Today was a great day to come to camp in terms of the weather. The sky
was overcast and there was a very mild breeze that kept the temperature
in the sixties. The weather made it nicer for everyone and the crowd
was especially supportive of the team cheering and applauding them any
time someone made a big play.
Obviously everyone has probably heard by now that Jarvis Moss went down
in a lot of pain with a knee injury during line drills. I didn’t get a
good view as I was watching the redzone passing drills on the opposite
side of the field, but I did see him go down and get carted off. He was
in a great deal of pain and was grabbing his knee. Coach Shanahan
mentioned that it was a knee twist and that the ligament seemed to be
still attached, but it looked quite a bit more serious than that. Let’s
hope for the best.
They ran a lot more skill drills and then worked on redzone more this
time. The hands specialist that Coach Bates brought in for the
defensive line was there and helping guys work and moves and technique
at getting offensive linemen’s hands off of you. This was very
interesting to watch up close and see the variety of ways that a
defensive line could beat a lineman with his hands. Not all these moves
are for every player, but the idea is to give each player a variety of
tools to be effective and then let the players use what works best for
him.
They released the new depth chart today and there were no real
surprises. The starting offense is as you’d expect. Stokely and Walker
are the starting receivers, then it’s Brian Clark, Dominik Hixon, David
Terrell, David Kircus and Quincy Morgan. Eslinger is the second team
center, though I think it’s really Myers as Chris plays guard on the
second team. The running backs are Henry, Sapp, Bell, Hall and Young.
Defense had a few more surprises. The first team D is the same except
that Louis Green is listed as the number one backer. Shanahan made a
point of mentioning that these positions could always change and I
suspect that there are some mind games going on with some of this. The
second team D line is made up of all three rookies plus Kennedy.
Malard, Lewis and Webster are the linebackers. Paymah and Foxworth play
outside and Hamzah and Cox are the safeties. They did tend to rotate
these players around quite a bit.
I’ll be honest that after Moss went down I spent a fair amount of time
talking to other people and trying to learn what happened and when we’d
know what his condition was. It was much more difficult to concentrate
after that. Here are some things I did notice.
Offensive Line – Chris Kuper had a pretty crappy
practice. It started out well and then in twenty minute period he gave
up three sacks. The last one Shanahan got upset with him and pulled him
and put Montrae Holland in. It’s unfortunate for Chris because he had
demonstrated enough last week to earn the starting position this
morning, but then he started to get beat over and over and Shanahan had
to send a message. Holland did better, but it would be hard not to as
bad a practice as Kuper was having. I’m not sure if that change is
reflective of that day or applies to the depth chart. We’ll see this
afternoon.
Secondary – The secondary played very well today. John
Lynch picked off a pass and ran it back. Champ let Brian Clark get by
him on a post pattern after the offensive line had all day to throw.
This occurred following the injury to moss. Bly had an off day after he
bonked his wrist on a helmet and came out. The defense is doing an
excellent job defending the bootleg. Nothing was open down field most
of the day. Payma, Foxworth and Hamzah (pronounced "AHM-zah" no "h")
are really impressive and playing with a lot of confidence. I'm still
amazed at how physical Dominique is playing this year. He broke up a
pass just by popping Brian Clark.
Quarterback – Cutler had a decent day. He made some
good throws that were dropped and is finding his check down guys pretty
well. He had quite a few drops and when Scheffler and Marshall get back
on the field, I suspect we’ll see all the quarterbacks improve. Ramsey
had a decent practice and made some throws, though he did get picked
off by Lynch.
Defensive Line - The interior of the line was getting a
lot pressure today. They were doing a good job bearing down on the
pocket and getting through for some sacks. I still think that Burton is
impressive, but he and Veal are stashed on the fourth team, so that
must be bunch of mental errors and other such things that are hard to
see with the naked eye. Sam Adams is still and absolute beast inside.
He really is tough to run on.
Receivers – The receivers had quite a few drops today.
Even Walker dropped one. They just aren’t getting open and are
struggling to hang onto the ball because our corners are playing so
physical with them. It will be interesting to see how both units
matchup against other teams.
That’s all I have for right now. If I have time I’ll report this
afternoon as well and let you all know what’s going on. Hopefully we’ll
have more information on Moss’ situation by then.
