Notes from Camp - Do not post in this thread...comment in the other threads

[Garcia Bronco]

Thanks

These are just the summaries from our fine friends in the field

[Garcia Bronco]

O-line

Herrrrrrreeeeeee we GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meck, Conklin, Disco - The whole crew is up and ready to go. I'm kicking it on the bus eating orange cheese puffs. Good times, guys. Let's get this thing going.

Ok I'll start with what everybody wants to know about: offensive line. ;D

I got a good look at the some O-linemen because they did their drills right in front of me. Here's some things I noticed.

Chris Kuper: He was hands down the best of the "new" guys. He is powerful at the point of attack and you can see him try to ge the right angles for better leverage. Unfortunately his choices in this aren't the best so he needs some game experience to get that part down. He doesn't yield hardly any ground in pass protection and does a good job keeping the block in front of him.

Eslinger: He's very athletic but his upper body strength needs some work. He doesn't hold his blocks for long. In pass protection he gets pushed a bit but what he lacks in straight on attack power he makes for in quickness with jab-pushes. His explosion from snap-to-block is really impressive.

George Foster: He looked pretty good. I thought that was interesting. He seems to engage his blocks better and is doing a better job of forcing the attack to the outside to keep the rush end moving sideways and not in.

Nalen: Nalen is a bit slower but he was one of the best at holding his blocks. He also was hands down the best at not yielding ground in pass protection. He's not as explosive off the line but he's the hardest to get around.

Lepsis & Hamilton: I didn't see the side they were on very well and when I finally was able to see them I was too busy looking at the rest of the offense.

Cooper Carlisle: Better than last year. His technique is better and he seems even stronger. Some of that might be Foster's improved play though.

Now on to the lame stuff (QB's, Receivers, Defensive backs)

[Garcia Bronco]

QB's

QB's:

Jay Cutler: I'm doing him first since no one really cares about him. I'm going to be blunt, he is raw but very talented. He overthrows his guys. His footwork is fine and it appears that

WOOOOOT! ROAF IS RETIRING! This has to be good news that I learned this right as I'm typing about Cutler! An omen, to be sure.

Back to Cutler. He makes some of his throws that are lazers and others that are off. He threw into double coverage twice and I believe it's because he's still learning to make his reads. One thing I was both disappointed and happy to see was that he wasn't trying to show off but make the right throw. When he is off, it's always "right off" where it's out of the defender's reach. Still, he has some work to do and it's only the first day. Remember that the offense doesn't start clicking until day 5 or 6 so don't freak out.

Preston Parsons: If we didn't draft Cutler he could have made the team as a good number 3. He makes some decent throws and makes decent reads. He's not amazing, but not bad.

BVP: The kid seems to have leveled off. He threw into double coverage twice and the camp was graced with a few of his swear words. Anthony Pacino pointed out that he almost looked better last year. As I said it's still the first day and offense has a step to go. As of right now, BVP is deserving of the second spot IMO in spite of his difficulties.

Plummer: Wow. He looked amazing. I'm not just saying that. I didn't come to camp expecting him to impress me and he really has. He makes the right throws, has a good feel for preasure and the defense was struggling to stop him. He knows where his guys and his passes were the most accurate I've seen. I mean he really flashed some skills. He even drew the defense off sides a couple times with an impressive hard count. He's this good now, I can only imagine.

[Garcia Bronco]

Receivers

Receivers:

Javon Walker: Wow this guy is good (and in freaking rehab?!?!) he and Rod were the only ones who came close to beating champ. He looks much better than I expected. He makes cuts and his speed is really quite good. If I had to describe Walker in one word it would be effortless. He turns the right way, has his hands in the right position and makes it look easy no matter who's throwing him the ball. Even his comebacks looked good. Rest assured, Bronco nation, the hype is totally justified. One thing I was really impressed with was how precise his routes were. He just sort of glides down them and it is a large part of why so many of his passes looked "right" - easier to throw to.

Rod Smith: Well Crazywhore (Roaf's gone! LOSER!) will be upset to know that he came out looking better than last year at camp. I really think Heimerdinger's coaching has upped the performance of all the wideouts across the board, actually. Polished and had some surprising explosiveness. Rod plays full speed every snap and it shows. I really wish that you guys could see the way he practices because he's easily the hardest working guy on the field.

Little TO: He's a big kid but he's a lot quicker than I expected. When I saw him in the videos I thought he looked slow. Well he isn't slow. He takes long strides and so it's deceiving. He's not FAST but he's second tier for wideouts. good hands and he does a nice jobe of using his physical presence to get to the ball. His routes were pretty good.

Watts: He had two drops. Still amazing athletic specimen and still the best at getting sepperation. His quickness is unreal and he has big potential for yards after the catch. The thing that impressed me the most was when he adjusted his route during a blitz. He was supposed to run out and saw Lynch run by and pulled in to give Van Pelt a chance. He didn't get the ball, but it was the right read.

Tony Scheffler: I know he's a TE, but he was the most impressive rookie at camp. The guy catches EVERYTHING. He has great hands. Plucks the ball from the air and neve rbody catches. He can get some mad air too. His route running was so-so but he's a rookie so I can only imagine what he'll be like months from now. I didn't see his blocking but the guy can make plays in the passing game for sure.

Charlie Adams: He looked very pedestrian and hand some drops. Then again I felt this way about him last year and he was the number 3, so what do I know? I'll tell you what I know! Roaf retired and the Chiefs suck :approve:

[Garcia Bronco]

DB's

Defensive Backs.

They're running a lot of zone defense right now. They're really working on their drops and coverage in that regard. It's got a ways to go, but it's getting better.

Champ Bailey: No one caught a pass thrown to Champ. No one. He had an interception too. That schocked me. The closest anyone got was Rod And Javon. Walker had a catch on a fade in the endzone the Plummer threw and Bailey swatted it out of his hands. He looked beat and then he just knocked it out of his hands before he had possesion. The guy is so good. He keeps his shoulders squared and always has hips pointed toward the play. He's better than last year, but then last year he was hurt during camp, so there ya go.

Meck says "hello. Chops are heatin' up - get down here!"

D-Wil: He's really pulled away from the competition and is no contest the starter. He plays physical, he's the quickest of the D-backs and when he hits has his shoulder's squared so he hits clean and will tackle solid. His ball instincts are superior to the other D-backs. Don't look for this to change much.

'Nique: He's better than last year but not by a great deal. He is better in zone and has some good closing speed. It's just that D-wil seems to have really pulled aways and made 'Nique look "second level". Got beat a couple times.

Roc Alexander: He really impressed me. He played with a lot of fire and closed on the ball well. He's agressive and practices hard. He isn't affraid to hit. I suspect that Coyer likes him because he was praising him a couple of times.

Paymah: The difference between Paymah this year and Paymah last year is that Paymah doesn't suck this year. He gets deeper on his drops and his man coverage is good. He's actually competing whereas last year he just looked totally lost. Better, but not amazing or anything.

Curome Cox: He looked good. Was the second string free safety and made some nice plays. He didn't bit on play action and has the athleticism to cover which is a nice bonus.

Lynch: The guy is great. He reads the plays correctly and plays his zone resposibily. Some guys don't know how to defend a player through your zone. Lynch doesn't have this problem. His back peddle is nice and when he's blitzing he didn't show it until right before the snap.

[Garcia Bronco]

Final notes.

The majority of the defense practiced on the other field, and I couldn't see them so that's why I don't have anyhting on them here's some general observations:

DJ Williams: He's much much better. I think he's really improved in play action. His play recognition is better and he doesn't bite as easily. Very athletic. He can get some amazing air.

Nate Webster: This guy could start for us. Agressive and practices hard. I like him.

Dumervil: He is tiny. Like itty bitty. Especially next Brown and Warren. When I saw him I had my doubts, but we'll see.
They worked on a lot of third downs

Will Roaf: He's retiring and the Chiefs offense sucked with him gone. Do they think they can keep going with both their left tackles and their pro-bowl fullback gone? Chiefs suck.

Nate Jackson: Yes, he looked good but I don't even want to say anything because I know he'll break a pinky and yet remain on the team.

Ok, that's who I had a good look at. Any questions, I'd be happy to answer. :pimp:

There Reports are for Orangemane.com only and not be re-posted without my permission. :haw!:

:)

[Garcia Bronco]

Great question. How could I forget?

Tatum Bell: Looked average. He doesn't have very good vision. His pass catching has improved but he'll run into where he wishes the hole was - reality be damned.

Dayne: Ok. Nothing that really awed me. His body control is a little shakey. Guys would shove him and he'd stumble which I don't like to see.

Cobbs: Ok

Cecil Sapp: This guy is the first team fullback right now and he's pretty impressive. He's got good hands and throws some powerful blocks. He's not as quick as KJ, but he's more explosive. I think we'll see some good things from him this season.

...Sorry for the delay. Limo Driver got me.


what?...KJ!!!

[Garcia Bronco]

Night Time is the Right Time

Ok just got back, it was a good one so let's dive right in.

So remember I told you it would take awhile for the offense to get their legs? Well that was a bunch of crap. some may wonder why I don't post on defense as much. The reason is that I only get to see the offense until they do 7 on 7 or full scrimmage drills with defense because the defense practices on the field on the far side of camp and it's impossible to see. Mediator will be providing me with a pass so as to allow me to roam free this next week and I promise I'll have more for you. I did try and watch the guys today and so have some more on defenders in this report.

They wore pads today and played full contact with hits and whatnot so it was a good practice to go to. When there's pads and contact you get a better look at what to do.

Out: Al Wilson, Champ Bailey, Rod Smith, Courtney Brown, Javon Walker, Ian Gold. Possible others I'm not remembering.

I'll start with QB's. Coverage was excellent and the guys were checking down the running backs a lot. The D got a few coverage sacks.

Jay Cutler: He looked raw. He actually was better than this morning and more accurate. The problem is that he doesn't know the system and know his reads. He didn't get hardly any snaps by the end of camp today. I was a little perplexed but wrote it off to his lack of knowledge of the system. When he was in there, he made some nice throws. He puts heat on it and the receivers have trouble trying to catch it. His passes weren't as high as this morning, which is good news.

Preston Parsons: He's looked great - like a more daring Matt Mauk. Makes decent reads and tries to make plays without making big mistakes. He is average with accuracy and throw power, but is a heady player.

Jake Plummer: He drew the defense offsides three times. Lang jumped on one of them. No bad throws, in fact some really solid ones. He's really playing at a high level. He made to audibles at the line to read the blitz and both resulted in seven yard gains. He's really comfortable back there and Heimerdinger is doing a good job of improving his accuracy.

BVP: He looked like butt today at first and then by the end of camp he was in high gear. It started out he was lobbing lame ducks and threw into double coverage. Then he started playing better and making more throws. He completed a depp touchdown to Todd Devoe hich was nice exceot that he beat Jeff Shoate so it wasn't all that amazing. He's good at finding his tight ends especially on the roll outs.

Next: Tight Ends.

[Garcia Bronco]

Block, Catch, and Run

The Tight Ends look very effective in the pass game.

Scheffler: I finally got to see Tony block and it was better than advertised. This kid is impressive. He's not a tackle but he sticks his guy and just churns his feet to cause disruption. Technique could improve, but his hands are so good it doesn't matter. He's great at finding the seams and settling in and in jump balls he usually wins.

Nate Jackson: Very good. He's fast and crisp in his routes and his hands are soft. He's preacticing very hard. He isn't the best blocker. In fact I'd say Scheffler is more physically imposing the Nate Jackson is.

Mike Leach: He had some drops but was great a blocking and engaging at the POT. He is more athletic than people think and I believe he could fill in for us in a pinch and our offense wouldn't suffer.

Thay run some punt returns and had Knorr and Ernster punting to David Kircus and D-wil
Kickers:

Micah Knorr: He looked pretty bad. I only saw a few but they weren't that great. Kind of flat and not very deep. He got much better as he kicked.

Ernster: He was out-booting Sauerbrun. Easily the best of the three. I remembered him doing well, but that was sick. He had one that was in the air for seemingly forever.

Sauerbrun: Not the Todd I remember. A couple huge ones when he was warming up, but when they were doing the practice they just kept getting away from him.

Next: Wideouts.

[Garcia Bronco]

From Tightends....to Wide Recievers :slapsilly

Great stuff from the wideouts today. It's great giving the slotted starters time off because the other guys get lots of reps. I was literaly right next to Mike Heimerdinger while he coached the receivers so I can even tell you what they need to work on.

Darius Watts: Zero drops and the most catches of the day. He made two grabs in traffic, one as he was getting sandwiched by Foxworth and Sam Brandon. Another when he was diving for the ball that was thrown toward the ground. Still amazing sepperation and quickness. Zero drops. He's also playing special teams, which helps keep you out of Shanny's dog house :wiggle:

David Terrell: He surprised me. His routes looke like crap this morning and he was much better. He was the best at selling the pump and go. Than ran a lot routes attacking a Tamba Cover 2 like the kind they're going to run in KC - you know that crap team that lost both their tackles. Anyway, he was the best at running out and in routes to pull the safety off and then come back into the middle. A way of attacking safeties playing out side.

Brandon Marshall: Good physical speciment but struggles with quickness and precision in his routes. He doesn't settle into his comebacks or jog-and-go's enough to get the defenders to bite. He can block like a mofo-though.

Ashley Lelie: He changed his tampon today.

David Kircus: Made some nice catches in traffic but had some drops. He doesn't have the body control that I like to see but he makes some athletic catches. He also was pretty good about getting sepperation.

Charlie Adams: Charlie looked very average to me (again) he was thrown to twice and dropped it.

Brain Clark: He did ok. He got praised by Heimerdinger in the position drills for turning the inside shoulder inward as he broke on the ball. He kind of disappeared during the scrimmages.

Next: Defenders

[Garcia Bronco]

D [[[[[[[

Defenders. I'm grouping all defenders I got a good look at together as I was unable to see them when Mediator joins me these next few days, he'll have more to offer. Actually I will too, since I'll be able to see it. ANYWAYS...

Foxworth: Much better. got more agressive and broke on the ball faster - even when playing off coverage. I hope that game sticks in his craw the rest of his life. He played a lot more physical which I like to see. Put some nice licks on some guys.

Nate Webster: Holy crap this guy is hilarious. He's an animal out there! I mean he totally blew up Tatum Bell and was playing real strong in coverage. I relaly liked the guy - even for a Miami alumn. (Hi Socal :welcome: )

Sam Brandon: He played quite well. He's kind of got a nasty streak, which I like. He closes quickly and you can tell he wants to take people out. I don't mind that one bit. He blew up a couple guys including David Kircus. There was a guy next to me who said "Hey, he really nailed Ed McCaffrey." It was pretty funny.

Defensive Line: Our Rushing offense has done very little. You might have noticed I don't talk about it much and the reason is that the backs generally get swallowed by the D-line. They also are getting a good amount of push from the outside this time, which is good news.

DJ Williams: DJ is looking like a more complete player right now. I think he has room to grow, but he's learing to couple his athleticsim with football skills. Great at attacking the rush and his blitzing has improved. He pulled a swim move on Kyle Johnson. I was like "DJ Williams just used a swim move!"

Finally - Running Backs and then Rascal's Turf Report.

[Garcia Bronco]

Why You Gotta Bust Bells?!

Running Backs

Tatum Bell - Pretty lame. Ran into the backs of his blockers. Didn't even try to cut back. Hasn't broken any thing big yet. I think our line needs some work getting holes because no one was really getting much in the way of rushing.

Dayne: Dayne was alright. He kept his balance the best but he had a fumble. Broke some tackles but generally runs pretty soft. Good vision but not the scarriest runner.

Mike Bell: He was great today. Really plowed through the hole and broke a thirty yard run. He was the only guy to really cut back in the run and it helped him. He's got some potential.

Cedric Cobbs: Better vision but not great balance. Stubles aroound a lot. It's partly rolling with the hits, but he could stand to try and keep his feet under his shoulders so he's not so unbalanced.

Turf: The turf had a tough day, Rascal. There were some brown spots, as Taco reported, and the cleats are chewing up the field. Mike Leach got killed by Hamza Abdullah and a HUGE chunk of turf was ripped up. I shook my head knowing that somewhere, Rascal was weeping bitterly. :pity:

That's it. I'll take questions. As always, these reports are my property and the property of Orangemane.com. Do not post without my permission and linking the source of the reports (here) first. :haw!:

[Garcia Bronco]

Number 14 in Your Programs, but Number One in Your Hearts

How could I forget Todd Devoe?!?!

Ok

Todd Devoe: Had some big catches including the only TD of the practice. Beat a safety and a corner to catch a deep BVP pass for a TD. Unfortunately he also had some drops including a pass from JaY Cutler that hit him right in the hands.

[Garcia Bronco]

DOH!

Here's the report. It's a topic on this board. Funny how people see things in a different way.

RB: Tatum Bell was the rave of Day 1. Bell looked noticeably bigger and was in great condition. Bell ran exclusively with the first team and looked even more explosive than ever. He consistently ripped huge gains through the middle and outran defnders to the corner before cutting upfield for what would have easily been 10-15 yard gains. While Bell was focused and modest, you could see an air of confidence and swagger to him...something apparently Mike Shanahan liked because several people overheard him go up to Tatum Bell and ask him if he's ready to run for 1600. Bell was seen joking around with Plummer and Rod Smith as the second team got their reps. Ron Dayne looked solid, but unspectacular. Dayne ran with the second team and performed ok, had a case of fumbilitis for a while, but pulled himself together to finish the practice well. Dayne's conditioning looked ok, but he was noticeably winded after his drills. The dog of the day was Cedric Cobbs. He couldn't finish his conditioning drills, and Bobby Turner ripped him a new one. When Cobbs got some reps in he ran the wrong play, fumbled, and dropped an easy swing pass which set Mike Shanahan on fire. At this point, Cobbs looks like he'll be lucky to be carried on the practice squad. Cobbs was also limping after practice.

[Garcia Bronco]

If you've had a camp report and I've missed it..please PM it to me. via link or other wise

[Garcia Bronco]

SoCal

SoCal reporting from OF1 here after practice with Khan, Meck and No1BroncoFan. Khan will be posting his report shortly.

This was a nice practice today.


Standouts:

1. Jay Cutler- Wow. Khan reported that he had problems yesterday morning but got better in the PM session. We'll he brought his A game today. Of all the passes he attempted in in the 9 on 7s, and 11 on 11s, only 1 was not a completion and that was to Watts on a slant where he threw it a bit high and behind him. Everything else was on the money and complete. He began the 7 on 7s with a laser to Kircus on a square in at 12 yards. He made a good read too. It was a play with a square in on top and a drag on the bottom designed to stretch the LBs hi-lo. He recognized man coverage and threw the square in which was open right over the ball at 10-12 yards, right between the 8 and 7. He then showed off his arm on a comeback to Terrell, very accurate and fast release. He did a good job on his reads. I noticed on three occasions he moved his head from one side of the field to the other in his drops and dumped it off for short gains, once to Leach and another time to Marty Johnson, a camp body, who actually played well today.

Jay was very good throwing slants today. He hit Devoe between the 1 and the 4 with alot of velocity in a spread formation against the first team nickel D. And then he had his first (and only incompletion) on that slant to Darius, who according to Khan, seemed to be limping. By my count, Cutler was 8 of 9.

Brandon Marshall- Yes, another rookie was a standout today. He did not drop a ball. Early, during the endzone 1 on 1 drills he beat Shoate on a fade.

[Garcia Bronco]

Indeed

More on Marshall. He is really huge and has good body control for a big guy. In the endzone drills, he did a real nice job on Foxworth. He exploded off the line with his footfire technique and shifted his shoulder one way to get Fox to bite and then once he did, he used his arms to rip his away across Fox inside for a slant.

In the 7 on 7s and 9 on 7s, he beat Bailey on an out route from the slot that Plummer put right in a great place. It was a great catch against a great corner on the sideline. He snagged a poorly thrown ball by BVP along the sideline a bit later and when the defender stripped it from him he immediately dove on the ball. He seems to have a great work ethic. He caught some inside routes too, where he found the windows between the zone. In all, he was very impressive today. The CLEAR No. 3, IMO.

3. Javon Walker- He didnt look like he had any issues with his leg to me. He looked very sharp. He abused some of the corners and made catches in tight spaces. He did not seem to limp at all. He really outphysicalled D-Will off the line a few times on slants.

4. Tony Scheffler- Excellent hands and an excellent feel for zones. He can get seperation in man too. I was really surprised to see the rookies standing out over the vets like this (although the vets were ok for the most part). He did not drop a pass. He caught some short crosses and got big time seperation against a second team LB on a corner. He was also able to snag some balls against the first teamers. He can get vertical really fast.

5. Jake Plummer- Very good day. He started off on the wrong foot though. The Defense was in a two deep five underneath zone and Nate Jackson got past the LBs into the deep middle gap but Plummer was inaccurate. For the rest of practice he was spot on, making good reads and throws. He had some nice connections to Walker and Marshall.

6. Run Defense- First and second team front sevens did a good job of bottling up the run all day. Al had some nice plays. Everyone was good in pursuit. In the first play on the full team run drills, Denver pitched it outside on a strongside toss and Lynch immediately filled the hole and rocked Dayne. On the next play, Bell ran an outside zone play to the weakside and got nothing. Cobbs tried his hand at it on a weak side toss and got nothing. Courtney Brown in particular was doing a good job of getting penetration against the run. Bell got rocked by a backup LB on the next play. They actually had Dumervil at DT a few times, even in the base four man line, despite his size and he seemed to hold the A gap well against the run.

[Garcia Bronco]

Shoate nough


We've got the studs, how bout the DUDS:

1. Jeff Shoate- This guy was getting abused constantly. He was on the IR last year so maybe he needs time but he was repeatedly beaten in the endzone drills.

2. BVP- He did not look like he had any confidence in himself. He always was looking short first and just tried to keep dumping it off. He was inaccurate a few times as well. He threw a ball out of bounds on a sideline route and laid Tatum out on an pass play where Tatum was sitting down in the zone right over the ball. He threw him a kind of lazy pass and Tatum got flattened to the field by DJ. There was another play that I think it was Ian who almost picked it off between the curl area and flat area. He just didn't look right today.

3. DEs in pass rush- It is generally hard to determine how good the pass rush (and by contrast, the pass protection) in camp since you cant touch the QBs, but I counted several occasions where the QB got it off before any of the DL got there. There were a few completions which would have been sacks in real life since the DEs were there and just held up right as the pass was being thrown but, generally, I didnt see much push from the DL to collapse the pocket.

4. Underneath Pass Defense in Zones- The Linebackers do a good job of getting depth on their drops with their speed, but the new emphasis that Coyer talked about in his interview on making the zone drops more precise and more simple has a downside to it. I remember at the very beginning of practice, I was sitting right in front of the backers and Coyer kept talking about landmarks and depth and keeping your eyes on the QBs. This is more of a traditional teaching in zone, not the pattern reading where you cover your area and when you see someone come into the area you bump them or disrupt the route. Here, they were focused on the QBs eye and getting depth and that left alot of room for the underneath routes. Alot of stick routes, drags where the WR would plant and turn back to the QB. There was alot of underneath areas open and the offense capitalized. By contrast though, there was very little open deep or in the intermediate area where the LBs were dropping to.

[Garcia Bronco]

Hello Mother..Hello Father

5. Running Backs in general- None of these guys are special. Khan remarked that a camp scrub who we had not heard of before, #36 Marty Johnson, was the best of the bunch. As I noted earlier when talking about the front seven against the run, none of these guys really consistently made plays in the run game. Mike Bell had nice cutback where he correctly read the DE playing wide. Tatum and Ron also each had like 1 nice play each where you could see them make a good decision. But on the whole, neither showed vision. Both of them were hesitant. There was a play where Dayne tried to cut back across the entire field and in a real game he would have lost big yardage. Just didnt see any vision or any quality play from this group this morning. Just wasnt there. Burnsie had some nice hits on these guys in the 9 on 7 run plays.

[Garcia Bronco]

.

I'll just supliment this report with some things that I saw.

First, the bandwagoners showed up. Not surprising given it's a Saturday but Dove Valley was packed in like sardines. The parking lot was full and they were directing people onto a back road. I had to walk a quarter of a mile and missed the first ten minutes. I hooke up with Meck and No1Broncosfan on the way in and they made it one of the best camps because of how hilarious we were making fun of everything from Lelie to Bob.

Anyway let's get this thing going.

Because I was tardy I missed the position drills and the first portion of camp. When we finally got in, we were placed behind some lovely trees. I'm happy to report that the trees are very healthy, though I'll get more into that later with rascal's turf report.

We didn't see much until they did goal-line fade pass drills and then we were right in the corner of the endzone that they were practicing in standing a few feet from the defensive backs. After that we watched some seven on seven and finished with some situational drills. It was during this time we noticed a man with dark hair wearing a "Williams 55" jersey sneering at Ian Gold. Intuitively I yelled "SoCal Bronco!" and sure enough it was him. The four of us had a great time. Today was pull pads, so the hitting was on.

Ok so now I'll get to my player reviews and I want to start with Running Backs....

[Garcia Bronco]

backs

Running backs. I'm still not thrilled with the running backs. We were able to see what was happening behind the LOS so I had a good view. I would like to point out that all players who get the ball are instructed to run it through even if they've already been hit/tackled down. The result is fans on the other side of the LOS seeing the backs jot toward the endzone cheering when they were checked back behind the LOS. I think this is why different people are reporting different things.

Cedric Cobbs: He looks like he might be having a conditioning issue. I think he hasn't developed his hamstrings very well because his center of gavity is high and he is knocked off ballance fiarly easily. Nothing real spectacular on that end. His reps diminished as the practice went on. I wasn't terribly impressed.

Ron Dayne: He looked pretty bad today. Was hit in the backfield for loses on several occations. He twice reversed his direction and tried to run the other way and only once was successful and it was against the second team D. You can't do that in the pros. It doesn't work. On another play he was hit at the line by Ekuban and then continued (as isntructed) toward the endzone untouched. A lot of people reacted like this was a big run but it wasn't - they just coudn't see.

Marty Johnson - Who is marty Johnson? I'll tell you who he is. He's my Todd Devoe of this year. This guy really impressed me. He was the only back that made cutbacks while advancing the ball. He ran with decisive force and pushed through the holes. He was spliting time on the third team, but I think with some development he could be a decent back.

Tatum Bell - Ok SoCal was with me and still I'm not seeing the "rave reviews" of this kid, nor was I hearing it on the sidelines. He ran ok but got nailed by Curome Cox on one run (who is having a good camp, by the way.) I don't see Bell cutback very much which is a pity considering his speed and quickness. He hasn't dropped any balls yet, which is always good news considering he struggled in that respect last year. He runs better routes as well - for a running back.

[Garcia Bronco]

I think I've caught something

Receivers -

Darius Watts: No drops today and good body control. That pass that Cutler missed him on looked like he got held by Willie Middlebrooks. Darius was walking with a bit of a limp today. I think he tweaked his leg. He wasn't as explosive out of his breaks as he was yesterday.

Todd Devoe: Todd was better today. He had some athletic catches and his routes looked better. He seems to get sloppy at times and pick things up at other times.

Brandon Marshall: Boy he had a field day. He had several catches and looked a quicker than he did yesterday. One of the things Heimerdinger and Steve Watson were having him work on yesterday was his stutter-step. He wouldn't plant and kind of drifted toward the area he was wanting to go and it tipped his hand to the defender. Today he was much more exact and good about faking his shoulder toward the way he wanted to tempt the defender. He's so big that he can out-muscle guys for balls.

Javon Walker: Crazyhorse will be thrilled to hear that Walker had a great day. He wasn't wearing a brace and caught pretty much everything thrown at him. He made some more exacting cuts and and beat Bailey on one play. It was a comeback and Javon did a nice job of leaping and using his body to shield Bailey from the ball. He was probably tired of Bailey swatting down passes he was sure he'd caught.

Rod Smith: He was same Rod Smith. Caught what was thrown his way. For the record I kind of don't watch the guys I know are good (Al Wilson, Champ Bailey, Rod Smith) because I'm more interested in the other guys, so if you're wondering why I'm leaving them out, that's why.

David Kircus: Showed some explosion and heady play in the return game. The kid is athletic and had some decent catches. He's not affraid to stick his head in and block during the rushing plays. I like guys like him who are trying to do everything to make the team. They're commitment shows in their practice speed.

[Garcia Bronco]

This Ain't Nickels and Dimes

Quarterbacks:

Jay Cutler: I was very pleased with Jay today. He looked like the kid I saw in the Vandy tapes today. Sharp throws. Starting to read the defenses and he's getting better about puting the right about of power into his throws. There are times when he needs to add touch and times when he needs to bring the heat and get it to the guy. He has the best arm of all the QB's. On slants and inside throws he got the ball to the receiver on time so they didn't have to adjust and gave them a chance to make a move. Great practice for Jay today.

Jake Plummer: Started out a little raw and tried to force a throw to Nate Jackson. As the practice went on he made some great plays finding guys in the Zone (like Marshall) and got the ball to Rod and Javon. I think he's going to have a good year this year.

BVP: Bradlee played to not make a mistake. He didn't really take a lot shots down field and mostly was dumping off to his release valves. I will say that when he did throw, it was usually to the open guy and pretty accurate. His lack of arm strength limits the throws he can make and also what receivers can do to get open. Still decent.

Preston Parsons: They use him for a lot of different things. I think he'd make a great backup. He's got a decent arm and can make some nice throws. His accuracy is sometimes a little iffy, but he's a decent camp guy.

[Garcia Bronco]

Misc

Other things:

Tony Scheffler: The guy is great and might have one of top three set of hands on the team. He gets open, has no qualms about geting physical, is great at using his size to beat defenders and gets the ball quite a bit. That's a sign that he can get open and that he's got the QB's confidence. What really impressed me is how he really tries to sneak past the secondary to get open on the deep stuff. He can settle in a zone seam or out-physical man coverage. A good player.

Fred: He made a girl cry yesterday but today he was a little more tame. AnthonyPacino wants to get a 12X12 picture of Fred and get him to sign it. Hilarious!

Will Roaf: Roaf ate some chocolate today and relaxed on his recliner.

Kyle Turley: He was seen practicing throwing his helmet at defensive ends. Maybe it will help...probably not.

Rascal's Turf Report: Rascal will be depressed to hear that with goal line plays held on the other field today, both fields got chewed up pretty bad. there was more yellowing on the second field today. The grounds crew will need to work extra hard to keep the grass looking pristine. I shutter to think what rascal would do if he were here himself. :holyguac!

Anyway, that's that. These reports are property of SoCalBronco, Kaylore and the Orangemane.com. Do not post without permission and please link directly to this site when permission is granted. :haw!:

[Garcia Bronco]

more

Ok say I got to spend the afternoon with Meck, No1broncos fan, and SoCal Bronco again. Really good time and it was a good time had in the shade. They spent more time on position drills, and then did some 7 on 7 and scrimmaging again. I'll say this, with the verteran defenders one one-a-days (Al Wilson, Bailey, Lynch, Gold, Courtney Brown) our defense looks very mediocre. Obviously you take away that many star players and it's to be expected.

The good news is that the rushing attack drastically improved today. So I'll start with running backs. SoCal and I aren't real thrilled with how the backfield is looking right now. The supposed starters aren't wowing me.

Tatum Bell: Got hardly any reps and was on the sideline mostly. I think whoever posted that he was "ripping huge gains" is total liar because he seems to not be getting the carries and when he does get them he looks very average.

Ron Dayne: He had some better runs today but isn't very explosive and doesn't do a lot to make a guy miss or bowl a guy over. He did better at finding the holes this time, however.

Cedric Cobbs: His only real reps were on passing plays. Nothing to review since he hardly practiced.

Mike Bell: Mike Bell looked pretty good today. He exploded through the holes and was making guys miss in space which was the first I'd seen of that in some time. He can truck too. He's a big guy but showed better speed than I expected.

Marty Johnson: Ok this is my dark horse guy. He's the best at cutting back and plays with a lot of intensity. A good balance of speed, power and desire. I really like the kid. Hits the holes pretty well too. He was doing well and then he broke my heart and went and fumbled. Other than that he was pretty good.

Next: QB's and coverage packages

[Garcia Bronco]

here

Ok, back in the hotel.

General Thoughts

Khan is hilarious. Towards the end of practice, he saw Champ and Lynch hanging around (most of the vets did not practice in the PM session) and he shouted out "Hey Lynch...you guys rule...your wife is hot". It was great. I noticed that in Champ's absence, D-Will was paired with Fox at the top, so perhaps the DPO article earlier that suggested that Paymah had moved ahead of Fox was inaccurate (or maybe Coyer just liked that grouping today). Paymah and Roc Alexander were on the second team.

STUDS

1. David Kircus- This former Detroit Lion was impressive catching the ball this afternoon. He had the two big grabs of the afternoon. Plummer put up a deep ball along the sideline and despite good coverage from Nique, Kircus went up and hauled it in to the roar of the crowd. Later, toward the end of practice, Kircus was matched up against Shoate and exploded vertically forcing Shoate to retreat. Once he retreated, Kircus cut under him and to the deep post for a great grab. He was consistent catching the ball in the short game as well. He's certainly challenging for a spot. He's probably at No. 4 or No. 5 right now, jockeying with Darius for the higher of the two spots. The only drop David had was when BVP overthrew him and tried to lay him out on a slant.

2. Mike Bell- I am pleased to report that the backs looked more decisive and were more impressive in their runs in the afternoon. The Arizona rookie cut on a dime several times and did a GREAT job evading defenders and juking. He had two or three really nice runs, darting around people and then accelerating with a nice burst.

3. The Rookies- The "Big Three" were consistent in the afternoon. Scheffler caught some nice balls. And then in the 1 on 1 drill, he did a nice job of beating DJ on a corner route. This kid should help us this year in a substantial role. Cutler had a good afternoon. He did have a couple incompletions and wasnt as good as in the morning but he showed good accuracy and a nice arm again. He was consistent generally. The thing that I really liked from him this afternoon was his pocket presence. There was one play in particular that Khan and I really liked. The pocket was collapsing around him and he could just feel the defensive end on his blind side coming for him...he deftly stepped up and evaded the guy throwing to a TE in the flat. He showed some nice elusiveness. Marshall was again very good. He got quite a few reps and did a good job on our corners. They finally threw him a deep ball but Plummer threw it out of bounds so we couldnt really see how that aspect of his game was.

4. D-Will- He made some plays today. By my count, D-Will had 3 deflections on passes and was pretty aggressive. I saw him right in the WRs face at the line.

OKAY

1. Dayne- He was markedly better this afternoon. He was much more decisive in his runs and his cuts. He wasnt running into the pile as he was in the morning. Ron made some nice progress.

2. Plummer- He had some incompletions in the afternoon but was still solid on the whole. He had one play though where he threw somewhat of a duck to Nate Jackson which allowed several defenders to get there and swat it away.

[Garcia Bronco]

.
So they ran some variations of the 4-4 today with a safety playing kind of deep in the middle of the field. It was the first non 4-3 package I'd seen. Everything else was a base defense with some nickle packages. I saw some good things out of all the offense today, so let's get right to it.

Jay Cutler: Looked sharp. The guy gets significantly better from practice to practice. He had one error where he thought the receiver was going to run a comeback and he was running a post and the ball hit the dirt with nobody around. Probably would have been a grounding call. Just mental error. The rest of the time his throws were on time and had some zip on them. My favorite was watching him side step a defensive lineman and step into the pocket to complete a nice catch. Great pocket awareness and looked light on his feet.

Jake: Did ok. His deep ball needed some work. He had some guys open but they were having trouble connecting. (Go ahead, Taco). He did a good job of attacking the zone but seemed to struggle more in man coverage. He threw one into double coverage but David Kircus made a sweet grab by jumping toward the ball kind of into the two defenders and made the catch. It was a great grab.

Bradlee Van Pelt: Was ok. He didn't make any errors but still seems to be playing to not make a mistake. Lots of underneath stuff and didn't make many throws to attack the coverage. He had one pass to Charlie Adams that Adams dropped but he would have been laid out by the safety if it was a real game. He was leading him right into the defender. That was the only real interesting play he ran.

Preston Parsons: He got a ton of reps at the end of practice for some reason. Had an interception that Louis Green took to the house. Some off-kilter throws and nothing real exciting.

Next: Receivers (including tight ends)

[Garcia Bronco]

.

3. Watts- Darius had a good afternoon. He caught some quick hitches and a few other routes. His hands looked good to me, although he wasnt thrown a whole lot of passes.

4. Pass Rush- It was a little better this afternoon. They got to the QB a few times. There was a play where they broke threw and it looked like Cutler threw it to no one in particular, although Darius was somewhat nearby.

DUDS

1. Charlie Adams- Several drops. Played uninspired. He has got to be feeling the heat from Kircus and Marshall. Did not impress with his hands in the afternoon.

2. BVP- This guy keeps laying his teammates out to dry. The slants are always high and a little too ahead of his recievers and some of his other throws are not on the mark. He did a decent job checking down but overall I am not impressed. Cutler does not know the system as well as him but he is still far superior to BVP.

3. Cobbs- I don't know what his deal is. Some of the other backs were able to play better this afternoon but Cobbs still had problems. Stuffed at the line or unable to beat guys to the corner, he doesnt look like he has good balance either.


Some other thoughts: Louis Green got a pick late in practice off of 4th string QB Preston Parsons. That was the only pick of the day. In all it was a good day. I want to try and focus more on the two lines tomorrow.

[Garcia Bronco]

.

Receiverss.

David Kircus: As Socal already pointed out, he's been impressive. Hasn't hd any drops and has made some athletic "Kircus" catches. He can return punts and kick offs which is a plus. He's certainly making his case to be on the team.

Charlie Adams: Had a couple more drops and looked pretty bad today. I'm affraid to criticize him because I didn't care for him last year and he was our number three, but I just don't see much out of the guy. He was kind of sloppy in routes has trouble getting sepperated.

Brandon Marshall: Has been having a stellar camp. Gets open consitantly and catches the ball consistantly. Expect big things out of this kid. He's the large physical type of receiver we've been craving. Pretty agressive in the run game too. The deep ball that Plummer had trouble connecting on was to Marshall who had pulled away from his guy.

Tony Scheffler: The guy is great. His hands are fantastic. Had some good catches and the linebackers have trouble staying with him. Plucks the ball out of the air and catches with his hands every time.

Nate Jackson: Looked good and also has good hands. Nate has little more burst and quickness than Scheffler does but he isn't as physically imposing. He also tends to body catch more but you can tell he isn't thinking as much when he plays that helps your agressiveness. I'd say between the two, they're even but as scheffler learns the offense he'll start pulling away.

Mike Leach: He had some drops. I thought he caught better last camp. He also looks like he's gained weight no doubt at request of Shanahan to compensate for our lack of blocking tight ends. His weight has affected his ability to move around and so he lumbers a bit more. Still good depth and decent performance for a long snapper.

David Terrell: He had a drop and his route running wasn't as crisp. One thing I want to mention is that afternoon practices tend to be sloppier because everyone is tired and so there isn't the "pop" in the players that you see in the morning. That's just training camp, though.

Brian Clark: He had a couple of decent grabs. He runs a consistant pace and keeps the right shoulder to the ball. Did a nice job trying to shield his defender from the play.

Next: Defensive Backs.

[Garcia Bronco]

.

Some other thoughts continued:

Brian Clark, the undrafted WR out of NC State made some catches and seemed to help his stock...David Terrell was a mixed bag, he dropped two balls but caught some others, he did not really stand out in any way though, I think he is definitely behind Marshall, Watts and now possibly Kircus....I didnt see much of Sapp out there, maybe he was in at FB, but I thought Shanny said he would also compete at RB, guess not....Roc got toasted a few times but only once was it bad....DJ had a good day I thought although he was quiet for the most part, there was a play where he showed terrific closing speed, he was on one side of the field dropping in a zone and then when the QB dumped it off on the other side, he was the first to get there, he also had what would have been a sack in a game on a blitz, he still gets beat occasionally in the passing game, Scheffler beat him on a corner and in the 1 on 1 passing drills, Tatum caught a ball on him on a crossing route...Coyer practiced on zone coverages ALOT today, I didnt see many pattern read coverages or man coverages. They really worked the zones hard.

[Garcia Bronco]

.

The defensive backs are doing well and I'm happy with our depth. The position I'm the most happy with is safety. The position is deep with some quality guys like Hamza Abdullah, and Curome Cox. Nick Ferguson is funny becuase he talks to everybody. He and Nate Jackson had a chuckle on the field.

Don't buy the hype that Paymah is the number three guy. It's still Foxworth and D-wil. D-wil plays agressive and has great ball awareness. He's the nuber two hands down. I'm actually concerned about the depth after Foxworth because it's a significant drop-off in quality. Shoate isn't that great. Paymah isn't that great. Rogers is so-so. Lots of ho-hum guys. Granted, they are fourth and fifthe string, but you at least want to see potential there.

Louis Green had a pick and is a player that fits our system nicely. He has good speed and closes on the ball well.

Nat Webster was kind of quiet today. I'll admit that the angle I was at didn't get me a great view of the linebackers, though. Mediator will be the answer to all your defensive needs when arrives tomorrow.

Specialists next -

[Garcia Bronco]

.

We're going to miss Todd Sauerbrun. We're really going to miss him. We watched him punt today and it was amazing. Some real sky rockets.

Knorr: They actually spent time working with Michah on his fundamentals which I think could make him a bit more respectable. The catch of the snap to the release was a point of emphasis and it helped him but some better spin on the ball. He still kicks without a lot of hang time, though.

Ernster: He had some nice ones but the ball would be kind of ugly at times. getting a good spin on the ball is critical in forcing it to bounce a certain way. I hope he can beat out Knorr because his kick power is greater.

Kircus: He has the ability to return and the quickness to be a threat doing it. Great speed and cut back ability. He kind of reminds me of a Tim Dwight style guy except not quite as fast.

D-Wil: He's still the best return guy. You can see how much he wants it when he's out there.

Charlie Adams: Let me put it this way. Meck said that he could catch Charlie Adams if he was out there "with a belly of 12 beers!". Not that amazing.

Roc Alexander: I forgot to mention him in D-backs so I'll do so here. He is actually pretty quick and not too bad in returns. Does a good job trying to set up his blocks and cut back the other way. As a defender he plays very physical and likes to hit which is admirable but his ball skills leave something to be desired.

Ok, I think that's it. i'll answer any questions as will SoCal, no doubt.

These reports are the property of SoCal Bronco, Kaylore and the Orangemane.com and are not to be re-posted without permission. :haw!:

[Garcia Bronco]

.

I really, really, really like the trio of Cutler-Scheffler-Marshall. These guys were consistently good the whole day. They are easily the story of the day. Mike Bell is getting better too.

I think we brought in a fine haul in the draft this year. Cutler is going to be scary. Bob will be hiding under the covers every night in fear from September to February in a year or so (this is not to say he doesnt hide under the covers or doesnt have a night light now, but he definitely will very soon with this group if they keep it up, its just a matter of keeping it up day after day.)

Bob, you will learn to hate this triumvirate. You will definitely learn to hate them. A new generation of "Donks" will torture your fat ass.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44486

Another hot day at Dove Valley. I actually didnt get a chance to see Khan today. Couldnt find him. I did see Conklin though. I saw a guy with a Broncos Clarett jersey on a few feet in front of me too. I thought that was kinda amusing.

Now onto the big stuff.

STUDS

Champ Bailey- He showed why he is the No.1 player in the league at his position. He went up against Marshall on a deep go route and Champ actually had a step and a half on Marshall and almost picked it off, deflecting it away. He showed amazing range too. He was playing zone and closed in from several yards away to almost pick off a dump off from Jake to Alexander. He also broke up 2 other passes to recievers he was covering this morning. I didnt see anyone catch anything on him.

Mike Bell- The Arizona rookie was even more impressive this morning then he was yesterday. For a big guy, he sure can cut and slash and evade people. Three of his first four runs were good. They played a little more physical today in the run drills with some quasi-tackling almost and Bell broke two tackles on his first run to the weakside. He later read the DE correctly on an outside zone play and sharply cut inside. He did a good job of finding holes in the inside all afternoon and was aggressively making contact with the first defender and falling forward. He had a nice juke move with his shoulder as a backup linebacker was squaring up parallel to tackle him and just totally threw that guy out of position. There was a play in pass protection where he did a nice job picking up a safety blitz when Fergy was coming in. I was talking with Conklin about the guy and we were both quite impressed with his effort and play. He definitely outshined the other backs today.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44486&page=2

Domonique Foxworth- He had a real good day today. Some exciting battles with Darius. On one play that Watts hauled in, Fox was all over him and really made him work to make the reception. On another play when Watts was running a comeback, Fox tore it away from him for an incompletion. He also went up against Walker on a deep ball and made up the step and a half that Walker had beaten him on and broke up the pass as the two fell to the ground. He was making some plays today.

Smith and Walker- Both were pretty good. Rod was feisty. He adjusted to a poorly thrown ball and took it from the corner. He also had some other catches. Walker still looks real good, he shows no stiffness or limp or anything. He moves smoothly. He almost had that big play, but he made some other nice catches. He has good acceleration and is physical. He looks like a real nice WR to me, he doesnt look hurt at all. He made a nice adjustment to a shorter square out when he saw the blitz and exploded forward as to get the corner to retreat so he could swing towards the sideline for the ball.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44486&page=3


Jay Cutler- Another very good day for our young King to be. Did a good job of not forcing things, he only had one ball that he tried to rifle in there when a guy was relatively nearby and because of the mustard on it and the quickness of the release, the LB was barely able to get a finger on it to deflect it from Rod. Jay did a good job with his reads. They ran some smash concept plays with a corner on top and a hitch on the bottom stretching the cornerback and Jay hit the right guy repeatedly based on the cornerback's movement. He drilled several nice balls to the reciever, especially on Curls and Slants. I think he only had two incompletions today and one was on a miscommunication where the reciever held up and he threw it deep. The thing that I liked the best though was his elusiveness. On the playaction rollouts, Chukwurah blitzed off the edge and right as Cutler saw him when he swung his head around, he was able to make a little move to get away and quickly rifle it to Charlie Adams who dropped it right in the hands. He also evaded #95 on a dropback pass and quickly flicked it to Walker for 12 yards or so.

Gold and Chukwurah as Blitzers- Ian had what would have been two sacks today. Chukwurah would have had 3. Predator abused the 2nd team offensive line. The coaches called House out for letting him get by and another backup OT got burned by him.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44486&page=4


Brown vs. runs away from him- He does a really good job of moving down the line to get to the back when they run away from him. He's big but he can move and disrupt the runs.

Warren on stunts- Coyer had him running some stunts and loops and he was quite effective in putting pressure on the pocket that way. He can shove OL back pretty easily when he isnt being mugged by two guys just going straight into his gap. They need to use him on these loops and stunts this year, he is effective.

Marshall- Another good day. Didnt drop anything, made several catches. I wish that deep pass was accurate so I could see whether he could outfight Champ for the ball, but it went out of bounds.

Scheffler- Did not drop a pass again. He was only thrown about 4 balls but caught all of them, including a 15 yard seam route and a couple delay routes. I noticed he was getting some reps with the first team later on in practice and when they went two TE with the first team, he was always one of the two. I wish they would have thrown him more passes though. He did all he could do with what he got though.

OKAY/ HOT AND COLD

Plummer- He was decent, but did make some mistakes. He laid Walker out to dry on a slant when the LB had not cleared the area and was just waiting there. I think it was #50 Cameron Vaughn. Had a poor read on a smash concept play, the corner (D-Will) stayed with the hitch route runner (Watts) right at the LOS and Jake still threw it to Darius, who actually still caught it (for minimal gain though). There were a few balls that were a little high too. Jake had a beautiful deep ball to Watts later on that was on the money and Darius snagged it to the roar of the crowd. He also was pretty good in the intermediate game. What I liked best from Jake today was getting passes off and accurately against the blitz. Coyer did alot of blitzing from 8 man fronts and Jake was able to quickly recognize them and hit slants, quick crosses and outs. He also threw a nice one to Marshall, throwing it at a spot that D-Will could not get too.

Bell and Dayne- They were better than yesterday morning again, just like yesterday afternoon. Nothing really special, but not really bad either, just okay. Tatum got to the corner a couple times ahead of the defense.

Watts- For most of the day he was great, but then he had 2 drops where he really should have had it, one of which where he had gotten wide open on a post and tried to body catch it and just dropped it. Other than that, he had a very good day. Plummer threw him a really high ball and he lept up showing major hops and hauled it in. He also showed good concentration on that deep ball when he beat D-Will and caught it over his outside shoulder.

D-Will- A good day today, he broke up some passes, but he also was beaten a few times.

BVP- Better than yesterday. Still not accurate on intermediate to deep balls, anything beyond 10 yards that is on the sidelines is usually out of bounds. But he played ok today. He made a great athletic play when the pocket broke down, he scrambled to the other side of the field and hit the reciever.

Kircus- Solid today. Not as good as yesterday but he seemed to develop a good rythm with Cutler, catching several of his passes. I think he is No. 5 right now. When the team came out in two WR formations, it was Smith/Walker on the first, Watts/Marshall on the second, and then Kircus was mixed in with different WRs on the third. He was also often in during spread formations. He didnt hurt himself at all today, another solid outing.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44486&page=4

DUDS

Willie Middlebrooks- As Conklin posted, he did not do well today. He got beaten several times on Square Outs in particular, did not do a good job of closing the gap between himself and the reciever. He's also looking at the reciever's face alot in man coverage which you are not supposed to do. Your supposed to look at the hips and shoulders and try and mirror their movements.

Adams and Devoe- Devoe wasnt horrible, he did catch a few balls, but he had some bad drops too. I think he is definitely losing ground as is Adams.

2nd team offensive line- These guys are a sieve. When Coyer installed his blitzes, the first team front seven got great push and so did the second teamers. The second team DL also did a good job on them. Dumervil broke through easily on one play.

First Team DEs in pass rushing- Still havent seen anything from them. When we got to the QBs today, it was on Coyer's designed blitzes, although even then the O got it off or picked it up at times. Guys like Engelberger, Ekuban, Brown etc. arent really getting there. I didnt notice Corey Jackson doing anything either. I did see Myers get some push from the DT spot though, but the DEs, not surprisignly, didnt do a whole lot against the first team O.

[Garcia Bronco]

Friday Camp Pictures courtesy of RSDU

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44500

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44508


I had the pleasure of meeting Med today and he helped me get some better viewing access to both fields which was very much appreciated.

I will go with a slightly different format in this report (not studs/duds, ill just run through my notes on each position).

Quarterbacks

The group as a whole were not as sharp as the last couple practices but none of them played poorly (even BVP was ok). Jake had a play where, instead of taking the dragging reciever who sat down under the zone, he tried to throw it over the dropping LB to the sideline. The pass was complete but if that LB had some better hops it could have been a real problem. He also had a ball that sailed and was almost picked off by D-Will. He did have some nice throws underneath and threw a good ball to Watts right down the middle of the field at about 20 yards, which was dropped unfortuneatly. Plummer continued to do well against the blitz today. Cutler threw some nice balls, but made some mistakes too. He flashed his arm strength on a deep ball to Adams but it was a little too far and to the outside and Charlie couldnt get to it. There was a play were he tried to force it into the slant when the defender being stretched gave up the flat and it was knocked away. Cutler did a good job again eluding the rush, he stepped up and away from a defender and hit darius who made a nice sliding catch. He threw a great ball against pressure to Kircus as well. There wasnt much in the intermediate to deep area for the QBs to work with, alot of forced dump offs because of the depths of the backer drops.

Running Backs

Dayne had a few nice runs, although he was the beneficiary of some nice holes. They didnt work the run game a whole lot this afternoon though. Both Mike and Tatum Bell only got a couple touches and didnt do much with them, although Mike Bell had a nice inside run. Tatum had a play in pass protection where he picked up a blitz very well, although he made the wrong read on a screen pass and went inside where it was pretty crowded, he could have gotten about 20 yards outside.

Wide Recievers
Marshall had another strong afternoon but had his first drop of camp on a drag route. Other than that he was strong. The highlight was a leaping catch he made on the sideline to a ball that was thrown way too high. In the 1 on 1 drills they ran near the endzone, he was outmuscling the corners on the slants and fades and not letting them swat it away from him. Watts was hot and cold again. He made several catches but dropped a deep ball where he had beaten the defender in the middle of the field. He also had a nice sliding catch from Cutler. He had some battles in the goalline 1 on 1s with Foxworth, although Foxy got the better of him a little. Adams had a catch on a post late in practice but had two drops earlier. I didnt notice Devoe a whole lot. Like Adams, Terrell is struggling. He did not stand out in the 7 on 7s or 11 on 11s, and did quite poorly in the goalline 1 on 1s. He dropped a slant after beating the corner. He later made sort of a half-hearted effort at a ball on a slant that was only slightly ahead of him. Didnt show much awareness on the fades, he turned his head to look back for the ball way too late. Clark made some catches.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44508

Tight Ends

Again, Scheffler caught everything that was thrown his way, but he wasnt thrown that many balls. The LBs did a little better job bumping him up on his vertical routes though. He did get pushed around once while trying to block. Mustard helped himself a little bit with some catches underneath. He's a pretty damn big guy but he can still move at an adequate speed. Nate Jackson was good. He seemed to be routinely thrown some bad balls but still managed to snag a good deal of them.

Offensive Line

Not impressive, except when the first team OL paved some nice holes for Dayne in particular in the run game. It was somewhat the opposite of this morning in terms of pass protection. The DL was getting a good push in the PM session. Cornell Green got beat pretty bad by Lang on one occasion. I caught Foster holding a couple times. Hamilton let a LB fight through him on a blitz. The second team OL was also not good in pass pro. The youngsters like Dumervil, Jackson, Veal were doing a real good job in collapsing the pocket against those guys and at times against the 1s too. Eslinger in particular struggled mightily. He was getting overpowered alot and the LBs got through him on their blitzes too. Myers had a couple plays where he got beat too. House continued to be horrible in pass protection.

Defensive Line

Markedly better in pass rushing against the 1 and 2 OL. Corey Jackson finally did some things to justify the praise he has gotten. He beat some OTs cleanly a few times. Dumervil got good push when he was at DT in the nickel and at end. I think Veal was the best of them though. He repeatedly got pressure. Antwon Burton also had a play very late in the afternoon where he split the linemen in front of him.

Linebackers

This was a good group. I liked what I saw from DJ this afternoon. He had what would have been a sack did a nice job staying with Scheffler on his verticals. There was one play where Marshall caught a drag and DJ closed on him real fast. Cameron Vaughn, the rookie, had an excellent afternoon. He showed that he has legitimate skills as a blitzer, getting through the line several times and he got to the backfield almost at the same time that Tatum received the handoff on one occasion. Vaughn is going to challenge for a backup spot. Webster looked fast. Louis Green looked good too, he beat Cooper on a blitz. Today was also the first time I noticed Hollowell, he helped Dumervil and Mike Myers stuff a run right at the LOS.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44508


Secondary

D-Will and Fox had a solid afternoon against the young recievers for the most part. Fox has had a real good day today in both practices. In the afternoon he had a play when he was dropping back to cover the deep outside third and he instinctively recognized the play and accelerated back down to the LOS real fast to break up a short curl route. D-Will almost picked off a ball and was flying around. Paymah was up and down. I heard Coyer yelling at him a couple times, but he does a good job in man coverage and broke up some routes that were along the sideline. Shoate and Willie still struggled, although Willie was not as bad as in the morning. The only time I noticed rookie Tyler Everett was when he didnt look like he was sure of his assignment and let Scheffler go right past him as he was sinking down into that area. They seem to like to blitz Hamza Abdullah from the safety spot.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44508&page=2


Socal and I had a great time today comparing notes on a lot of things. Most of what he saw we collaborated on. I saw a few things differently especially towards the end of practice.

QB's- Jake's accuracy on the middle to underneath routes was much better than it was at the end of camp last year. He was making some good throws today and was even better on his reads. He still tried to force a few into the middle that I saw, But overall I was very happy wis his progress.

-BVP still struggles reading the coverage and they played a bunch of simple ones today. He actually throws the ball better than I remembered he just chooses yo ythrow it into the wrong place at the wrong time ;D

-Cutler looked pretty good overall, but he did go gunslinger on a couple of occasions and try and throw through a packed Zone. No INT's that I saw.

-Parsons is better than Mauck and Kanell were at the end of camp last year. I feel he just might press BVP for #3 if BVP does not start reading the coverages better as camp goes along. Did not get to see much of him today, but what I saw was solid.

TE's-Scheffler is really smooth and sharp in his breaks. His hands were as advertised as I saw him make some tough catches today. Blocking is not that great, but he does engage and give effort. I loved Brewster the TE coach today. He jammed all the TE's off the line and gave them hell if they did not get him!

-Jackson is a very Good pass catching TE. I believe he caught the most balls in the this practice in all the drills. He was blocking primarily on the other side from us so I did not see how effective he was there.

-Heck, Even Chad mustard got into the fray. Dude runs like Putzier and for a moment I did a double take. Easily, the best blocking TE and is serviceable in the passing game.

I will post some more later tonight guys, I have to get the kids settled in with the grandparents.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533


STUDS

Tatum Bell- Ozo will be happy to hear that Tatum made his presence known today. He had started off slowly in camp but his runs were decisive and he showed good vision and acceleration today. Rarely did he run into the backs of his own linemen or a pile. He was able to find the creases and showed good change of direction in his cuts. There was a play early on when almost immediately after recieving the ball, Tatum cut back right into the middle void and showed good burst. Coyer shouted "we dont know what the hell we are doing" to his LBs shortly thereafter. There was an outside run play where Courtney Brown was playing wide and Tatum easily got past him and accelerated into the alley before the defense got there. He did a nice job with his reads today. He definitely looked good today and was the best of the backs.

Rod Smith and Javon Walker (again)- There was a highlight moment when Cutler threw a deep rocket to Walker and he outleaped Roc (who had good tight coverage) to snag it. Walker continues to look very smooth. Rod had several catches where he had to adjust to somewhat off target balls. He snared a whole bunch of passes from all the QBs. Jake hit him on a deep square in route where he settled between defenders. The old man can still find the holes in the zones. He is really savvy out there. He makes it really hard for the corners to get a good feel on what route is coming up. He runs every route like its a vertical, he can get in and out of his breaks smoothly so that the corner can't feel when he is going to cut in or out.

Offensive Line in Run Blocking- Both OLs did a good job today of creating some holes for the backs. Like yesterday, a fairly decent amount of Dayne's success was due to the size of the holes. Especially in runs up the middle, the OL was taking it to the DL. The youngster Kuper is physically impressive and Eslinger was a little better today than yesterday. The Broncos really seem to like Kuper. There was something I noticed about the running game that was revealing. While they dont do a whole lot, alot of the running game seems based off of audibles. Its like they have a couple general runs out of every formation and some kind of very elaborate audible system so that the run chosen is always the right one for the front. BVP was calling some signal and they ran the ball for about 2,3 yards. Shanny immediately started yelling at him and telling him why did u audible to that run from the other run against that front and he started to talk about the alignment of the front on each side of the center and who was over whom. He mentioned some other run play that should have been audibled to against that front. Overall the OL was doing a good job mastering these ideas. Even Scheffler at TE had a nice block early on against Chukwurah.

Linebackers in intermediate range coverage and safeties in deep coverage- Coyer continues to stress precision, getting the right depth and finding the right landmarks. In the beginning of the practice, the first three passes by Jake were deflected by the LBs. There isnt much open in the 10-15 yard area. They cover alot of ground and smother that area. There is still alot open underneath, on drags and hitches and such, but the idea seems to be to force the offense to go 5 yards at a time down the whole field. The first time the offense went deep, BVP was intercepted by Lynch who was just waiting there. The O did complete a few deep ones today, but the coverage was still pretty good, and very little was completed in the intermediate 10-15 yd area. The backers are clogging that part of the field up and they break on the ball.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=2

Hey Guys! Sorry for the delay. SoCal and I had lunch first before reproting. Looks like he's got things going already so I will too.

With better access thanks to Mediator12, we were able to get some better angles. I had an opportunity of watching the linemen practice pass rush and protection while Mediator and SoCal watched the pretty passing game in 7 on 7 drills. Since I haven't talked about the lines at all and finally got a good look. I thought I'd start with that.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3728/picture012pj7.jpg

First O-line
The first team is as it was last year. The second team is interesting. Here it is from Left to right tackle: Green, Myers, Eslinger, Kuper, PJ Alexander.

In the interest of my limited time today, I'm only going to review a few of the guys.

All the starters looked good.

Nalen and Hamilton really work well together. Their technique is sound and they don't yield a lot of ground. Nalen was the strongest and the best technique-wise between the two. We're going to miss him when he retires.

Lepsis was the best at keeping the blocks in front of him and he's very very strong. No one could really bull rush and he locks them up high so they can't move their arms. That's probably what he's the best at is engaging his man, locking him up and pushing him up so that his uper body becomes ineffetual.

Foster wasn't as explosive or engaging as I wanted to see. He is so huge and it seems like if we attack more in his blocks he could be hard to beat. Dennison was tellimg him to watch his plant leg so that he doesn't pull his hips too far to the outside. If your torso is tourqued the wrong way, you can't adjust properly to an outside swim move.

Kuper: This guy is awesome! He is powerful, quick and has a blocking technique similar to Lepsis where he'd consistantly get under his defenderprop him out of attack posture. Very well developed and and his legs are like anchors. Doesn't yield ground. He pushes his guys side to side but never let them by.

Myers: He isn't as strong as Kuber but his technique is more sound and you can see that a year of being in the system has helped. He blocked with the other linemen better than the new guys. His arms are long and his hands are really fast. This helps him to adjust certain moves without getting beat to bad. I liked his posture. In an attempt to get leverage, linemen will often lean forward into the attack but that takes you off ballance. Meyers was able to engage blocks but let the Defender into him so he wasn't bending over into the defender and getting beat.

Eslinger: The kid has a baby face. It's like the gerber Baby on steroids. Anyway, takes coaching well and got some nice praise from Dennison but isn't physically strong enough to stand up to most of the attacks. You can tell his technique is improving, but he needs to put on another ten to fifteen pounds in hard muscle before he can be an effective pro blocker. He gets beat and pushed around.

Next - D Line

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=2


Corey Jackson and Chukwurah- Chukwurah is playing almost exclusively DE now. This is the second straight day that both of them did well in the pass rush department. Jackson is starting to show why he got some offseason hype. There was a play where he stunted inside and the DT came outside and he just owned Cooper. I also saw Jackson own Foster once, although he would not have had a sack since it was a 3 step pass and the ball was out real early anyway, if it was 5 or 7, he would have tagged him easy. Dumervil was also successful at this. Predator beat Taylor Whitley several times. The only thing with some of these youngsters is that they tend to jump offsides a alot. BVP got them to jump offsides a few times and then later in the goalline and redzone drills, they jumped offsides again. I saw Lepsis get beat by one of the DEs too once, although I didnt see which one.

SOLID

The QBs- Jake and Jay were solid today, although not spectacular. Like yesterday, Jake did a good job of getting the ball out quickly on blitzes. There was a play when he threw a nice dart to Kircus against pressure who got inside Champ for the reception. Jake started out a little inaccurate. Some of the balls were not sharp but he did a good job of spreading things out today and connecting most of the time and had some nice throws to Rod. There were a few times that Cutler tried to unsuccessfully force it in there and he had a low ball he threw to Clark, who still caught it, but he was good overall. In the last third of the practice, he had a sweet rollout play where he showed some nice wheels and gunned it to Kircus along the sideline. He also connected deep with Walker and had several underneath throws to Scheffler.
He threw another bullet to Clark that was dropped. Most of the time the QBs were dumping it off short because of the coverage.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=3


Wow it's really laggy today. Anyway moving on to the Dline. Great news!

Our pass rush is actually showing up. Remember those fluff pieces during the month of June? Well the ones on the receivers aren't true, but the D-line is actually looking good.

Corey Jackson: This guy is the real deal. An elite pass rusher? Absolutely not. A consistant pass rusher that plays the run well? Absolutely. He has great size, good strength, good technique and most importantly he gets to the QB. On thing that sepperates him is that he uses the linemen around him to make plays or give the other guys a shot. He can slide into a seam and create a double team to free up another man.

Elvis Dumervil: Being short helpful? You heard it here. let mexplain some principles of pass protection first. You see to win at the point of attack, an offense linemen likes to get underneath the defender so he has leverage and he can push them out of play or at least disrupt the attack. Dumervil causes problems here. His small size, quickness and low center of gravity gives him a leverage advantage. Linemen have to bend over to get attack where they want and this takes them off balance. If they squat real low, he has the quickness to get outside and the linemen aren't mobile enough in that position to compensate.

Let me qualify this by saying I don't think he'll ever be a Dwight Freeney, but I don think he could average 6-8 sacks a year in top form. He is the kind of guy when paired with another strong rush end that will really step up and cause some problems. Great technique. He has some really developed pass rush moves that you don't see - especially on someone coming out of college.

The rest of the line was ok in rushing attacks but really strong against the run.

I'll wrap up with other observations next, but It's a short one today because I have things to do.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=3


David Kircus- He continues to be consistent. He had that play where he beat Champ on a slant on the blitz. Khan and I were both kinda amazed at that. This guy is a hard worker and seems to have good hands. He has developed a little chemistry with Cutler too.

Scheffler and Marshall- Not alot of crowd pleasers today because only the short game was open, but they were once again consistent. Scheffler did a nice job on a wheel route where he beat Hamza Abdullah to the flat and then up the sideline and he nabbed the pass from Cutler. He does a good job of getting open. He ran a short stick route, where he planted and turned in at about 5-6 yards, he felt the MLB dropping to a spot his way, so he slid out towards the flat and Jake hit him. He has a good feel for the passing game and has outstanding hands. I just wish he would see more balls thrown his way. Marshall did well again. He is really huge. Caught alot of stuff in the flat area and on drags. He caught a drag and a LB came down from his zone to try and hit him and he sorta pushed the guy aside. Khan had a great view of Marshall in some of the one on one things where I guess (according to Khan) he sorta got dinged up on one play and then on the next play he went out there and made a nice grab.

Curome Cox and Paymah- I thought they did well today. They broke up some passes on the sideline, although at the very end of practice Paymah committed pass interference in the goalline drills.

Mike Bell- Not as awesome as a couple days ago, but he is still running hard and doing well. Tatum was the best of them today but I thought Mike was no. 2. He seems to love contact. At the end of the morning in the 10 yd. line to goalline drills, he always seemed to fall forward, and break tackles. He did a good job when there was little space up the middle shoving his way forward for more. He did get owned in pass protection once though.

Charlie Adams- Starting to come out of his funk. I thought today was his best day. BVP connected with him on one of the few successful deep balls of the afternoon, where he beat the corner and snagged the ball. He was consistent in the short game too.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=3


NOT TOO HOT

Cobbs- He fumbled a couple times (Tatum did once too). He still hasnt shown anything out there.

Offensive Tackle Play- Not good again, especially in pass protection. The first team and second team tackles have struggled the last two practices with the younger DEs. Engelberger, Ekuban and Brown havent done much to them, but some of the younger guys (and Predator) have done a good job getting pressure from the outside. I wonder if this Adam Meadows thing is a reaction to that. Now Lepsis only got beat once from what I saw, but Cornell Green was a victim a few times in pass protection as was Foster. Javier Collins is really bad. Foster does do a good job of blocking down on the DEs on off tackle runs, though. He's a monster physically, I hope he can put things completely together. He looks huge out there walking right by us a few times.

Stephen Alexander- I counted a couple drops today. And the passes he did catch were just short dump off type stuff. He is not much of a threat in the passing game at all. He did have a nice endzone grab over an outstretched DJ. But I really like Scheffler alot better. Nate Jackson is also a much bigger threat than Alexander. He continued to have a decent camp. They have been using him on corner routes and out routes from the inside and he has done real nice grabbing them along the sideline even when the passes havent been great.

RANDOM NOTES

Antwon Rogers, CB out of Purdue had a pick six in one on one drills, he correctly anticipated a square out route and cut in front of the reciever and picked off BVPs ball...Champ had a few guys get the better of him today, although he was still okay...Foxworth was praised by Coyer on one particular play for his break on the ball...Terrell is still inconsistent, he caught his fair share, but still has the dropsies, I think Brian Clark is probably ahead of him now.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=4


Mike Bell - I think he's the guy. He consistanly fights for more yardage and falls forward. I'd sat he averages four yards a carry. Pretty good in pass protection.

Brandon Marshall - Dude this guy is so awesome. He's huge, developed, (holy crap! A tall physical receiver with hands! I didn't think Shanahan believed in taking a receiver that didn't look he's been starving for five years!) has great hands, blocks well and is all about making catches in traffic.

Javon Walker - Easily the star of camp today. He had two huge grabs in traffic, Chiefs fans will be sad to know. He is really great about going up and taking the ball from defenders. Even poorly thrown balls (and man, there were a few today) he would make a legit chance of reaching for. He didn't wear a brace and was playing physical. I did see him rub his knee once, but it was only at the beginning in warm ups and was probably just some scar tissue that takes a few months to work loose.

I have more but I need to take care of business if I want to be out there this evening. See ya guys.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44533&page=5


General notes:

Javon Walker is a red zone threat that DEN has not had in awhile. So is Marshall. Walker had three catches, two for TD's in the red zone part of the morning. Marshall just brushes off press coverage and is quite adept at boxing out defenders lie he is going for a rebound.

Walker also made a great catch over Roc on a ball that Cutler should never have thrown. Walker timed it perfectly and snatched it at its highest point though. He has great body control in the air and is really smooth off the line. The Struggles versus Press coverage was nowhere evident today. He made catches on Comebacks, slants, drags, posts and Post Corner routes that I saw. Very nice for a guy that is only 90%.

LB's-look dominant again with Webster, Vaughn, and Green looking very good and more than adequate in depth. As mentioned earlier, Chukwurah has bulked up a little more and looks more like a RDE than a LB. The Only thing they are struggling in are their Zone Drops and area play calls. It is deceptive that all that underneath stuff is there because they were really just installing the drops. Outstanding Run pursuit with only Green overpersuing that I saw.

Wilson-Wow, his intensity in practice is awesome. I overheard Darrent say that you better know your **** or Al is going to kill you ;D He also breaks on balls so quickly. He almost killed Alexander on a shallow cross out of the ace twin TE. Constantly around the ball in the run game.

Gold-He just keeps getting better. Don't believe me, ask Socal. He just makes plays in the running and passing game. Had a FF and FR today. Blew up T.Bell in the Backfield twice (OL not tatum's fault).

DJ Williams-Making his reads better and making some plays today. Still thinking a bit too much, but has definitely looked solid to spectacular. Got beat in the Red Zone By Alexander for a TD but otherwise was right in the mix.

Webster-has surpassed Burns as the #2 MLB. This guy could start for a lot of teams and I would not be scared if he had to fill in for any of the LB's. Great speed and intensity. Really stood out more in the Pads than in the shells last night.

Green-was all over the #2 OL in the run and Blitzing games. He woudl have had three TFL's and a couple sacks. Great STer who is the #2 SLB. Takes good angles for the most part, but overran one play that M. Bell cut back for a good gain.

Cameron Vaughn-This guy is versatile and a better blitzer than I anticipated. was deccent in the run game, but excelled in the nickle package in the run and in the pass.

DL guys I had not seen last night:

Warren-Guy is earning the money, period. He chased a WR deep on cover eight and got Pissed. Next play, after sprinting 40 yards down field, He went throough Nalen and Carlisle and Plastered Tatum as he took the handoff from Jake for a 6 yard loss. No worries about him taking it easy with the new contract ;D He also controlled the POA and none of the Interior OL could get him out of position.

Ekuban- slimmed down more to play RDE and had a good dose of consistant pressure all day long. Knifed through a couple of running plays and had TFL's. Looked a lot better than Last year in camp IMHO.

Time to head out for round two.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44542


It was a very short practice this afternoon and it was solely special teams.

Only 40 mins long.

Coach Bradford is very outspoken. The first time he huddled everyone together after some of the special teams work he was yelling and told them that he hated laziness and hated guys that were out of shape. At the very end of practice though he seemed to be a little happier, he was praising the front line of the return unit.

Burnsie was also really passionate at the end when he was speaking to the group, just telling everyone to get their asses in gear and to work hard everyday at this stuff, etc.

1. They tried Chad Mustard as the long snapper. He SUCKS AT IT. The first two snaps went straight over Knorr's head. The third time he tried it, Knorr was able to get it but he had to jump for it.

2. Kircus gives great effort on special teams! He did a good job getting down the field and fighting off the two defenders assigned to him. He keeps working and fighting hard. Mike Bell was also doing well in the protection unit when I was looking at him.

3. They also practiced downing it inside the 10 yard line. Shoate was giving good effort. Clark did a good job of diving to keep it in, although he didnt quite accomplish the task. Fox gave sort of a half hearted effort, didnt try to hard to keep it in when it was bouncing from the 5 backwards. Paymah sort of lost track of where he was, he kept retreating and by the time he tried to keep the ball in, he was standing on the goalline.

4. On the returns, Marshall dropped one.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44542

I'll admit I was bored. I'll confess right out that I don't know much about special teams, so I spent most of my time listening to the coaches on the sideline explain things than I did watching the drills.

Here's what stood out:

Chris Meyers: Drew high praise from the coaching staff on his blocking. Made some solid hits and stayed in his lanes.

Mike Bell: Can't get off his block. He returned some kicks but was average and is learning to to cut back. Obviously didn't play a lot of special teams. At least he was out there.

Brandon Marshall: Looked ok. Caught some kicks and whatnot. Dropped one.

D-Will: Hurt with a twisted ankle. Was there in shorts.

Todd Devoe: Also hurt

Elvis Dumervil: Got really chewed out for missing his blocking lane and taking a bad angle. Got a "No, no, no, no, no" from the coaching staff.

Kircus: Played very well. Really is trying hard to make this team. He's certainly making it hard for the team to cut him.

[Garcia Bronco]

7/21 am PICTURES

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44526

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569

Today was one of the best camps I've attended is some time. There were a lot of good plays on both sides of the ball and players played hard and focused. I'll start with some little notes:

Javon Walker is the second wide receiver.

Watts still at third, though he didn't have a good practice today.

D-Wil practiced today. He was fine. So muich for the hysteria yesterday.

Nate Jackson sat out with a hurt foot.

Hixon still hurt.

Ok Let's start with running backs:

Ron Dayne: Lots of tap dancing and Bobby T. Called him out on it. The best analysis I've heard on Dayne was fron Anthony Pacino. Hopefully he'll post here, but essentially he isn't a power runner and he jsut kind of squeeks through holes. No burst, not much evasion ability though he did cut back better today.

Tatum Bell: Much better. The last couple practices he's stepped things up. Good burst, doesn't get tripped all the time like he did last year. In fact he hi-stepped a defender through a hole and broke into the secondary on one run. His hands are pretty good, which is huge from last year. My only beef with him is he gets blown up pretty easily. Still, overall better performance.

Mike Bell: This guy is the bomb. He has the best vision of the three, evasive but powerful. They couldn't stop him in the Redzone. In fact he was the only runner our D consistantly had a problem with. SoCal mentioned that he should at least be our short yardage back, and I agree. The play I was most impressed with was during the move-the-ball drill where on a blitz he blew up Ian Gold and allowed a completion. It was a heady play and one that will help show how well-rounded he is.

Cedric Cobbs: He had a few (very few) decent runs today but they were mostly a result of good blocking (I felt.)

Marty Johnson: I still like this good. I think he could chill on our practice squad and be a decent backup in a year or so. Is a good runner that reads the holes and gets yards after the first hit.

Next: QB's

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569

The weather was great today for the first time. Lynch actually asked me along the sideline who I was writing for and I said "Orangemane" and he said "ok, cool". I guess he still remembers us from when we donated to his foundation after the league fined him in the 2004 Indy game. D-Will was at practice today and he looks fine, dont worry about his injury. In fact, as you will see below, he showed very good closing speed today.

QUARTERBACKS

Plummer and Cutler remain very consistent. Plummer began practice with a nice strike to Walker who was in the back of the endzone on a red zone play. He fired a nice post in the red zone to Marshall out of the reach of Paymah. He's getting better at the fades too. He lofted one up for Rod, who lept for it and came down with it over D-Will. Jake did have two pretty inaccurate throws to Walker downfield though. Cutler was very strong again today. His best play was near the end of practice, again on a rollout, not unlike the last couple days, right when he swung his head around a blitzing LB was in his face, and he quickly responded by floating a nice ball to the FB. Very nice touch. He connected with alot of different WRs today. I didnt see him force the ball like he did twice yesterday. There was one play where you could feel like he wanted to go a certain way, almost sorta pumped it there and then knew better and just dumped it off.

RUNNING BACKS

Mike Bell continues to be the best back there IMHO, although Tatum was solid today as well. Tatum had a sweet run on a counter pitch play, the defeense got sucked in and Tatum hit the opposite corner pretty fast. Mike Bell makes some nice cuts and he LOVES CONTACT, he bowls forward and keeps fighting. He has good acceleration through the hole, so he isnt one dimensional. Mike Bell was outstanding when they were running the offense from the 10 to the goalline. There was a play where he had gotten through the pile and the only thing seperating him from the endzone was LB Cameron Vaughn. He just pushed Vaughn backwards into the end zone. He pounds forward and constantly breaks tackles. They did a good deal of work from the 3 yd. line and he got into the endzone on his carries there all but once. He did a decent job picking up the blitz as well. Ron Dayne shows little burst and constantly runs into his blockers. Only FB that I really noticed was Miree who got blown up by Hollowell.

[Garcia Bronco]

.

QB's

Jake: Had some bad throws and some good throws. Played so-so. Still that best at adjusting to the blitz and feeling the preasure. In the goal-line drills Plummer threw a perfect pass to Darius Watts in the redzone (it was so perfect even Mediator had to agree) Hits him right in the hands and Watts dropped it.:tearhair: He had some other throws that were errant. He missed Javon on move the ball drills where the ball hit the dirt and he was open. Hits and misses.

BVP: He looked better today. He threw a sweet pass to Javon over Dominque's head for a TD. His move the ball drill stalled when he was sacked on a zero blitz. If he would have gotten the pass off it would have been grounding. His weak arm should have been picked off on an out route and one of the DB's (I think it was Roc) read the play and would have picked it off and taken it to the house, but he dropped it. Shanahan was complimenting his reading the ball but told him he had to make the play.

Cutler: He's looking better and better. He looks like a more mobile Tom Brady with a stronger arm. His move the ball drill was the only one that that was working and he just took what the defense was giving him and marching down the field. The best play was on a rollout with Chukwurah bearing down on him. He waited for Sapp to get open threw a perfect touch pass to him for a big gain just before he got touched by Predator. Played very well.

Parsons: I didn't really see him take many snaps today. They did a lot with the first, second and third teams.

Next: Receivers

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569

WIDE RECIEVERS

Walker continues to be the bomb. He repeatedly got open. Plummer hit him on some nice gains a few times and he made a leaping catch over a LB on a throw from BVP. Marshall remains strong, although in the early warmups, Khan saw him drop a couple and the coach yelled at him a little bit. When he got onto the field and the bullets were flying he was very good again. He is imposing and has consistent hands. He will fight for the ball. On a slant play against Champ, they both went for it and it got tipped up in the air and he snagged it before Champ could react to it. In the drills near the end zone he flat out beat Curome Cox on a move to get open and caught the ball. Rod was solid again. Darius is very frustrating. He did not have a good day. He got wide open on a post and then just flat out dropped it. After the practices he ran some routes with BVP throwing it to him and he dropped another one. Terrell made a nice rebound today, he was consistent catching the ball, and made a few nice catches on the opposite sideline. Kircus and Clark continued to impress me. This is the second straight day that Clark made a difficult catch with a defender bearing down on him.

TIGHT ENDS

No real standouts. A couple of the defenders got the better of Scheffler today when he was thrown the ball, D-Will knocked one away from him after Scheff couldnt quite get seperation and Hollowell did as well. Tony was complemented by Brewster early on though for a block he gave. Nate Jackson was not at practice today, i think he had a minor injury.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569&page=2
LOL SoCal's got the wideouts covered so I'll just add a few things.

Marshall had trouble with the comeback route in ball drills. To be fair, BVP kept throwing it behind him and it was an awkward grab for him, but he dropped one and Hemerdinger went off on him and toldhim to run it again. Then BVP threw the ball even more behind Marshall and he just kind of swatted at it and cursed. The guy is getting really good at blocking and when he gets his technique down it's going to be scary. He pushed Paymah and Hamzah around today.

David Kircus is going to make the team. He's like a slightly less athletic version of Watts except he actually catches the ball and plays special teams...and he's white.

David Terrell: He had a really good day. Made a bunch of nice catches and did ok in runs support. He's making progress.

Javon Walker: Man the guy is sick. I think he outplayed Rod today. Made some nice catches, is a huge threat in the redzone and on third down. He jumped in front of Al wilson and just brought down the ball for a TD. Great player and looks ready to go as far as I'm concerned. He beat Bailey on an in and out in the redzone but Jake couldn't hit him in the corner.

Next Dumervil!!!!!!!!!

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569&page=3


OFFENSIVE LINE

They continue to do a good job run blocking on inside runs but still struggle at times pass protecting. Khan observed Cornell Green getting beat a couple of times. The young DEs continue to give them trouble. They are not quite as good on outside runs, the D seems to get there before they do. I didnt see the number but one of the OL just flattened Chukwurah on a power play.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Elvis Dumervil had his best day. He has been a nice surprise. I was wrong about him. He's getting a good push even from the inside when he is lining up at DT with the first team nickel unit. Med and I both counted a couple of would be sacks for him. He surprises the guards with his first step and he is hard to react to. Corey Jackson was solid again today. Finally, I saw one of the older guys do something in the pass rushing department. Ekuban had some nice moments. The line is a little weak in the middle though against the run. Courtney Brown was not as active today as I saw him earlier. He is getting pushed around a little bit more. Funny note: When they all came back to the sidelines for awhile, Warren was sitting on the cooler with a nail clipper, clipping his fingernails. I thought it looked odd given that it was the middle of practice.

LINEBACKERS

There were alot of linebackers I liked today. I think they all did a good job. T.J. Hollowell made some noise. He blew up Miree and had a pass defensed against Scheffler. I thought my boy DJ had his best practice. His best play was in the red zone defense, there was a play action rollout away from him and he didnt bite and dropped back into his zone in the opposite flat, when he saw that no one was in his area he attacked Plummer and forced him to throw a high and inaccurate ball in the endzone. He also showed some very good speed in pass defense coming down quickly to the dumpoffs. Khan remarked that he read a screen play well to Dayne and got there pretty quickly. Big Al stuffed a few runs to the outside today. Ian had a would be sack as well. Ian was pretty funny today. There was a play where it appeared that BVP drew the DL offsides but the D was saying it was a false start and the two sides were jawing at each other. Ian was on the sideline but he yelled "Shut the hell up Brad, get your ass back in the huddle". Cameron Vaughn did not appear to be as good this practice as he was before.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569&page=3


Elvis Dumervil: The guy is a monster and he's one of the smartest players I've seen on our D-line drills. He's quick and his first step is explosive. He was flagged for offsides today, so some dicipline is needed, but you can't fault him for being tenacious. The best play he made was on run support. Second team agains the first team nickle. He got past the linemen AND the fullback and blew up Mike Bell in the backfield for a three yard loss. This guy is going to help our team.

Corey Jackson is making some decent plays. Gets good preasure and helps collapse the pocket. He's pretty good at maintaining his gaps assignments too.

Gerrard Warren was hilarious today. He was just going off with all these names for the guys playing.

Here, I'll answer some questions....


He's actually on the second team. Dayne and Tatum split time on the first team. The second team plays the first through third team defenses. He's facing stiff competition.


Actually KJ got some first team work in the jumbo package in redzone work today. Chad Mustard and Alexander were the tight ends. Chad is a very good blocker. So is Mike Leach. Yes, Sapp has good hands (for a fullback).


Second and third team D, but he's still doing a great job.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569&page=4


SECONDARY

D-Will was outstanding in closing on the ball. He was complemented by Shanny on one play, even though Brian Clark still came up with the grab. Three different times he got down to the hitch route real fast and he broke up a pass as well. Once he starts running he can get basically anywhere, although he did get beat a few times by Rod and by Kircus. Fox was also good, he had another day when he almost had a pick. Champ does a real good job on deep balls sticking to his man. I thought Paymah got exposed a little bit but he had a nice corner blitz too. I didnt get a lot of looks at the safeties today unfortuneatly, but I did notice that the team continues to like to blitz Abdullah. He's running on the second team at safety alongside Curome Cox.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569&page=4


A couple of things on the safeties that SoCal covered. Abdullah is the more complete saferty of the two. He is better in run support but can play coverage as well. Cox is better in coverage but struggles to get off blocks in the run game.

D-wil and Fox were playing well today - especially Fox.

Linebackers: SoCal hit this already so I'll just toss in some thoughts. We're very deep at the position. Al, Ian and, especially today, DJ are playing at a high level, but you miss Louis Green, Nate Webster, Keith Burns, Hollowell - the FO has done a great job of bringing in some guys that really fir our system. Those cuts are going to be tough this year.

Lynch: The guy is so good. He is really aware of his surroundings and if there is something he doesn't recognize or understand he'll go ask the coaches. He cheats a little, like he'll try and lip-read what the offensive coaches are saying to the QB's before each play and then tell his team.:giggle: He made some nice plays and is just an all-world player.

Fred came up to me and asked me if I had a bomb in my bag. I'm completely serious. SoCal was standing right next to me. I just laughed and said "how can you not love Fred?"

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44569&page=6



I think Khan and Socal covered the major bases. We try and talk a lot before we break up to do the reports.

General thoughts:

The rookies including UDFA's have been worthy of the time they have had here. There is no one who stands out as being immediately cut.

Sam Brandon has a hurt Hammy and it is giving Cox, Abdullah, and Everett some extra Reps with Cox Filling in in the big nickle.

The nickle was just great today, too. They came out in nickle in move the ball drills, kind of like a time management situation or two minute drills and were very sharp with three sacks from the first two teams.

I need to clarufy this, but Javon is a BIG red Zone Target. He has caught 7 passes in the red zone drills the last two days with 4 for TD's. He does not have the explosion in his Cuts yet either, but he sets up the DB really well and uses his Body and leaping ability to go get balls. The redzone TD% was much better last year, But with Javon and Marshall to be complete threats to blocking and receiving look out. This is just what Lelie NEVER brought to the table. Walker's blocking has been solid too.

OL and DL are getting after it now. They looked sluggish yesterday, but now they are really executing and getting timing down. Chris Kuper has been excellent in the Running game, but Dumervil and warren blew him up in the pass game today. Carlisle and Foster look better on the right side and were able to open a few holes today.

Paymah is struggling with his Zone reads, but continues to play very well in man coverage breaking up several passes. This camp is really helping him get the big picture though. Right Now he and Shoate are battling for the #4 spot. Behind them are Roc who is looking better and Middlebrooks who is only OK.

I am going to try and watch the Safeties more this afternoon and possibly the DL. Later fellas.

[Garcia Bronco]

http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=44589

So you know all those guys we've been pimping? Well they had bad practices today.

This will be a brief one.

Mike Bell: He had some great runs again and has great vision and quickness. Problem is he fumbled the ball at the goalline.

Kircus: Two drops today and had some route trouble. One was a bad pass, but thow drops is hard when everyone else has good hands.

Scheffler: A drop and a fumble and a bobble. Not a good day for his ball handling abilities. He was lbokcing like a beast today and blew open a huge run on a sort of screen to charlie Adams. Brewster was going nuts on him (in a good way).

Marshall: A fumble, a drop and when he made this great catch over the defenders on a comeback he fell down and didn't run out his catch. After each catch and each carry after the play is dead you run the ball down to the other endzone. He just got up and started walking back and Steve Watson was in his ear screaming.

QB's next.

[Garcia Bronco]

.
Jay Cutler: Dude the guy is amazine and is easily the most accurate passer out there. I'm sorry to say he is his more accurate than Jake. He throws lazers and they can't be defended. On a rollout he hit Cecil Sapp right in the hands and Cukwurah had perfect coverage. Jake throws a nice fade which is one of the harder passes to master. He's very good. On another play he was blitzed, held the ball until the last minute and threw it to Cahrlie Adams as he was hit. The ball was high and in and landed in the only place Adams could get it. Smart play.

Jake: He did alright. Made some nice throws. He only threw into double coverage twice and they hit their marks. Nothing bad yet. We haven't really had any intereptions this camp, which is kind of odd. Lots of fumbles today.

BVP: SoCal and I decided that BVP likes to try and get his receivers as injured as possible when he throws. Yes he can hit some guys and he had a nice throw now and again, but the overwhelming theme was that the guy he was throwing to was probably going to get destroyed by a safety or a linebacker.

Parsons: Limited action. Imagine Matt Mauk with more guts and little better arm.

Wideouts: