Camp Report: Sunday 08/12

By JetCane

As reported, Thomas Jones appeared to have sustained a sprained ankle today at the 40 minute mark of practice. They were still doing individual unit drills/reps, and word is he rolled his ankle. Jones was next seen with a brace on the ankle, trying to walk with a trainer next to him. He was obviously limping. The good news is that he put some light weight on it when he was trying to walk it off. They put ice on it and he did not return to practice. I did not see him riding the bike, though there are reports that he was.

Other players who didn’t put the pads on and rode the bike: Miller, Kowalewski, Tutt and Eric Smith. Most of the practice was on the turf field in front of the bleachers.

The team was in full pads today. There were some walk throughs of plays by individual units before the stretching. Within the first five minutes, I knew that Danny Ware has passed Alvin banks on the depth chart, and justifiably so. After stretching they went back to the combine drills for a little while. Then they regrouped and the offense spent a great deal of time and reps working on running plays. They did not even get to the first set of 11s until more than an hour into practice. Jones was injured during handoff/running play drills.

Today, Westhoff practiced the punt team, with major emphasis on the line of scrimmage and blocking for the punter. This was the type of practice drill where, at the end of the year, when you look back and see there were none or less punts blocked, the players will say, yeah, we worked on that really hard during those hot August practices. Westhoff has gotten into Harris’ head, going back to last week when he reamed him out for shoddy KO blocking.

Today, when Westhoff stood at the 30, and waited for his special teamers to come over to begin the punt practice, Harris was standing right next to him like a faithful pup. Harris was inserted as a blocker on the LOS (last week they tried him at defense LOS) and after a few reps, Westhoff pulled him and put someone else in. Harris is doing well with the D, but when it comes to ST, he is Westhoff’s you know what. Chris Davis mishandled a couple of punts, and in my opinion he is gone with the first cut. Westhoff was also working the gunners on downing the ball inside the 5. Wallace did the best at it. Neither of the QBs were sharp today, and overall this was definitely not the most crisp practice I have seen by a long shot. But I didn’t expect the first practice after the first game to be that sharp.

The offense worked on some power, short yardage plays with two TEs and Barnes in the backfield. Even before Jones got hurt, it was apparent (to me) that Ware had passed Banks on the depth chart. After Jones’ injury, Leon moved to number one, and he and Ware got the most work of all the RBs. Banks and number 32 (T.Hollings) took snaps with the second team. (Ware worked with both the first and second teams). The defense stopped the offense today. Downfield, the DBs had super coverage on the WRs, and what passes were completed were all underneath.

Random Notes

-Blake Costanzo pancake tackled #32 in the hit of the day. He continues to be one of the more physical guys in camp.

-Eric Hicks got some run with the first team, and in drills made a really nice play getting off the block and stopping the runner

-Haynes apparently angered the DL coach, who screamed at him to “Get the F*** off the field!” Twice.

-Bender getting more reps with the second team, and if my binoculars were accurate, I think I saw him getting reps at guard as well.

-Kendall did not get any first team reps that I saw.

-Clemens’ downfield passes continue to lack a tight spiral.

-Smith took only a few reps at QB today.

-Poteat and Rashad came charging off the sideline together in the dime package, whooping it up and trying to get the D charged up.

-Bowens dropped a sure interception that hit him in the hands- obviously a bad place.

-Erik Coleman picked CP in the first set of 11s.

-Ryan getting a lot of reps at TE today.

-Stuckey made a nice sliding catch in the middle of the field.

-Harris and Spencer getting run with the second team D in the nickel.

-Harris looking more comfortable with knowing his assignments and reading the play.

-Ihedigbo got on the field a lot today, and did well on the second team, which had good coverage of the WRs.

-Manny Collins also seeing the field with the 2d and 3rd team.

-Nuge hit 5 of 6 from 45. -In what I found to be the most interesting play of the day, Ware came out of the backfield and Vilma had the coverage assignment. They were both going 100%, and Ware had a half step on JV, heading toward the sideline. The ball came and Ware snagged it just ahead of Vilma, though it is debatable whether he got both feet in. It was a very competitive play, happened right in front of me, and both these guys rock. The rookie won that battle.

-Not only was Juan Wong there, he caught not one, but TWO passes today!

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