Less than 24 hours until another live chat... But until then, here's a brief, sort of, report on the day. Mostly red zone work at this afternoon?s practice, which lasted a brisk 1 hour 58 minutes. A lot of runs by Thomas Jones and Leon Washington and not much in the way of grip-and-rip throws by any of the quarterbacks. The star of the afternoon? Not Favre; not Ratliff, not Cotchery. No, it was Dustin Keller. The rookie tight end, quiet for much of the last week, reemerged this afternoon in a big way. His first great catch came on a throw by Favre, who play-actioned and threw to the left sideline where Keller made a diving reception for 17 yards. Keller then made a fingertip grab on a 21-yard seam route thrown by Kellen Clemens. Keller made Brett Ratliff look good as well, catching a 15-yarder on an out on the right sideline. All four quarterbacks were intercepted today. Really. * Kerry Rhodes intercepted Favre on a pass to the deep middle for Cotchery. Rhodes, who intercepted Favre on Monday, bobbled the pass but came up with the pick. Kellen Clemens was intercepted by Ahmad Carroll on a sideline throw intended for Wallace Wright. In an early 11-on-11, Ratliff threw into the right corner of the end zone where Darrelle Revis made the interception. Revis just doesn?t get beat very often. At least in camp he hasn?t. And finally, James Ihedigbo, who has alternated between making some plays and getting beaten badly this camp, picked off Ainge, who was running the ?show? team, in the back of the end zone. * For the second straight practice, defensive lineman Kareem Brown knocked down a pass at the line, this time one of Ratliff?s. * I counted Bryan Thomas in the backfield two times this afternoon and Calvin Pace and Vernon Gholston once each. Gholston is still struggling in his adjustment to outside linebacker but when he?s been used as a nickel rusher, he looks much more comfortable. Of course, that?s closer to what he played in college. Mangini offered this regarding Gholston today: ?There?s been some times where you see the pass-rush ability, the raw power. He?s got very strong hands. He?s got a great ability to control the line of scrimmage, and those traits just naturally come out, especially on like a one-on-one drill or something where it?s less processing. But you want to see it translate into the game and into the practices, and it will come. It will come.? * Justin Miller, based on number of reps with the first team, is clearly ahead of David Barrett for the No. 2 corner job. * Mangini talked up backup offensive lineman Matt McChesney, a 6-4, 307-pound second-year lineman from Colorado. ?Sometimes with Matt, you?ve to tell him to slow down a little bit because he?s a hammer, and everything looks like a nail and sometimes?you can?t do that,? Mangini said. ?That?s a good mentality on the defensive side. On the offensive side, you?ve got to be slower, a little Luther Vandross, not all AC/DC.? I?m just reporting what the man said. * Mangini hasn?t asked me but if he did I would rank the receivers, behind Coles and Cotchery, this way: No. 3 Stuckey, No. 4 Smith, No. 5 Clowney, who made a nice red zone touchdown grab today from Clemens. * Today?s Laps: Kris Jenkins (off sides) and, sigh, Damien Woody (false start). I might stop counting Woody?s penalty laps the way I?ve stopped counting Clemens? interceptions. It becomes piling on at some point. Woody, by the way, has not had a bad camp in terms of blocking people. I realize the minus-fives add up but at least people aren?t blowing around him. Mangini, while discussing Brett Ratliff today, said, ?the other Brett ? it?s like the other white meat, the other Brett?? And there you have it. Good to see John Z. and a few other readers/commenters from this blog today at Hofstra. It's been good meeting a bunch of you over here the last couple weeks. And that concludes the schmaltz portion of today's blog post.
Gholston may take the entire year to settle into the OLB role. No big deal, the OLB depth is there this year. He'll play in plenty of garbage time situations to get more experience if we are beating teams by 3 scores at the end of games.
Yeah that shit sounds bad. We can't have all these false starts in a real game. Hopefully he's just getting used to the new QB's cadence.
Woody is definitely the biggest question mark on the OL. He is basically adjusting the the right tackle position after spending most of his career at guard..where he got benched by the Lions...nuff said!
He's an upgrade from what we had there last season. He hasnt looked too bad, and they've run well behind him. Pass protection is going to be the real test for him. I dont think B Smith has been all that impressive in TC. Wright and Clowney have done better than him from what I've seen, imo.
its very good to hear keller is standing out. i was wondering where he was in the first preseason game. i personally am not very worried about gholston. im sure he will come around. maybe not this season full time. but a 1st round pick is a long term investment and in the long term he will be very good. not good to hear about woody and his jumping the snap. nothing is more frustrating to see than false start. the qb told you the count 30 seconds ago how can you mess that up consistently? i am very worried about the corner spot opposite revis from what miller has shown before he is not very good, barrett is pretty awful as well. if miller doesn't live up to his natural ability that will be a weak spot of our defense all year, and a guy such as welker will eat him alive. also a random thought. ratliff is the second best qb on the team. ill be very sad if we let him out of here somehow. i don't mangini letting him go, he must see that the guy could be the real deal in the future.
Yeah I saw that too. If he's putting Smith there, is it just leftover depth chart non-sense? Or, knowing how well Clowney's looked, does it mean Smith is that much better? -What have you seen of this McChesney guy? -Any observations on Kareem Brown? Can he provide much-needed help at DE backup? Quick research: -played college at Miami -we picked up the last 3 years of his 4 year contract (super cheap) when we claimed him off waivers from the pats -Scouting Report: Other points: -Justin Miller is scary as starting CB...hope he gets it together b4 the season starts. I'm hoping for Poteat-->Lowery, if that's plausible. -Defense sounds like it's coming together nicely...moving towards the shut-down D I know Mangini envisioned.
New team, new terminology, new position, new assignments...all these things are going through the guy's head in an instant. It is understandable...for now.
rhodes/? will shade to the right giving berrett/miller extra over the top and post help. except when he's blitzing or stacking the box, of corse.
yeah its ok until week one, he false start all he wants for a few more weeks. its awful to have false start set a drive back its a penalty that should never happen but we are all human so it shouldn't happen very often. i'll tear my hair out if i have to see it a few times a game this year. but im sure he he will have it worked out by the time the season starts
as far as woody goes, he's worked with 4 different qb's, plus favre. the qb 'cadance' is unique to a qb, who's always trying to pull the dl off sides. plus a loud bark from the qb can cause a safety or db to shift his weight, foretelling the defense scheme to follow the snap. no excuses though, except for the aforementioned excuse. give woody and the rest of the ol time to get a feel for ONE qb's (favre's) cadance and the jumping off-sides will settle down. i hope.
