Friday August 1st Camp Report

No tackling is allowed but for playing in shorts they were getting some good contact pops in.

Practice was not really anything exciting but there were some good individual drills going on to get them ready for tomorrow's scrimmage.

The Qb's all had their moments.

The coaches threw the kitchen sink at Beck on one series and he was forced to throw 3 consecutive check downs. He threw one nice pass to Tedd Ginn, and another two to him as well in the red zone drill. He is still struggling a bit though, and his check downs are not the easiest passes to catch. His mid range passes are sweet though, when he is on the money. He was borderline at getting the passes off before the 3 second buzzer.

Henne threw more 6 passes (maybe 5) behind his Wr's but for the most part they were catchable passes, and caught. He also had Wilford split the seam on a post pattern and threw it slightly behind him or that was 6 points but it still was a nice play by Henne, and Wilford. I'll say a couple of things about Henne. I like his release point and he throws and excellent long ball. Mostly nice spirals, and with good but not too high of an arc to them. He surely has what it takes to be an NFL Qb. Good mechanics, and nice catchable passes. The one knock I've seen is he locks onto his Wr's a lot. Now I might be wrong because it might be designed this way but on some plays he never turns his head and just watches the Wr run his route. I am taking a liking to his poise too. He's got a ways to go but for the little time he's had in an NFL camp I'm going to offer up some praise for him. He was getting his throws off within the 3 second buzzer for the most part.

McCown threw a pass just a tad out in front of Lymon, who made an outstanding one handed grab. He also made a couple of real nice throws on very tough out patterns. He had troubles on a few of his passe at getting the ball in the air before the 3 second buzzer. But I would say he had the cleaner passes caught today but threw less than the other two.

A couple of quick who is impressing me notes and I'm off to eat.

Bess tops my list. He has not dropped ONE pass in all three practices that I've attended. His hands are some of the softest I've seen at camp, and his route running seems to come very natural.

Hagan probably deserves to be on top but I just had to go with the underdog. He's impressing me more and more. He's always ran nice routes but I think he's even improved that from last year, and I'm seeing him make all the catches he was dropping last year.

Ginn is really getting off the line, and using his speed and quickness to do so. He made some nice catches today.

Vernon Carey has been stellar, and quietly having the best camp of all the lineman. I've seen one sack given up, and that's it.

Ferguson is a wall, and that's probably an understatement.

Merling has impressed me with his initial burst off the ball.

Ricky is really impressive and especially so for all the time he's missed the last few years.

Donald Thomas was not starting for my first two practices but today, I watched him a lot. He's really quick off the snap, and get his head on a swivel quickly. He has a lot of pop in his initial contact, and his footwork is pretty smooth. He really impressed me when they used him pulling to the left side, and especially good with his vision when he's helping double someone. He was out with Carey on one play and here comes a LB trying to fly past the both of them in a nice sized hole between Thomas, and Satele who was locked up with Ferguson. Thomas saw the Lb flying in, and at the last second released his help with Carey, and was right in front of the blitzing Lb. Now Thomas waiting until the last second so the Lb got a good hit on him, but Thomas did not budge, and drove the Lb to the left, and out of the play.


Well, it's getting a little late and I need food so maybe I'll come back later and add some more.

I also really really want to go to the scrimmage tomorrow but I'm going out night fishing as well, and I need to do two things to my boat so if I can get them done early enough, maybe I can make it up there. No promises but I'll try for sure.