- Joined
- Jul 11, 2005
- Messages
- 15,526
- Reaction score
- 27,532
Because you get to wake up in the morning. Take your time and stop for breakfast. Drive the 20 minutes to the stadium, Sit under a gorgeous sky, dry humidity, and sunshine. All while watching your favorite team working hard to get ready for another season with about 7,000 like minded people. The world might seem like its falling apart around us, but for at least these 3 hours, I was content. 
1. Highlight of my camp so far, because one of my camp dreams came true. Marcus Cannon played the entire practice as the first group RG. Who knows if it will last, but at least for today, one of my biggest off season hopes came true.
2. BTW- Connolly was the first team C for the most part.
3. I can't say enough how good Jamie Collins is in coverage. I'm talking DB good. In a drill between LB's and RB's and TE's he got 2 reps, and in both occasions not only had tight coverage, but was in good enough position to get a hand on the ball. BTW- we aren't talking about easy flat routes here, but routes with double and triple moves in space.
4. And although they aren't to the level of Collins, the rest of the LB corps (Mayo, Anderson, Fleming, and McCullers) by and large had excellent coverage in this drills. Pass were completed, but all were heavily contested. Very rarely was anyone running free, even deep.
If you want to understand why Hull was cut, I think it wasn't that Hull did anything wrong, but that guys like Davis, Flemming, and McCullers made him simply redundant at that end of the roster
5. Speaking of Flemming. I watched him more closely since I literally discovered he was on the team yesterday. I had never heard of him other than what's on the program, which states he's in his 3rd year and is 6'2 250. NFL.com says he has no stats and didn't name the teams he's been on, so I had to try and google him before I found out why he was such a perfect fit for the Pats. A 5th round pick for the Niners, Flemming lost his first TWO season with ACL injuries.
If you watch him you can't help but notice how quick and explosive his is. I remember prior to the draft, there were a lot of us who looked at guys like Shazier and KPL and saw them as a new hybrid kind of player who is starting to become a need in today's flag football version of the NFL. I think in some way, between Taylor McCuller and Flemming, BB is trying to meet that need with these 2 guys. Flemming is getting some serious run with the first group in some nickel packages
6. Tried to watch the OL more in the one of ones. Having good days were Solder and Volmer. Volmer was firmly back in his RT slot, getting most of the reps. Cameron Flemming got a lot of run at LT with the 2nd group and looked a bit quicker than I had originally thought today.
b. IMHO, Ryan Wendell is clearly the best C the Pats have when it comes to the running game. He is faster off the ball, plays with better leverage and pad level. I also saw him get pushed back vs a bull rush in half line (I didn't get who did the rush). But then again I also saw Mankins get blown back once as well. Bull rushes are hard to look good on in one on one drills and half line reps simply because there is so much more space for the DLman to move around in than he'd get in a full team example.
c. Based on playing time, the guys who look like locks for the OL roster are Volmer, Connolly, Cannon, Wendell, Mankins, Solder, and Kline. So since I think it would be very hard to keep more than 9 offensive line men, either a vet has to go....or one of the draft picks
BTW- of the 3 rookies the only one who has gotten ANY first group time has been Stork and that's been very limited, and now he's out. No question the make up of this offensive line is going to be the subject of a LOT of speculation over the next 5 weeks. This are going to be a LOT of diverse opinions. People are going to get pissed, and no one REALLY knows what's going on.
7. It could have been a very dark day for us if a Jet fan had gotten a Tomahawk missile and a laser targeting devise, because during a kicking game portion of the practice, the Gronk, Brady, Revis and BB were working together again for about 10 minutes on a back field. This is the 2nd day this happened. I think, even though it wasn't full speed, the competition level was ramped up a bit more today. Gronk worked on his routes and Brady practiced getting his balls high over Revis (who as usual was generally in perfect position).
I guess it could have been worse. Yesterday Bob Kraft was over there with them as well. So they could have wiped out the 5 top people in the organization in one strike. Today, only 4.
8. The first group offense got killed by the first D in the 2 minute drill. They never even got into FG range. The 2nd group did a bit better making it into FG range.
9. In an interesting drill, the Pats practiced running a play with 25 second left and THEN getting their FG unit on the field to kick a FG with no TO. They did this several times with 2 different FG units.... and got every one off on time.
11. The Pats did a lot of practicing different package substitutions in high tempo situations today throughout practice. For example going from 3 wide to Jumbo, and from nickel to GL on D, etc. I think we all take for granted how good the Pats are at doing this, while other teams aren't. It doesn't happen by accident. Lots of practice and planing are needed. Clearly this was a focus of this practice.
Rarely a mention of a QB and no mentions of any WR's...... good job by me.
1. Highlight of my camp so far, because one of my camp dreams came true. Marcus Cannon played the entire practice as the first group RG. Who knows if it will last, but at least for today, one of my biggest off season hopes came true.
2. BTW- Connolly was the first team C for the most part.
3. I can't say enough how good Jamie Collins is in coverage. I'm talking DB good. In a drill between LB's and RB's and TE's he got 2 reps, and in both occasions not only had tight coverage, but was in good enough position to get a hand on the ball. BTW- we aren't talking about easy flat routes here, but routes with double and triple moves in space.
4. And although they aren't to the level of Collins, the rest of the LB corps (Mayo, Anderson, Fleming, and McCullers) by and large had excellent coverage in this drills. Pass were completed, but all were heavily contested. Very rarely was anyone running free, even deep.
If you want to understand why Hull was cut, I think it wasn't that Hull did anything wrong, but that guys like Davis, Flemming, and McCullers made him simply redundant at that end of the roster
5. Speaking of Flemming. I watched him more closely since I literally discovered he was on the team yesterday. I had never heard of him other than what's on the program, which states he's in his 3rd year and is 6'2 250. NFL.com says he has no stats and didn't name the teams he's been on, so I had to try and google him before I found out why he was such a perfect fit for the Pats. A 5th round pick for the Niners, Flemming lost his first TWO season with ACL injuries.
If you watch him you can't help but notice how quick and explosive his is. I remember prior to the draft, there were a lot of us who looked at guys like Shazier and KPL and saw them as a new hybrid kind of player who is starting to become a need in today's flag football version of the NFL. I think in some way, between Taylor McCuller and Flemming, BB is trying to meet that need with these 2 guys. Flemming is getting some serious run with the first group in some nickel packages
6. Tried to watch the OL more in the one of ones. Having good days were Solder and Volmer. Volmer was firmly back in his RT slot, getting most of the reps. Cameron Flemming got a lot of run at LT with the 2nd group and looked a bit quicker than I had originally thought today.
b. IMHO, Ryan Wendell is clearly the best C the Pats have when it comes to the running game. He is faster off the ball, plays with better leverage and pad level. I also saw him get pushed back vs a bull rush in half line (I didn't get who did the rush). But then again I also saw Mankins get blown back once as well. Bull rushes are hard to look good on in one on one drills and half line reps simply because there is so much more space for the DLman to move around in than he'd get in a full team example.
c. Based on playing time, the guys who look like locks for the OL roster are Volmer, Connolly, Cannon, Wendell, Mankins, Solder, and Kline. So since I think it would be very hard to keep more than 9 offensive line men, either a vet has to go....or one of the draft picks
BTW- of the 3 rookies the only one who has gotten ANY first group time has been Stork and that's been very limited, and now he's out. No question the make up of this offensive line is going to be the subject of a LOT of speculation over the next 5 weeks. This are going to be a LOT of diverse opinions. People are going to get pissed, and no one REALLY knows what's going on.
7. It could have been a very dark day for us if a Jet fan had gotten a Tomahawk missile and a laser targeting devise, because during a kicking game portion of the practice, the Gronk, Brady, Revis and BB were working together again for about 10 minutes on a back field. This is the 2nd day this happened. I think, even though it wasn't full speed, the competition level was ramped up a bit more today. Gronk worked on his routes and Brady practiced getting his balls high over Revis (who as usual was generally in perfect position).
I guess it could have been worse. Yesterday Bob Kraft was over there with them as well. So they could have wiped out the 5 top people in the organization in one strike. Today, only 4.
8. The first group offense got killed by the first D in the 2 minute drill. They never even got into FG range. The 2nd group did a bit better making it into FG range.
9. In an interesting drill, the Pats practiced running a play with 25 second left and THEN getting their FG unit on the field to kick a FG with no TO. They did this several times with 2 different FG units.... and got every one off on time.
11. The Pats did a lot of practicing different package substitutions in high tempo situations today throughout practice. For example going from 3 wide to Jumbo, and from nickel to GL on D, etc. I think we all take for granted how good the Pats are at doing this, while other teams aren't. It doesn't happen by accident. Lots of practice and planing are needed. Clearly this was a focus of this practice.
Rarely a mention of a QB and no mentions of any WR's...... good job by me.
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