Official Rookie Mini Camp Thread

[Box_O_Rocks]

Take a look at Rogers' eyes. I can imagine the conversation going like this just before the photo was taken:

JR: How was that, Coach?
BB: Good, Justin. Now here's what you need to do to improve. . . . [yadda yadda yadda] By the way, how do you feel about playing tight end?

Suddenly I'm having Jack Benny flashbacks with the arm sweep and head tuck...

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Manza-Young...good read
http://www.projo.com/sports/shalisemanzayoung/sp_fbn_pats14_05-14-07_IF5KDKM.330dc07.html

Brown is regarded as a fast learner and a smart player who can easily take concepts from the classroom onto the field. That will come in handy with the Patriots. The red playbook he’s been handed is about four inches thick, and last season, Wilfork acknowledged it took him his first two seasons to really understand what was expected of him at nose tackle.

Notebook...
http://www.projo.com/patriots/content/sp_fbn_patsjo14_05-14-07_IF5KDDR.330d1e9.html

Gutierrez, who certainly looks like an NFL quarterback at 6-foot-4 and 231 pounds, had a nice zip on his spirals as he threw to the other offensive players at the camp.
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Sixth-round draft pick Corey Hilliard seemed to have a better day yesterday...during one exercise. Scarnecchia was overheard telling Hilliard he had performed it much better than he had on Saturday. But watching the Oklahoma State tackle, he didn’t seem to have the same explosiveness as Clint Oldenburg and Mike Elgin, the other offensive linemen at the camp this weekend. Hilliard was also coming out of his stance too high and too early.

Elgin, on the other hand, appears to be more technically sound. A 6-foot-4, 277-pound guard/center, he could hang on as a backup center.
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“I still can’t believe it. It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Anam said. As of Saturday afternoon, he had not spoken with the head coach yet.

“I don’t think I could say anything,” he said. “I’d be star-struck. But don’t tell him that.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Farley...good read
http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2007/05/14/news/sports/sports04.txt

eparting SMU as a defensive end who used a 15,000-calorie-per-day diet where he would “eat six times a day and drink shakes” to build himself up from 202 to 262 pounds over his college career, Rogers is making the transition from the line to linebacker in New England.
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“It can be (overwhelming) because it's a lot different than what I played in college, but it isn't too bad,” Rogers said of the initial stage in the transformation he's being asked to make. “The coaches are great. They want you to learn and are trying to do everything they can to help us.”
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“Like Coach (Bill) Belichick said, he doesn't care where we were drafted or if we were drafted at all,” said Rogers, the 180th choice overall last month. “The players that make plays are going to play here. If you're first round or a free agent, he doesn't care.”

 

[Dragda]

I love these informative discussion threads about training camp players. Almost every season I foolishly fall in love (in a VERY MANLY way) with an obscure late round pick or UFA and get psyched about his prospects. Invaribly, he's cut.

Yeah, last yeah it was Cobbs from North Texas for me. Turns out he wasn't good enough for the NFL. The Steelers had him for a while, but I think they cut him too. I was certain he was good enough to edge someone out. Maybe he can't play in the kicking game.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Yeah, last yeah it was Cobbs from North Texas for me. Turns out he wasn't good enough for the NFL. The Steelers had him for a while, but I think they cut him too. I was certain he was good enough to edge someone out. Maybe he can't play in the kicking game.

Last I knew they were a bit upset when Miami scooped him up after they waived him, I think the Chin was trying to sneak him onto the Practice Squad, though the Fins drafting Booker says their new regime may not care for Cobbs. He may not have been a returner, but he did okay on kick coverage in preseason.

 

[Pats726]

Yeah, last yeah it was Cobbs from North Texas for me. Turns out he wasn't good enough for the NFL. The Steelers had him for a while, but I think they cut him too. I was certain he was good enough to edge someone out. Maybe he can't play in the kicking game.

There are always players that are close and just can't get over the hump...I think Cobbs will make it...but I really hope not with the team he is with..the Fins!!
He's in camp and might help in time...I also liked Ventrone a lot..and fear he'll be on the ST against the Pats twice a year...

 

[zippo59]

This year, the UDFAs that I hope make it are Justin Warren and that Bissinger guy, which probably means they will be cut right away.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Breer...
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1001150

There’s little Hilliard can do about Saturday’s episode, so he’s focusing on getting better. He showed some improvement yesterday, as Scarnecchia drilled him individually in an attempt to get Hilliard to come out of his stance lower. The coach even offered some measured praise.

“I’m just going to try my hardest to get back in shape as quick as possible, whatever I have to do,” he said. “The first couple weeks are going to be tough, but there’s no reason to cry about it or get down. I’ll just have to fight through it.”

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Guregian...notebook
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1001147

Did Fighting Irish coach Charlie Weis, the former Pats offensive coordinator, offer any advice on how to stick?

“He said, be yourself. The system is going to be pretty much how we ran it at Notre Dame. It’s a team with a lot of good guys. It’s a great opportunity to have, and I’m going to take advantage of it.”
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Funniest item found in the Pats locker room? Long snapper Lonie Paxton’s mini-refrigerator with a taped message across the door: “No rookies.”

Tomase...
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1001138

There’s not a lot of wiggle room for prospects hoping to earn a roster spot.

“It’s true,” said defensive lineman Zach West, an undrafted free agent. “There are a ton of good players on this team. Nobody here is bad by any means. So I just try to work my hardest, be committed to always being on time and doing whatever the coaches tell me, and try to make a good impression.”
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“I really can’t look at what’s around me,” said Justin Rogers, a linebacker picked in the sixth round. “I just have to focus on me right now, doing everything I can to make this team. If it’s on special teams, hell, if it’s getting them water, I’ll do it.”

Guregian...
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1001148

“Both the guys I gave the same speech. So, they understand what we expect out of them. They understand what I expect out of them,” Wilfork said Saturday night before participating in Kevin Faulk’s charity softball game. “They know what I’m talking about. Get ready to win ball games.

“I just told them, do what you do best . . . play football. Everything else will come to you. Just be willing to learn. You don’t know everything; you’re a rookie. . . . Just be able to learn.”
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“These guys are coming up to someplace they don’t even know, but they’re coming up here with someone they know, myself and (defensive lineman) Santonio Thomas, so we’re going to take care of them.

“But at the same time, they have got to get ready to play football. And that’s what we do best, play football.”
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A few things Wilfork stressed to Brown?

“You have to treat this game like a business,” said Brown, who was taken in the fourth round. “It’s not college anymore. They’re not going to baby you.”

And one more?

“Be on time.”

It’s never a good idea to make Bill Belichick wait, or any of the other Patriots coaches, for that matter.

 

[zippo59]

I would pay money to see Wilfork play softball.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I would pay money to see Wilfork play softball.

Seems like some decent Centerfielder potential there.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Gasper...
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2007/05/15/brown_eyes_label_of_playmaker/

"He can only get better," said Coker. "He has a thick body and he's a good athlete and he likes to play the game. He's willing to work and do whatever to get better and be a good professional player.

"I don't think he's maxed out at all. You don't find many guys like him that are big and physical and strong and move as well as he does. I think the Patriots got a good player there potentially."
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After earning All-Dade County honors as a junior, Brown didn't play a down his senior year at Norland.

"He was there in practice every day," said Dunn. "He came to the games but couldn't suit up. It really had my admiration because most kids would quit or stop showing up, but he kept coming every day and he tried to help out coaching and doing any little thing he could to be part of the program."

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Tomase...notebook
http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1001344

The Patriots must like Central Connecticut State product Justise Hairston, because running backs coach Ivan Fears unleashed the mother of all tirades on him Sunday afternoon. It was difficult to tell from the sidelines what error Hairston made, but Fears’ (unprintable) words were unmistakable.

The guess here is Pats coaches aren’t wasting their breath on players they don’t think have a chance of making the team. So in a strange way, the sixth-rounder should consider himself flattered.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Ingoldsby...
http://patriots.scout.com/2/644189.html

"With all due respect to what everybody else thinks, it's in a different system," said Belichick. "It doesn't really matter. It will be how players perform in our system. That's what's most important to us. You have to try to project that based on all of the things that you know and what you think will happen when that player gets into your system. It's a very inexact science. That's totally respectful of what somebody did somewhere else. I understand that. I appreciate that. We'll just evaluate what happens here. That's what we do with everybody. That's the way it will be with all of the players this year. That's the way it was with the players last year. That's the way it will be next year."