Training Camp
Kaylore's Camp Report 8/7 AM - Offensive woes
By Kaylore
Aug 7, 2007, 12:53

The overcast skies made for another pleasant and cool camp. Temperatures hovered in the sixties and seventies and it was just a great time to come out. This camp is one of the sloppier camps I can remember in some time particularly on the offensive side of the ball. There were a lot of mental errors and some of the injuries were negatively affecting the quality of play.

Tony Scheffler made it onto the field and was in pads for the first time today. He ran some routes but was held out of full contact drills and only practiced for the first thirty minutes or so before heading back into the weight room to work on conditioning. After practice he spoke of his condition. The bone in his foot is “completely healed” and they just going slow with him trying to get him back up to speed at a pace that won’t create setbacks. His weight is down to 255 and takes mental reps with the team during the film sessions. He is supposed to be totally integrated by next week. I asked him if he had a target preseason game and he didn’t have an answer but was personally shooting for Dallas or Cleveland. It’s my personal opinion that he won’t be used until the Cleveland game.

Ben Hamilton is still out nursing a dinged knee. Matt Lepsis left the field in the middle of practice with a pulled groin, which can tend to nag. He was moving around alright afterwards and remained on the sidelines the rest of practice, so it was probably mostly a precautionary move. Moss was not on the field and was doing rehab and conditioning with Sam Adams in the weight room. They are trying to keep Adams in shape and fresh and his one-a-day routine is part of that. Moss should be on the field again in a few days depending on how things go but the trainers said they want to go slow with him. No word on Marshall.

I was able to get some inside information on the Chris Kuper and Montrae Holland move. Some sources told me that the franchise is very high on Kuper as a long-term solution at guard, but that they wanted to test his mental toughness. This benching, according to my source, was going to happen sooner or later and it was a calculated move to see how he’d respond. If he doesn’t go into the tank, expect to see Kuper starting by opening day. Holland didn’t have a very good practice today.


Coaching - So far there really are only three offensive sets they are running in camp. The “base” set is the I formation with two wide receivers a tight end and two running backs. Then there’s the “tiger” set. This is a two tight end set that they usually run out of with one receiver. Then there’s the “zebra” package which is three wide with a guy usually in the slot. They shift these around somewhat, but overall they run these same three sets over and over so it’s very vanilla packaging right now. Given this is preseason, this hardly out of the ordinary.

They are running a lot of screens and draw plays – probably more than I’ve ever seen from a Shanahan offense. Some of the draws were especially effective, which will be fun to watch. I suspect that these plays were put in in anticipation of Cutler being blitzed a good deal this year. Bates’ defenses are similarly simple, but unlike Shanahan’s schemes, I don’t think you’ll see their complexity increase very much when the regular season starts.

One thing that I’ve noticed about Bates is he puts a lot of stress on making sure his team knows the down and distance of each play and to execute within containing that area. I think this constant reminder has helped the defense understand what the offense can and has to run. As a result the offenses are having trouble moving the chains especially on third down.

The practice was very sloppy for the offense overall. Coach Shanahan said it was “below average”. Receivers weren’t getting open, the line was really struggling with pressure up the middle and there were some drops and fumbles. Jay Cutler came off the field after leading the first team offense on one series of move the ball and was cursing and upset. His team had pretty much hung him out to dry. Meadows was filling in for Lepsis on the left side and got beat to inside on a run play on first down. On second down Holland jumped offsides. On the next second down Lang got through and Jay dumped it off to Graham but it was for no gain. On third and long Holland got beat by Kennedy and got called for holding. On third and very long Jay threw it to Clark for a completion but was wrapped up immediately by Webster. I was pretty ugly. That was just one series of move the ball but similar things were happening most of practice.

I’ll break down some of the players and positions now.

Quarterbacks – All the quarterbacks struggled today. They really had issues getting into rhythm with their receivers and when they did there were some untimely drops.

Jay Cutler: He had some struggles today. There were a couple of throws behind his guys and few that were on time but were dropped. The secondary didn’t let anything happen. He had to run on quite a few plays just get something going. On one play there was some confusion with the exchange on a draw play and Henry fumbled. It looked to me like Cutler put the ball down in an awkward way, but that’s just how I saw it.

Ramsey: Ramsey was pretty bad today. Some of his throws were high and he overthrows his deep ball. He threw one pass into triple coverage. There were a few plays where he connected on some great catches, but those were more attributed to the receivers making great catches.

Hackney: He was the only quarterback that got anything done and it was generally because he was throwing against the third team. He made some nice throws and is showing some good touch.

Defensive Line – The defensive line impressed today because they were getting inside pressure without Sam Adams for the first time in a long time. I will point out that Chris Myers and Holland were both playing inside, and neither player has had much work on the first offense, so this success should be taken with a grain of salt, however it was nice to see them penetrating so well. Lang had some sacks and still showed some decent moves filling in at Moss’ spot while he rehabs. There was very little for the running backs to play with all practice. They are really playing contain very well and physicality of the defensive line is very impressive overall. Ekuban also beat Pears on a edge rush for sack and Gerard Warren was pretty disruptive today – probably more than I’d see in all of camp. It was a good day for the interior defensive line.

The Secondary – Shanahan confirmed my suspicion when I asked him in his press conference how this secondary compares to the others he’s coached throughout his career and he said “This is the best secondary, including depth and safeties, that I’ve ever coached in my career.” Paymah and Foxworth continue to impress at corner. Both are flying around the ball and really making plays. Paymah needs to work a little on his mental mistakes. Hamzah Abdullah has really started to pull away from the other safeties as the clear number three. In the run and pass game he has excelled and is just a great player. I feel very good about our depth there. I’m excited for others to see this secondary this year. There is some much talent and it is so deep that it will really cause some problems.

Dre Bly: I want to take a moment to mention Bly separately because he had the best day of camp today I’ve seen him have and maybe the best for a defensive back including Bailey. Bly was all over the field and completely shut down anything thrown on him. He was really frustrating walker and guys like Kircus and Hixon looked visibly intimidated when they’d line up. There was one deflection that he had where he grabbed Brian Clark’s arm in what I felt was pass interference, but overall he had an amazing day. Yes, even better than Bailey, who allowed a whopping three completions for nine yards total.

Defensive Line – The defensive line was very impressive today, particularly up the middle. Kennedy and Warren both were making some big plays. The interior is doing a great job of collapsing the pocket and then getting their hands into the throwing lanes. Jay had some deflections at the line as a result of inside pressure. Lang and Ekuban both had some sacks and were doing a good job getting pressure of the edges.

Linebackers – The linebacking corps is very impressive. There are a lot of mind games going on with the depth chart. Louis Green hasn’t played a snap, so putting him at number one is kind of joke and just a way for the coaching staff to stir the pot, I feel. Webster had a big day and was making a lot of plays. His helmet also popped off, so expect more of that as his helmet was chronically launching off his head last preseason as well. All the linebackers were very good at taking things away from the tight ends and running backs in the passing game and the running game really wasn’t doing much at all.

Running backs – The running backs had some real struggles. Henry had a fumble on what I felt was a botched exchange on a draw play. He also had nowhere to go all day and generally was smothered right away on most runs. The line wasn’t getting very much push and it was hard for any of the backs to find somewhere to cut back. Andre Hall had a drop that was pretty easy and Mike Bell was taken out after gimping his lower leg. Cecil Sapp tried to make his own holes, but was not very successful either.

Overall the practice favored the defense. I have concerns about the offense. I understand that a lot of the players on offense are hurt, but I hoped to see more chemistry and success. My hope is that as the starters come back things will open up and that the offensive struggles are just a result of excellent defensive football and not offensive ineptitude.

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