- Joined
- May 28, 2005
- Messages
- 13,274
- Reaction score
- 0
http://news.bostonherald.com/blogs/patriots/
August 7th, 2007
Practice notes
Posted by Albert Breer at 4:34 pm
To wrap up Day 12 of camp …
– Here’s a name you haven’t heard much: Reche Caldwell. The Patriots leading receiver wasn’t out of this world good yesterday, but he flashed his true value, which lies in how in-tune he is with Tom Brady and how well he knows the offense. The pat-and-go drill is simple: Quarterbacks take a deep drop and throw the ball up down the middle of the field, as far as they can, and receivers try and run under it, warming up the passer’s arm and his target’s legs. It was here that not once, but twice, Caldwell adjusted well to Brady throws and easily pulled in the low-percentage tosses. Later, in the passing skeleton, Brady showed his confidence in Caldwell by releasing the ball before the receiver took his in-cut on a dig route, 12 yards deep. Caldwell caught the ball in stride. Those were the little ones. The big one came in two-minute work at the end of practice, when Caldwell ran a slant and, about 10 yards deep, was blanketed by Ellis Hobbs. Still, Brady released the ball in front, and Caldwell extended out and leaped past Hobbs, diving and retrieving the ball to set up a field goal. At the very least, these things make the receiver a nice insurance policy.
– TE Garrett Mills is getting his chances, with the tight end spot take its injury lumps. And truth be told, he’s scuffling with them. Mills had another couple drops today, and seemed completely out of sync with Brady at one point in the skeleton. Mills ran a streak down the seam, and failed to turn and look for the ball in time for the throw. He was just jerking his head around as the ball flew by him, and the quarterback was none too happy with that. To be fair, Mills did come on some during 11-on-11s.
– One concern about WR Donte’ Stallworth would be that far too often, he lets the ball get into his chest. It was apparent on a swallow out-cut early, when Stallworth basically threw his body in front of the ball and made staying in bounds more difficult than it should’ve been (though he did keep his feet in.) Later on, on a dig at about 15 yards, Stallworth leaped for a ball that came in about head-high and trapped it in his chest. In live game action, there’s a real good chance he would’ve gotten lit up in that situation. He does look impressive athletically and as a route-runner, but this stuff figures to cost him when he tries to catch the ball in traffic.
– RB Sammy Morris may not be great at anything, but he’s pretty good at a lot of things. Once again, the backup shone in blitz pickup drills. And he showed his ability in the passing game on a wheel route in 7-on-7s. Coming up far wide of the hash, Morris had Eric Alexander trailing, and sticking with him. The quarterback dropped the ball perfectly over Morris’ head, who anticipated it coming, stuck his hands out and caught it in stride without seeing it coming for more than a split-second.
...
