I was one of the 8 million people there yesterday (it gets more crowded every year). Here are my thoughts:
- On Tebow, when he is in the drills, his throws are truly horrendous. Words don't do it justice. He got a little bit better going against a defense, but he also can take forever to pull the trigger. There was an endzone situation where he just sat with the ball - in a game situation, you'd expect he could try to take off and run. It's not looking natural right now. Still, he's harmless at the moment since he's clearly well behind Mallett and not taking reps from either of our top two. He's going to have to improve at QB, or prove his value in another way.
- Mallett is a very good thrower of the football. Whether that translates to QBing, hard to tell from one visit. Will be easier to tell when preseason starts, but even then, we know based on Cassell that sample size is small in those games.
- Brady doesn't look any different. A year older makes no difference. He was clearly frustrated with the offensive performance at times. The offense looks like it really had to grind at times, and I think Chandler Jones would've had several sacks had this been a game. Amendola seems to be the only guy getting consistently open, so Brady looks there a lot.
- Ballard is behind and doesn't look 100% yet. Fells looked decent. Sudfeld had some nice plays, but also one that prompted Brady to lose it for a moment. I don't think he was mad at Sudfeld as much as the offense for a lackluster practice.
- Blount did something that led to a blown play and quickly received some coaching from an annoyed Fears.
- The entire time I was watching, I was thinking, "man, sure would look better with Hernandez out here." The sooner we all stop thinking those things, the better.
- Amendola made several tough catches. He looks legit. He made a couple catches that Wes couldn't get to. Including the kind of throw that, well, never mind. You know where I'm going with it.
- Extremely hard to read into KO stuff in camp when basically every KO is a TD return, but Washington still looks quick in terms of straight line speed.
- Chandler Jones looks bigger. No doubt about it.
- Aaron Dobson is ripped.
- Not sure what Adrian Wilson can do on the field yet, spent less time watching the D, but think he wants to take his leadership role seriously. Even something as simple as giving Dennard a pat on his way out to practice, suggests to me he's involved with these guys. Hopefully he can mentor these young guys, on and off the field.
- Thompkins is established and running with the 1's, and Boyce made the most of his opportunity with Dobson out. Jenkins is losing momentum to the young guys. Didn't notice Aiken as much. Think this is headed for a Amendola-Thompkins-Dobson-Boyce group. Which is both frightening and exciting at the same time. I think people will be reminded of what Brady can do, and how he elevates players. Garbage in equals garbage out, and Brady has been handed garbage a lot. But as long as these guys are not Chad Jacksons or Ochocincos, I think we're going to be fine at WR. They seem solid enough. It's a work in progress, but the rookies are earning their reps right now. Which is more than we could ever say about Chad Jackson or Taylor Price.
- The larger issue is that the loss of Hernandez, combined with Welker, and the temporary loss of Gronk is a huge talent and chemistry loss to overcome. It's just a lot to happen all at once.
