I'm a long time reader but infrequent poster and I Bleed Green! Anyway, camp reports are usually the first thing I do when I come home and I I've been hearing a lot of good things about our young receivers (e.g, Stuckey, Clowney, Smith)..probably in that order.......conspicuous absence of Henry on this list is not incidental. However, putting strong faith into camp performances, particularly the receivers, given our historically sorry DBfield is sooooo hard to do!? How much credence do you really put into our players camp performances?
It's a good question. One thing i mentioned last year when i did a lot of tc reports is that when someone makes a good play, it sometimes reflects a bad play by his opponent/teamate. So, if Leon or TJ breaks one for 30 yards, good for them, but it means poor tackling and/or a missed assignment by the defense. Does KC throwing ints mean that the secondary is doing a better job or is he just sloppy? (At least they are holding on to the ball even if he misfires). When a DL gets a "sack" it usually reflects a breakdown in blocking. And on and on it goes. TC has multiple goals for the team and players. For established vets it is getting into playing shape, for marginal players it is fighting to make the team and have a job in the NFL. For many new guys it is the opportunity to learn the plays and get used to playing with their new teamates. There is an average personnel turnover of 20% from season to season on every team. For backups it is the chance to move up the depth chart. So, I think TC is multi-layered, and isnt just focused on one goal. There is not a lot of heavy hitting in TC, so one of the other goals is to avoid injuries while getting ready for the regular season. Some teams have gone 4-0 in pre-season and played .500 ball in the regular season. Others have gone 1-3 and have gone deep in the playoffs. I dont pay too much attention to the scores of pre-season games, but rather look at the overall performance of the team. Last year's poor effort against the Vikings was a good predictor of how the regular season went. Most times guys who look great in TC do well when the season starts, unless your name is Chad Gessner. So, there is some significance to TC performance, but it is no guarantee of regular season performance.
It matters much more for the 1st and 2nd year players than for the vets. You can tell pretty quickly which of the young guys will fit in and maybe even start, but with the vets, it seems like they are just trying to get ready for the season.
i remember a few years back the jets went 5-0 in preseason then couldnt buy a win in regular season. so it goes. also, most teams do not emphasize 'winning a pre-season game' as much as they emphasize getting bubble players on the field and running certain plays designed to test a certain player for eveluation purposes. the 3rd game is always the game to watch. the last game is the last game to watch, it's 95% bubble guys fighting for their life-lihoods.
One thing I like to look for is a Young guy getting several good plays over several days and gaining the respect of his teamates. Things like what Dustin Keller has done this camp. He seems to come up with a big play almost every day and the vets that are asked about him seem to gush about his skills. Outside of that Jetcane's post is about the best explanation your going to get.
Thanks for the responses you all, definitely agree with all that was said, but I was more getting us to think about our players performance against other teams players as the true resin test, which thanks god is beginning soon!
