buchannon I like what I saw. He has a good burst, speed and athleticism, but needs more strength and bulk, and hundreds of more reps. The gap between his initial move and finding the ball is too big right now. Not surprising like I said. The fact he plays with such good leverage tells me he's coachable. In 2-3 years, this could be turn out to be a great pick.
7. I took a look at Flemming as well. Certainly big and powerful enough, but I wonder if he has the quickness and agility to be a starter on this level. Very early in the process, but comparing him and Solder athletically right now is like comparing Jupiter with Pluto
8 The OL mixed and matched a lot with the first group, with Kline getting a lot of reps at both RG, and LG. Wendell, Connolly and Stork all took reps at C. Cannon got the majority of the starting reps at RT, while Volmer subbed in with him as well as playing back up LT.
9. It looks to me that Volmer is not to where he was before his injury. He doesn't seem quite as quick and agile. Hopefully that will come as camp moves on. However anyone looking for clues as to what the starting OL is going to look like by who is playing with what group, is purely guessing
10. Interesting that in the 3 practices that I've been to, I have yet to see the dreaded "back shoulder" throw thrown even once. Maybe they are waiting for Dobson to return to bring that out.
11. They did spend a lot of time on one of my favorite routes. Its the one where the receiver sprints up field and at 5 yed fakes an in cut, and breaks it back up the seam. When Welker ever got deep, this was the route he usually used
12. 4 two hour practices and a day off. As a former coach and player this almost offends me. Its the fundamentals that get lost when you lose this much practice time. That and player development. Guys like Moore will loose more than half the reps he would have gotten if TC were run like it was prior to the new CBA. That's almost a year of development time lost. Reps that could mean the difference between him having an NFL career and not having one. It also means I am going to have to endure ANOTHER season of watching pro tackle in a manner I wouldn't expect HS kids to tackle. Today the Pats spent a total of 7 minutes working on open field form tackling,
13. Muck like the OL, the "other safety" was also a mix and match with Wilson, Harmon and Chung all getting work with McCourty. On one play where Wilson ended up with deep responsibility, he made it all the way to the sideline to break up a pass where Boyce had beaten the CB. That's good range for a guy some think of as a SS.
Well that's my 2 cents. The rest you can get from the many other sources available. I'm constantly amazed by how much I miss and how much more there is to see. See you next week.
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