Camp Report #6 / PM 07/30/08

[Shane]

Practice was held at Lumberjack stadium and most of the players were in FULL pads. Made you expect some serious hitting. But to no avail. The practice mirrored every other practice I have seen since being up here.

Started with a KO return walkthrough.

Individual drills were next.

Then came the CB vs WR drills. Warner wasnt particularly sharp during this while Leinart looked just OK. Lance long had a couple nice catches. Hood had a very nice Int on a throw to Fitz.

Then they again broke into the KO return walkthrough. Right after that they did FG practice. I know its Flag but Rackers was hit 60 and 61 yard FG's with 5 to 6 yards to spare. I dont dont care what anyone says that is damn impressive. Lest we forget the NFL record was also kicked at altitude. I know the key is to be money at gametime which he hasent been. But impressive leg strength none the less.

11 on 11 was next. Best play was Tavarious Bain just getting leveled by Thaddeus Coleman on a blitz. Otherwise they didnt do 11 on 11 for very long.


Then they broke into 7 on 7 drill as well as the same OL vs DL drill they have been doing. Hood had a very nice Int for a TD on a throw to Fitz by Leinart. Dockett again just abused Deuce during the pass rush drill. Lance Long again made a few nifty catches even while being covered. The guy has some great hands.

11 on 11 again was next. Best play was Doucett shaking DRC out of his shoes on an inside out move and went deep for the TD pass from Warner. Nobody was within 15 yards of him. Pierre on back to back plays was atrocious. He threw the ball right to Dennis Keyes CB as though he were the luckily for Pierre he dropped it. The very next play he again threw it right to the CB Oliver Celestin who caught it and would have returned it for a TD.

Warner threw a very nice TD to Fitz. Then at the end Warner Had Fitz wide open on a bomb down the sideline. It hit Fitz in the fingertips but he dropped it.

The goalline drill at the end where they somewhat did some hitting was ok. A couple times the D held. A couple of tines the O scored. Nothing really spectacular. But Hightowers run into endzone for the TD was a nifty little run. Showed some power.

Overall tonight none of us were particularly impressed with Warner or Leinart. Neither was very sharp or impressive.

Again the company was great. Spent the practice with Jefftheshark, a-bomb and wife, Dreamcastrocks and Linderbee. Im sure that they will post their observations tomorrow. We all seemed to agree with what we saw though for the most part. Was just good as usual to be around good people.

Hope you all like it and hope I am keeping you plenty informed!

 

[Redsz]

Dude, you are the man!

With all this talk of Duece getting abused - how has Elton Brown looked?

 

[Shane]

Dude, you are the man!

With all this talk of Duece getting abused - how has Elton Brown looked?

I subscribe to the theory that no news is good news. I havent seen him get abused yet. + the coaches seem to think he is playing well enough to possibly unseat Deuce.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Nicely done Shane! Sounds like you guys are having fun!!

Hey, what's your gut on Doucet? Will he beat out Breaston for the #3 WR??

 

[Shane]

Nicely done Shane! Sounds like you guys are having fun!!

Hey, what's your gut on Doucet? Will he beat out Breaston for the #3 WR??

I would be very surprised if he doesnt. The guy I dont want to see let go is Lance Long. He looks like a keeper.


You got:

Fitz
Boldin
Doucette
Breaston
Morey(have to keepem for ST's)

Only leaves one open spot. IMO it will be Long or Urban and thats if they keep 6.

 

[Shzm13]

Breaston's looked too good to get beat out by Doucet, though he has looked impressive. (from what i've heard/read)

Really disappointed about Deuce though.. I remember last year, Boivin wrote an article about him being a potential pro bowler.. Now he's getting beat out by a guy who more than likely would've been cut last year if we weren't so thin on depth.

 

[Shane]

Breaston's looked too good to get beat out by Doucet, though he has looked impressive. (from what i've heard/read)

Really disappointed about Deuce though.. I remember last year, Boivin wrote an article about him being a potential pro bowler.. Now he's getting beat out by a guy who more than likely would've been cut last year if we weren't so thin on depth.

Hes dropping to many passes still. Dropped a couple more tonite. Doucett is the much more polished WR. Will be totally shocked if he isnt #3 by start of game 1.

 

[82CardsGrad]

I would be very surprised if he doesnt. The guy I dont want to see let go is Lance Long. He looks like a keeper.


You got:

Fitz
Boldin
Doucette
Breaston
Morey(have to keepem for ST's)

Only leaves one open spot. IMO it will be Long or Urban and thats if they keep 6.

I agree with your top 5... Man, I really like Urban but Long would be a tremendous story... walked on at MS and earned a scholership his Junior year! Undrafted rookie... He's small, but if he's as good as you seem to believe, it would make for a terrific story!!

 

[Totally_Red]

Lance Long

Can't wait to see this guy in live action next Thursday on ESPN. Hopefully they actually cover the game action. Man, the improvement in WR depth since 2005 is just fantastic.

 

[ajcardfan]

Maybe Lance Long will make the practice squad? I can't imagine him making the active roster unless he makes an impact on kick coverage.

 

[Garthshort]

Early Doucet

Shane, in thinking about the #3 receiver spot, I guess I have to agree with you. Steve Breaston has made tremendous strides as a receiver, reportedly, this off season, but he's probably still a work in progress. Sounds like a fourth WR to me, where his speed can be used in certain situations. Doucet, though lacking top end speed is a more polished receiver, and has had more success at the position, and I think when all is said and done he'll be named the #3. JMO.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Can't wait to see this guy in live action next Thursday on ESPN. Hopefully they actually cover the game action. Man, the improvement in WR depth since 2005 is just fantastic.

Next Thursday...music to me ears.

And great stuff as usual Shane, Thanx

 

[az jam]

Great reporting. Thanks for the updates.

 

[redforceone]

Thanks for the update! I thought Doucet looked good the first few days, I am glad it was not just my eyes - but others seeing the same.

 

[abomb]

I will echo Shane's comments. It was great meeting Jeff of Jeff the Shark fame.

I worked a full day yesterday and go home at 430P, put together some sandwiches for the wife, my buddy and I. Linderbee and DCR got there just after 5P and we hit the road. We arrived to Flag in 91 minutes. Gotta love living so far north (Anthem) that you can pop in for a practice.

Michael Bidwill was in attendance and you could see Kate Brandt filming some segments at the far end of the field.

During a first-team D, second-team O 11-11 drill, they ran a nickel package with Green and Wilson on one side, Hood and Francisco on the other and Rolle down in the box as a floater. I think this very aggressive formation could reek havoc on offenses this season.

Boldin may be banged up with his hamstring, but he was working hard at his rehab by running, doing some agility drills and working with a ballboy on the following drill. Boldin lines up 10-15 yards in front of the ballboy with his back to him. The ballboy throws passes over Qs left shoulder. Boldin looks the ball into his right hand, all the while balancing on his left leg only. Q probably did 20-30 reps of this drill and it's no wonder he can one-hand it with the best of 'em.

Gabe Watson is still gimpy, but was doing some light jogging and in another drill takes a ballboy, attaches him to a bungee-like tether and "drags" the ballboy around the sidelines for resistance. Q had been doing this drill in prior practices, but it was funny watching Squareback look like a heavy-duty Dodge.

Fitz takes a lot of extra balls between drills and after practice. I recall him doing the same thing last year too.

Calais Campbell got a lot of burn on special teams. It should be interesting to see that in a game, since he is so tall.

Fitz's baby momma (and presumably her mother) showed up after practice. Leinart was holding the baby who is huge. The mother, an ex-Raider cheerleader, is infinitely better looking than was discussed here on the board. Todd Haley's family was hanging around the practice and Leinart and Warner made sure to say hi and visit with Haley's five children (all under the age of 10 or so). Haley has a baby too and Sean Morey couldnt get enough of the little one. Warner, Leinart, Morey and finally Fitz came to the railing for a bunch of autographs.

Anyway, not much to add football-related, but I thought you'd like to hear a bit about the other aspects of camp.

 

[Shane]

I 2nd a-boms comments about Fitz's lady. Holy hell she is infinitely better looking in person. Those pics people posted on here do her no justice at all.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I'll try and bring an update and step into Shane's shoes.... It was really great meeting jefftheshark and being up there. It was a good 80 degrees and the weather couldn't have been better.

Early in the practice, there was Kickoff returns. They were literally at jogging speed so you can see who your assignments were, and where you were supposed to be at the time. Breaston, Cromartie, as well as Lance Long were all back there fielding kickoffs. Cromartie dropped one. The next time they did it at a quicker speed, except instead of 11 men on the field going after the KR, there was about 14. I thought this added a great twist to the kick returns, trying to explain what to do in a "panic" situation where you had to decide which are the priority blocks.

Two of my favorite drills were next. The linebackers did a drill that is normally reserved for defensive backs. The linebackers have to backpedal. While they are backpedalling, the person with the ball rotates the ball about 90 degrees in a direction. If they rotate the ball to the linebackers left, the LB has to shift their hips in that direction while backpedaling. They will go the other way as well. This really tests their agility and the fluidity of their movements. None one really stood out on this drill, because I was more focused on the....

WR square drill. Haley stands in the middle of a square, with about 3 yards of room in each direction. The WR keeps running an out pattern all the while, Haley throws a bullet pass to them. They go around the square, getting 4 passes from Haley. This is my favorite drill in camp. Fitz and Doucet caught all of the balls. Rector missed one. Breaston caught an impressive pass that was at his ankles. I don't know how you throw a pass 3 yards away and hit someone's ankles, but Haley did, and Breaston caught it. It was impressive.


During the CB/WR drills, none of the defensive backs looked all that spectacular. Hood jumped on a ball to Fitz that was thrown behind him to get the pick and ran it back for a touchdown. The other INT's that Shane mentioned were more from QB error, than a great play. There was a lot of contact by the DB's and a lot of plays would have been penalties if this were live. The play where Doucet scored, KW had a great pump fake that got Cromartie to bite. Easy touchdown.

I didn't get to see much of the linemen vs DE/DT drill. My view was pretty obstructed. I did see that Joe Tafoya went down in the drill. They were looking at his knee. It wasn't serious, and he was up on his feet a couple minutes later. Nothing really serious to report.

The QB's also did the flag accuracy exercise that Shane has mentioned in his previous writeups. Both Matt and Kurt hit their first two targets and missed the second two, while Morelli and Pierre missed them all. Neither one of them had a great day. In fact, none of the QB's were all that impressive. Kurt had a stretch where he made about 4 bad throws in a row.

The QB's also did a drill where they were literally an 8WR set. All of the receivers ran different routes, and the QB just appeared to throw some at random. This is where Breaston missed a lob of a ball that hit him right in the chest. Quite a few times, the QB's chose the same receiver as well. That was pretty disappointing.

During the 11-11 drills (1st team offense with Shipp vs. first team defense) near the end of the practice, they basically ran a red zone offense. The very first play, Shipp was in with the first team. They ran the ball to him, and they got about 2 yards. He was out for the rest of the series. They ran a couple short pass plays, including one that Leinart threw to Tuman, but he was late on the throw and it was incomplete. He was open. Leinart threw a fade route to Fitz that went over Cromartie's head because he didn't turn around. The ball was underthrown, and would have possibly been picked if DRC had turned around. I didn't check to see if any coaches talked to him after that play. They should have.

The second team offense with Kurt looked horrible. Shipp again ran the ball to the right, and was stuffed for a 3 yard loss. Another run to the left lost another couple. A couple of incomplete passes finished the drill with the offense moving backwards. Pretty disappointing.

Overall, it was a good practice. Individual player writeups.

Hightower: He does get to the hole faster than anyone else. The plays where he got to run through, were early in the practice, and little hitting was done. Not sure how that would look in gametime.

JJ and Blaylark saw very little action all practice long

I'm really upset that I didn't focus on Seidlein. I wanted to, and it was a want of mine, but practice went too quick.

DRC: faster than anyone on the team by far. He's going to be a very Jeckyl/Hyde player for us his rookie year. He will get some INT's for us, but he will blow some as well. We will have to take the good with the bad. He has the tools though. He needs some coaching.

I think Doucet also has the inside track at the 3rd WR spot over Breaston. He really has all of the tools except for breakaway speed. I see Lance Long and Rector on the outside looking in, with Fitz, Q, Doucet, Breaston, Urban, and Morey filling out the WR roster.

 

[Mulli]

He was open. Leinart threw a fade route to Fitz that went over Cromartie's head because he didn't turn around. The ball was underthrown, and would have possibly been picked if DRC had turned around.

DRC=Cromartie?

 

[dreamcastrocks]

DRC=Cromartie?

Yes.

 

[DaisyCutter]

Remember Ahmad Merritt? How he was going to challenge for not only a roster spot, but the #3 WR job?

Heh heh heh.

 

[Mulli]

Yes.

thanks!

 

[abomb]

The new TE Miller is wearing Biennaman's #83. Jeez, the body isnt even cold yet!

 

[cardsfanmd]

Thanks to all three of you for your write ups.

 

[Shane]

I think Breaston also has the inside track at the 3rd WR spot over Breaston. He really has all of the tools except for breakaway speed. I see Lance Long and Rector on the outside looking in, with Fitz, Q, Doucet, Breaston, Urban, and Morey filling out the WR roster.

How you write all of that from memory the next day is pretty astounding bro. Thats a whole lot of info to remember especially when we are all jaw jacking the entire time GOOD STUFF!

Oh and you want to edit 1st sentence above.

 

[Linderbee]

I think Breaston also has the inside track at the 3rd WR spot over Breaston. He really has all of the tools except for breakaway speed. I see Lance Long and Rector on the outside looking in, with Fitz, Q, Doucet, Breaston, Urban, and Morey filling out the WR roster.

Did you mean you think Doucet has it over Breaston, or Breaston over Doucet (or someone else)?