Yes, you will se my correction in a later post, I did in fact mean Brad Smith.... the report is still accurate, but you really have to understand.... after almost 6 hours in the boiling Bleachers, with a barbque and some brews in between.... one get s VERY tired. At the end of the pm practice, 227 asked me what I was thinking about, he thought I was in deep thought.... I was in fact fried.... my mind wasn't absorbing what I was looking at. I wrote that report, full of typo's after a very long day. To add to 227's post about Graham..... he was hitting the ball at the 15... but they were spirals, not those tumbling kicks he was doing last year... the tradition NFL punt. Most of them were being fielded at the 21 or so. So, these punts were going 60 to 65 yards in the air, with absolutely reeee-diculous hang times. Those are 50 to 55 yard punts! Darn near 6 seconds of hang time. They looked very much like a MLB pop-up, height wise. I've NEVER seen punts like that before... not ever, not last year,, OK, maybe the odd ball NFL punt that was with the wind, but these were in a cross breeze. It was sick. In fact, I kept recounting the yards... because it wasn't believable. I kept redoing my math, thinking "that aint right".... but it was. Sure, he had some 40 yard punts too, (not many at all) but the hang time was still there. Nugent is definitely not kicking as much as he did last year. I think there could be something to the "tired leg" idea I put forth last year. Green Hornet.... the majority of Nugent's KO's are actaully inside the five, at least the ones I've seen. A few get a few yards into the end zone, a few fall at the ten. Cold weather conditions should only cost about 5 yards for a healthy rested PK. Also, there is a trade off with the cold vs. hot weather.... the ball caries better in the cold, as opposed to hot humid conditions with heavy air. As long as he keeps this 4.5 second hang time, and can get inside the ten under any conditions, he should be OK.... even better than OK. Those hang times allow the coverage to be all over the returner, as they were the first 8 weeks of last season. And Vision.... yeah, 227 has to stop this humble crap. The man can POST!
You all can and for someone like me who makes it out to camp only once per year, it is greatly appreciated..
On Doug Jolley: Jtuds, I'm as hopeful as the next guy that Jolley can be the consumate TE we thought he'd be when we went after him. Yeah, his drops were key last year and maybe an unfair tag on him, but he's in a real battle now with Baker and Dreessen. Didn't watch any of the TE's blocking (you can't possibly see it all) so I'm not in a position to comment on that. But Dreessen does look bigger to me this year... he's a big kid who looked awefully good catching a couple of passes and I'd hate to be the one responsible for bringing him down after the catch. Baker is still my main man and should be the starter, IMO. I'd like to hear reports from others who attend camp and who can compare the run-blocking capabilities of the three.
Damn! That was a hell of a $.02. I got my moneys worth. All these reports have me worried about Chad. :hackett:
Tell ya what.... last year Chad simply didn't have the arm to throw deep.... this year, it seems that is where is is most accurate and consistant. Sure, he puts more air under the ball than most.... he always did...but that is a good measure of where his shoulder is. So, why does he have these short and intermediate occassional ducks? hard to say... mechanics... not enough arm strength to throw off the wrong foot? Or, just confidence? I'm much less worried about his ability to throw than I am about his ability to get up after he gets hit. I think, as a wild guess, this is also the main concern of the CS. That may be why both Clemens and Bolly are getting so many reps. Still.... ramsey's lack of reps is a HUGE head scratcher to me. I don't know what to make of it.... maybe he's an idiot with a big arm.... I dunno.
My lingering problem with Chad as the starter is, what defense, other than the second-stringers who play for Hempstead High School's Rugrats, are going to respect him and take his arm seriously? He doesn't exactly strike fear in most DEFs, let's face it. After the Raiders exposed Chad for how little he has in the way of a deep ball and therefore tightened the box and brought in the secondary so close our offensive linemen were complaining of their halitosis, every team thereafter game-planned on this and was fairly successful. What will make most teams stop this? The goodness of their hearts? They want to be sportsman-like and "fair?" No... Chad can still burn a DEF, don't get me wrong. In his prime, and back when the world was a different place and in a time far away in which our franchise quarterback was going to be ours forever and forever and we were going to the SB, DEFs respected his ability to burn their asses with a moderately intermediate ball that had a smattering of zip on it. In between the dinks and the dunks, there did exist the 40-yard "bomb" to one Laverneues Coles or the one across the middle to the other tough bastard, Wayne Chrebet. I'm not saying those days of yesteryear can't come back to some degree, but just who the hell are we going to kid, other than ourselves? If we make 8-8 it will be by some sheer stroke of divine intervention, and other than that, I look forward to the '07 season and the entrance of one Mr. Kellen Clemens.
Screw the football team, what were Hooters chicks doing there? And since when do they have a magazine?
Top notch reporting fellas. Of course I loved hearing the news about Benny Graham. Roosting torpedos 55-60 yards, and hangers too. They must be coming down with ice on 'em. He'll make the pro bowl this year.
Don, rest assured this guy is Pro Bowl. The balls were hanging so high I had time to hit the John and return in time to see them caught. The re-entry into the atmosphere damn-near melted the cover off the ball. The KR had to wear asbestos gloves! T-Bird and I estimate this guy is Pro Bowl by the end of this season. What a find.....!!!!!
The Hooters broads were there (almosy sorry for the sexist inuendo) but they had more clothes on that the two I saw on Monday.... they were just about naked.... 'cept for bra's and thongs. Yesterday they were actually wearing clothes.... bummer. Graham.... I was REALLY surprised that he seems to have abandoned that tumbling punt, which was reliable for 40 to 43 yards or so. He's doing torpedoes now, exclusively. But, his distance and hang tome is dopey stupid sick ridiculous good. I'd have to say some of those punts went as high as 60 feet..... maybe higher. I'm talking about going over a six story building. He had one.... it went over 65 yards, and had to be 80 feet in height. Perfect spiral. Ben did not take the off season "off". He didn't like the torpedo last year because it's easy to shank, but he also knew if he could be consistant with it..... he'd be very good. Well, so far, he looks better than that.... like I said, I've NEVER seen punts like his yesterday. If he can do this in the regualr season, he will SHATTER the punting records.... I mean that. DESTROY the records. That was also done under simulated block rushes, so it wasn't like he had all day to get it off either. Rambo.... 227 was ACTUALLY saying one elephent, two elephant...ect out loud. I was brought up different... one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.... he's wierd. I see 227 also got in a cheap shot.... my name is John, but I was not his recycled beer disposal. Bugger. He's a one ball man ya know.
Take pictures next time! :up: Yeah that's what I'm saying. At the very least go with Mississippi over elephant :smile:
As long as he doesn't take the snaps and automatically chuck the ball up in the air in the general direction of a teammate like Vinny did last year, he's fine with me. I think Ramsey's thing is confidence, the Redskins fans all say he had potential but was too sporadic....so if we keep him and get the good parts of the sporadicness (is that a word?), then we should be ok
Thanks to you all for the EXCELLENT reports (especially about Benny) Sounds like he is in for a great year....I still can't wait till he tackles someone (I know, I know, the Jets are in trouble if he has to make a tackle - just want to see one!!)
I think this may be due to the surgery - it just doesn't function "normally" always. I think he may always have those WTF throws every once in a while.
