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Wash Post.com: Observations From Day 2

McD5

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...2/07/27/gJQA4wVaEX_blog.html?wprss=rss_sports


Robert Griffin III signs autographs after the first day of training camp Thursday. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post)A day after struggling with his timing and accuracy, Robert Griffin III was noticeably sharper Friday.

And the position battle among the wide receivers continues. Today’s starting wideouts on the first play were Pierre Garcon and Leonard Hankerson. Yesterday it was Josh Morgan with Garcon. The first tight end was Chris Cooley, with Fred Davis rotating in and out, a day after the latter started.

Griffin’s early highlight came on the second play of 11-on-11 drills when he squirted out of a collapsed pocket, and fired a sideline pass to Hankerson, who tip-toed the line as he made the grab. Griffin put the ball in a tight spot where only Hankerson could get to it. In drills just before the play, Griffin made the same pass, but farther from the sideline.

More at the link......

Another report said Brandon Banks stock was up big today, and Aldrick Robinson's was down.
 
interesting then as to why the team decided to sign Dezmon Briscoe who was just cut by Tampa. He's 6'2 and 210 and had some decent red zone numbers. A bit slow - timed in 4.6.

Where does he fit into the picture?
 
interesting then as to why the team decided to sign Dezmon Briscoe who was just cut by Tampa. He's 6'2 and 210 and had some decent red zone numbers. A bit slow - timed in 4.6.

Where does he fit into the picture?

Red zone. Our TE's should be good down there, but aside from possibly Hankerson, what other WR do we have that can catch a jump ball in the corner of the end zone?
 
Unfortunately, this probably deserves to be noted:

The first-team interior linemen appeared to struggle against the starting defense. On three of the first four plays, Griffin’s blockers were shoved back into his path, forcing him to move outside the pocket.

Am I just dreaming, or is there any way that another team might tade us a real RT or LG in exchange for a bundle of players? Cooley....maybe a few receiving prospects, Hightower, etc?

Going into the season hoping that Brown and Lich stay healthy seems foolish to me.
 
man, I forgot that Anthony Armstrong was even on this team. I liked him a few years ago...maybe I can like him again.

Same here. It seems we have a ton of WRs, and we are going to have to cut several before really seeing what they have.
 
It just seems like throughout the Shanahan tenure we've been seemingly believing that our offensive line is going to catch lightning in a bottle and get their act together, without making significant moves to shore up areas of weakness along the line (particularly on the interior).

Despite what looks like definite improvement at the QB, RB, and WR positions, I have a hunch that the play of some of the lesser known commodities along the o-line, and their abilities to step up their game hold the keys to this season.
 
That's a huge key. No doubt about it.

I remember when Kyle arrived, and said he saw nothing wrong with our O-line. I had hoped, and still hope that he wasn't being serious, but was just trying to instill confidence in our players on the roster.

Now, I really hope they are realistic about what we have, and that they try to address it however they can with our limited cap.
 
give the o-line some time fellas. it was in constant churn last season due to injuries. it takes time to gel. defense always has the advantage early on.
 
I have to wonder whether this is a case of our OL not being very good or our DL being very good...or perhaps both. However the thing that really caught my eye was the blurb about RGIII, 'er "Bob" adjusting his sideline pass as he was coached to do. It seems simple but being able to take direction/coaching and convert it into onfield action and results has been difficult for some of our recent players.
 
Come on folks, it's day two of camp, and the O line always.... and I mean always takes longer to get going in camp then the D.

Kick back with your beverage of choice, and enjoy the ride.
 
I personally believe the O-Line we had to end the season was the best we've assembled in a long time. Why not go with that lineup? I get the whole well these guys are starters, get paid more, etc.....but the line we had the last few games was really solid together.
 
I was there today and I have to say Lichtensteiger impressed me. Unless something major happens, he will be starting day 1. Even so, the defensive line is light years ahead of our O-line. You could see the frustration on Kyle and Mike's face, but also you could see Griff was getting frustrated because he couldn't get much going with Bowen or Rak or Kerrigan in his face.

Oh...Brian Orakpo looks like he may be ready to take his game to the next level. He was talking things up, hustling and he was making Trent look plain bad! He we using the spin move, he ducked under and blew by Trent and swiped cleanly to get by him. The only time Trent seemed to be successful with Rak was when Rak used his patented bull rush. Trent look real big going into this season.
 
I thought we HAD shored up our interior OL to some degree taking Josh LeRibeus with this year's 3rd round draft pick.

How is he looking out there?

How about Jarvis Jenkins coming off of IR? He looked awesome in preseason last year before the injury.
 
I'm so, so, so ready to see the first pre-season game!

This year is sort of a pass...low expectations with a rookie qb, but could end up surprisingly well.

Bring it on!
Agreed! I saw your post, went to the DVR schedule and was able to set up the Redskins Bills game to record. It is almost here!
 
I thought we HAD shored up our interior OL to some degree taking Josh LeRibeus with this year's 3rd round draft pick.

How is he looking out there?

How about Jarvis Jenkins coming off of IR? He looked awesome in preseason last year before the injury.


LeRiebus practiced with the second team and went mostly unnoticed. I will say Cousins had much more time to pass the ball than Griff did. The second unit O line was able to handle the second unit d-line much better that the first unti competition. Rob Jackson gave Compton a handful, but Compton was able to hold his own except in speed. Jackson had too much speed for Compton, but he was able to adjust some to cut off the angle. That's when you'd see some adjustments on D...at least second team D with Jenkins against Compton.

Jenkins looked slow. He looked bigger than last year too. He was going up against Compton some lining up on the outside when they would stunt and Compton handled him well. But he rarely made it into the backfield going against Compton or LeRiebus. There is no way he supplants Bowen, Cariiker or Cofield for a starting position this season. He just did not have that explosiveness we saw last year.
 
Jenkins looked slow. He looked bigger than last year too. He was going up against Compton some lining up on the outside when they would stunt and Compton handled him well. But he rarely made it into the backfield going against Compton or LeRiebus. There is no way he supplants Bowen, Cariiker or Cofield for a starting position this season. He just did not have that explosiveness we saw last year.
Wow. Not happy to hear that.

I was really hoping for big things with Jenkins.
 
Its his second practice, still probably timid on the knee.
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I was going to start a thread about my observations from yesterday but figured I would put them here since I was standing near Jones for much of the practice.

The first thing I need to mention is I was not there Thursday so I cannot comment on the progression for Griff from Thursday to yesterday, but he looks like a rookie. I am not sure how much improved he was, but he looked frustrated and to tell you the truth he looked flustered. The OL was not giving him much time, but he was still very inaccurate. Receivers had to make diving catches or tremendous leaping catches, even on roll out plays that gave him time to throw the ball. There were a lot of broken plays too. Oh yeah, he is VERY fast/quick. But YAC would not have been possible with where he was throwing the ball. I have to say, Rex was more impressive yesterday, especially since he came to camp looking like an athlete. :laugh: Rex was more confident, relaxed...but he was going against 2nd and 3rd team players.

I swear Jones must be told he has to report a certain way or they won't allow him on the premises because Leonard Hankerson had a avg at best showing. He dropped numerous passes and looked out of it most of the day. The play he references along the sideline during the 11 on 11 drills had Barry Cofield standing over Griff with his arms in the air standing still. If it were real time, Cofield would have crushed him. There was no escaping that collapsed pocket in real time. And once again, Hank had to make a catch that did not lend itself to YAC.

I am not trying to be negative here, I am just reporting what I saw. I also saw Griff make a few tremendous throws. I was very impressed with his 5 yard burst! But I am concerned the way he handled pressure. He got flustered and Rak seemed to recognize it and started talking smack.

Speaking of Rak, he appears to have amped things up a bit! Maybe the pressure of being the face of the franchise is gone and he can get back to the task of playing football because this is my 3rd TC in a row and it was his most impressive so far. He showed leadership out there and he abused Trent Williams most of the day!

Fletcher and Riley seem to be on the same page in just about everything they do. Perry Riley claimed he'll have his best season ever, I could easily see that happening. This is turning out to be a very solid 4th round draft pick.

I was surprised with Madieau Williams size. He looked like ST back there. Not saying he is anywhere near as good, just that he is much larger than I expected and he was solid in coverage. Gomes looks good against the 2nd team. I am afraid he will always be a 2nd string player. Merriweather got some boos from the crowd when he got a hold of Griff's face mask. It kinda looked dirty. Not very pleased about that! Reed Doughty is...well...Reed Doughty, he works hard and is smart but still lacks the physical talent. I was surprised with Griffith, he was working very hard. Barnes looked better than I can remember last year. He got a number of reps with the first team. Josh Wilson looks good.

Evan Royster looked like the best RB out there yesterday. Like I said in another thread, he made some cut backs that had the crowd and players in awe. Roy Helu looked good too, very solid. Alfred Morris looked goo, he looks very strong! Hightower looked good going North to South, but lacked the cut back ability. Gotta wonder if that is his knee.

Very impressed with Darius Hanks. Of the younger receivers, he looked the best...worked harder, caught just about everything that went in his direction, ran routes well. I was disappointed to see Hank drop as many passes as he did. I hope this isn't going to be a problem, but he did look healthy. Maybe the reason he seemed a little out of it was because he was going harder than he should to prove himself. Who knows?

I know I am missing a couple guys but these are some of my observations from camp. I think overall my enthusiasm has tapered. I will be happy with 8-8 this season but would not rule out 6-10 from the ONE practice I saw yesterday. Our offense is not going to be drastically better w/ Griff and I do realize it was only the 2nd day of practice. But we have a long way to go before this offesne is improved enough to give us 4 or 5 more wins.


Oh yeah, Gano looked far better than Rackers yesterday, better range and more consistent. They had a drill yesterday that had the kickers surrounded by players screaming at them as they kicked it. When I say surrounded, I mean inches from them...just enough space for the kicker to have a direct shot at the goal posts. Gano outperformed Rackers in those drills too.
 
Its his second practice, still probably timid on the knee.
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I am sure that is the main reason, but he looked gassed and did not have the power nor explosiveness that made him stand out last year.
 

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