Rovers
Footballguy
Mangini trotted them out there for a grueling 2 1/2 hour session this morning. The heat was pretty bad. I'v posted a D report in the IDP forum, but here is a shorty on the offense:
Quarterbacks:
Pennington, while stiil the #1 did not look good. He had some monents, including a long TD to Cotchery, and did have some zip on several other throws, but he's still throwing some ducks, one of which was returned to the house by Vilma. His ball still tends to flutter and sail too often.
Ramsey on the other hand, has too much arm. He tends to be inaccurate long most of the time. There is no telling where his sideline hooks are going to go. They get there VERY fast, they just don't go WHERE they should.
Bollinger, despite his detractors, did what he did at the end of last season once they let him use the playbook. Solid, steady, workman-like. Nothing flashy.
Clemens
The reports on Clemens not having good arm strength are completely bogus. He threw one sideline pattern incomplete, but 60 yards in the air, and put only where the WR could make a play on it. His deep hooks, 25 yard throws looked great, plenty of zip and just enough air. Accurate as all get out too. He also had one pass over the middle, about 15 yards that looked like it was shot out of a cannon. He only had one bad pass the entire morning, at least in the 11 on 11's. Kid looks like the real deal to me, if one can make a rush judgement at this early stage.
RB's
Houston is the clear #1 with Martin on the PUP. He looks to have shed a few pounds, and in contrast to TC last year, he looked much faster. Speed wise, I didn't see big differences between him and Blaylock and Washington, while it was very apparent last year he was slower than Blaylock. I think with that Thyroid condition under control, we'll get to see just how godd, or bad Houston really is. He also showed very good power running skills. A very pleasant surprise.
Blaylock seemed to me to be a bit slower than last year, and it appears Washington has a step on him. They both saw some snaps with the first team, but Houston got the majority, maybe 65 to 70%. Houston also showed pretty good hands today, and all three of them can catch the ball. Blaylock was still nursing that foot injury in mini-camp, so that may still be affecting him now as well.
WR's
Coles clearly no longer has the speed he once did. He can still catch in traffic, but Ramsey lofted a long ball to him that everyone was shocked to see Coles unable to get under. He's really a solid pssession reciever now IMO, but still a pretty good WR at that.
Cotchery hauled in a long pass from Pennington, beating CB Barrett along the sidelines for a TD. With McCariens on the PUP, this is Cotchery's chance to step up, and he made the most of his opportunity this morning. Either Cotchery is faster than I realized, or Barrett is slower than I though.... maybe a bit of both. McCariens was in uniform, but not with the team. He was off doing some light catching with some ball boys. Rumor is it's a foot injury, but the Jets aren't talking.
Brad Smith got some snaps, and looks to have enough speed to become a viable WR, if not a burner. His hands looked good, and he has an elusive running style, and showed he can break tackles.
TE's
Once again, Jolley showed he has the best hands on the team.... in practice. What happens to him in games I can't explain. He's the fastest of the TE's but maybe it's his route running that is the problem. He and Baker were in some 2 TE sets. I think this CS will let these two battle it out, and I expect baker to win. On the other hand, I also think there will be a lot of 2 TE sets in this offense, especially without a real viable deep threat. Dreessen shows flashes, but is still depth at this point. dressen and Baker both had drops today.
Being the first TC, I was watching more to get an idea of what the depth chart looked like, who was getting the first team snaps rather than zeroing in on any particular player. Having said that, one also notices some players who jump out. For me, that was Houston and Clemens today on offense. I admit, I've been rooting for Houston, but he looked better than I had hoped. I've see rookie QB's in camps before, but I don't think I ever saw one that seemed as in control as Clemens appears to be. No Ramsey-like happy feet, and a strong solid arm to go with it.
My report on the defense in in the IDP forum.
Lastly, my friends and I used to call Hofstra "Camp Marshmellow". Well, if this morning was any indication, I think I'll call Mangini's TC "Camp Concrete". 2 1/2 hours of heavy drills, lots of non-stop work. Even the stretching excersizes were almost 3 times as long and taken much more seriously. One drill I've never seen run before is the full speed one on one tackling drill, RB's and WR's against LB's and DB's. There were some pads popping like ash can firecrackers out there. I just hope Mangini doesn't kill them all before the season starts!
Quarterbacks:
Pennington, while stiil the #1 did not look good. He had some monents, including a long TD to Cotchery, and did have some zip on several other throws, but he's still throwing some ducks, one of which was returned to the house by Vilma. His ball still tends to flutter and sail too often.
Ramsey on the other hand, has too much arm. He tends to be inaccurate long most of the time. There is no telling where his sideline hooks are going to go. They get there VERY fast, they just don't go WHERE they should.
Bollinger, despite his detractors, did what he did at the end of last season once they let him use the playbook. Solid, steady, workman-like. Nothing flashy.
Clemens
The reports on Clemens not having good arm strength are completely bogus. He threw one sideline pattern incomplete, but 60 yards in the air, and put only where the WR could make a play on it. His deep hooks, 25 yard throws looked great, plenty of zip and just enough air. Accurate as all get out too. He also had one pass over the middle, about 15 yards that looked like it was shot out of a cannon. He only had one bad pass the entire morning, at least in the 11 on 11's. Kid looks like the real deal to me, if one can make a rush judgement at this early stage.RB's
Houston is the clear #1 with Martin on the PUP. He looks to have shed a few pounds, and in contrast to TC last year, he looked much faster. Speed wise, I didn't see big differences between him and Blaylock and Washington, while it was very apparent last year he was slower than Blaylock. I think with that Thyroid condition under control, we'll get to see just how godd, or bad Houston really is. He also showed very good power running skills. A very pleasant surprise.
Blaylock seemed to me to be a bit slower than last year, and it appears Washington has a step on him. They both saw some snaps with the first team, but Houston got the majority, maybe 65 to 70%. Houston also showed pretty good hands today, and all three of them can catch the ball. Blaylock was still nursing that foot injury in mini-camp, so that may still be affecting him now as well.
WR's
Coles clearly no longer has the speed he once did. He can still catch in traffic, but Ramsey lofted a long ball to him that everyone was shocked to see Coles unable to get under. He's really a solid pssession reciever now IMO, but still a pretty good WR at that.
Cotchery hauled in a long pass from Pennington, beating CB Barrett along the sidelines for a TD. With McCariens on the PUP, this is Cotchery's chance to step up, and he made the most of his opportunity this morning. Either Cotchery is faster than I realized, or Barrett is slower than I though.... maybe a bit of both. McCariens was in uniform, but not with the team. He was off doing some light catching with some ball boys. Rumor is it's a foot injury, but the Jets aren't talking.
Brad Smith got some snaps, and looks to have enough speed to become a viable WR, if not a burner. His hands looked good, and he has an elusive running style, and showed he can break tackles.
TE's
Once again, Jolley showed he has the best hands on the team.... in practice. What happens to him in games I can't explain. He's the fastest of the TE's but maybe it's his route running that is the problem. He and Baker were in some 2 TE sets. I think this CS will let these two battle it out, and I expect baker to win. On the other hand, I also think there will be a lot of 2 TE sets in this offense, especially without a real viable deep threat. Dreessen shows flashes, but is still depth at this point. dressen and Baker both had drops today.
Being the first TC, I was watching more to get an idea of what the depth chart looked like, who was getting the first team snaps rather than zeroing in on any particular player. Having said that, one also notices some players who jump out. For me, that was Houston and Clemens today on offense. I admit, I've been rooting for Houston, but he looked better than I had hoped. I've see rookie QB's in camps before, but I don't think I ever saw one that seemed as in control as Clemens appears to be. No Ramsey-like happy feet, and a strong solid arm to go with it.
My report on the defense in in the IDP forum.
Lastly, my friends and I used to call Hofstra "Camp Marshmellow". Well, if this morning was any indication, I think I'll call Mangini's TC "Camp Concrete". 2 1/2 hours of heavy drills, lots of non-stop work. Even the stretching excersizes were almost 3 times as long and taken much more seriously. One drill I've never seen run before is the full speed one on one tackling drill, RB's and WR's against LB's and DB's. There were some pads popping like ash can firecrackers out there. I just hope Mangini doesn't kill them all before the season starts!
Pennington
near bottom
Rovers. Thanks.I'm starting to think Clemens is going to be the guy sooner rather than later.
