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Heading up to Flowery Branch for Falcons TC (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Big Score
- Start date
Chase Stuart
Footballguy
I'm curious to see how the two Qbs look. I don't have much to compare it to (I don't know if Vick normally looks good in TC, but I'd guess he does), but I've got tempered enthusiam for MV this year. Curious to see if Schaub is as good as the hype too.
But most of all, enjoy watching some football!
But most of all, enjoy watching some football!
Ok, I'll confirm it if he is.Defending Champs
Footballguy
I'm a about a mile north of you in Kennesaw, just off 575.One of these days, I'd like to make it up there (I live in Marietta).Have fun!Make it quick fellas. Soon as the wife finishes getting prettied upwe're out the door.
Oh, and my question would be "How do Jenkins and White look?"
Mike Herman
Footballguy
Zac Derr and Tony Yelk.
Big Score
Footballguy
Got up there to see Vick throw one pass to White (which looked good) and the players were called off the field for lightning strikes as a massive storm rolled in.
Practice moved to indoor facility.....which is closed to the public :(
Darn typical GA summer weather.
I'll be going again tomorrow, both morning & evening practices.
If there's any other players besides the ones already mentioned, go ahead and list 'em.
Practice moved to indoor facility.....which is closed to the public :(
Darn typical GA summer weather.
I'll be going again tomorrow, both morning & evening practices.
If there's any other players besides the ones already mentioned, go ahead and list 'em.
RestoreTheROAR
Footballguy
Michael Jenkins ftmfw
I am in Duluth, we have the start of a great local league here!I'm a about a mile north of you in Kennesaw, just off 575.One of these days, I'd like to make it up there (I live in Marietta).Have fun!Make it quick fellas. Soon as the wife finishes getting prettied up
Oh, and my question would be "How do Jenkins and White look?"
SammyJankis
Footballguy
I've been pimping Norwood and took him in a dynasty rookie draft, so would like to get impressions.
Pasquerelli said on ESPN that both Dunn and Norwood looked good in the first practice.
Pasquerelli said on ESPN that both Dunn and Norwood looked good in the first practice.
I'm interested to hear if:
Vick scrambles/rolls out on a significant number of plays. There was some talk recently about allowing him to scramble/improvise/run more this year. Does this play out in the practice(s) you watch, and do you feel that he is throwing better on the move than when he drops back?
Jerious Norwood vs. T.J. Duckett: who looks like they are in better shape, who runs with more authority?
DE John Abraham, SS Lawyer Milloy: Up to speed in the Falcon's defensive scheme, or do they struggle to make plays alongside their new team-mates?
Thanks in advance,
Mark
Vick scrambles/rolls out on a significant number of plays. There was some talk recently about allowing him to scramble/improvise/run more this year. Does this play out in the practice(s) you watch, and do you feel that he is throwing better on the move than when he drops back?
Jerious Norwood vs. T.J. Duckett: who looks like they are in better shape, who runs with more authority?
DE John Abraham, SS Lawyer Milloy: Up to speed in the Falcon's defensive scheme, or do they struggle to make plays alongside their new team-mates?
Thanks in advance,
Mark
Pasquerelli's insider article was free (had a weird free icon next to it, so I'll post the link and details). Also I know it's free, because you can view the entire article without insider access. Enjoy.Falcons Camp
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Here are five observations on the Atlanta Falcons gleaned from Thursday's training camp practice:
1. It's always difficult to make judgments when a team goes through a practice that isn't a fully padded workout, as was the case with the Falcons in their initial on-field session of camp Thursday afternoon. But you could put the Atlanta defense in a padded cell, and outfit the entire bunch in straitjackets, and it still would be pretty obvious the unit is quicker overall than it was a year ago.
The addition of right end John Abraham, which gives the Falcons three Pro Bowl-caliber performers in the front four, is going to make a big difference. Opposing offensive coordinators have to respect not only Abraham's upfield pass-rush skills but also his quickness in general. The new starting safety tandem of Lawyer Milloy and Chris Crocker probably won't establish any land speed marks, but both appear fast because they seem to take judicious angles to the football. And coming off a 2005 season in which the Atlanta safeties tackled with all the proficiency of Venus de Milo, just being able to make the routine plays is an upgrade. And although weakside starter Keith Brooking is entering his eighth season and is 30 years old, and Ed Hartwell in the middle is coming off an Achilles injury that kept him out of 11 games last season, the linebackers play plenty fast enough.
In fact, linebacker might be the team's deepest position. So deep that the guy who is arguably the best athlete at the position, third-year veteran Demorrio Williams, will struggle to get onto the field. The emerging player to watch is second-year strongside backer Michael Boley. He's a very nice meld of size and speed, and he plays with leverage and a natural ability to shed blockers. Boley notched 60 tackles in 11 starts as a rookie, and he really is an impressive player to watch, even in unpadded practices.
Funny thing, but after preaching speed for the first two years of his tenure here, Jim Mora acknowledged this spring that it might not be a bad idea to add a wide-body to the front four. The team flirted with a few veteran free agents, most notably Grady Jackson, but didn't sign him or any of the other interior defenders it considered. And it might not make much of a difference. Size is a great commodity, but nothing beats quickness, and the Falcons seem to possess the latter in spades. Of course, using that speed to get to the ball will be a key, especially versus the run. Atlanta statistically ranked No. 26 against the run in 2006, and a repeat of that performance would be disastrous. All the pass rushers in the world won't help much if opponents consistently are facing third-and-short situations. Since the Falcons didn't get any bigger, they're going to have to play faster to stanch the run in 2006, and the early results seem encouraging.
Dale Zanine/US Presswire
Michael Vick and the Falcons finished 8-8 last season and missed the playoffs.
2. Last summer, we watched the initial practice of training camp here, blanched at the shoddy, inconsistent footwork mechanics of quarterback Michael Vick, noted as much in print, and basically were pilloried by the masses. Most of whom, of course, weren't at that practice or any other camp workout all summer. OK, so we're back again with the footwork fetish this year and happy to report, MV-7 fans, that you can save the hate mail this time around.
We're not ready to predict that Vick is suddenly going to blossom into a 60 percent completion rate passer. Hey, the sun was brutal here Thursday, but it didn't microwave that many brain cells. Vick owns a career completion rate of 54.1 percent. In the three seasons in which he started 15 games, his percentage is a little better, at 55.4. We have a standing bet with a longtime NFL media buddy that Vick will never complete 60 percent of his attempts in a season and if he's ready to raise the ante, so are we. But here's the thing with Vick: He stands a far better chance of improving his accuracy in 2006 if he continues to demonstrate the textbook mechanics he displayed in the first camp practice.
As incongruous as it sounds, you throw from the feet up, and Vick's footwork in the past has been so sloppy that it has precluded him from having a real chance at upgrading his marksmanship. But on Thursday, on most occasions, he was a drop, plant, square-the-shoulders, rotate-into-the-throw passer. There were few of the mechanical lapses that have marked his motion in the past, and Vick lauded the offseason work put in by new quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave, who has spent a ton of hours with the star. Musgrave owns the reputation of being a stickler, a guy who will hound his pupils when they make mistakes. But Vick, who many felt might chafe under his stewardship, has taken well to the approach. In the past, on the rare occasions when Vick actually had his mechanics and timing in synch, he was a lot more accurate and the ball didn't sail as much on him. That was also the case Thursday, and Vick needs to continue to focus on delivering the ball with sound techniques.
Certainly, no one has ever questioned his arm strength. It's too early to tell what tweaks the Falcons have made to the offense -- Vick insisted after practice that there wasn't anything new in the playbook -- but it seemed Atlanta wants to get the quarterback on the move more in 2006, with half-rolls and even more bootleg and waggle action than in the past. That certainly plays to Vick's strength. But if he continues to look as comfortable as he did Thursday, there may yet be hope for Vick to develop into a markedly better passer from the pocket.
There always has been an athletic arrogance (a Mora term, although we've been told he "borrowed" it from his former San Francisco 49ers boss, George Seifert) to Vick, an aura that suggests he doesn't take well to being overcoached and prefers to let his athletic skills take over in tough situations. But in word and in deed, Vick seems to be maturing some in his sixth season. Noted the Falcons star after practice: "I got Superman tattooed on my hand and that's the way I feel sometimes. But in reality, that's not the way things are going to be. I have to learn some things the hard way. It's good for me to have experienced so many of the things I experienced last season. It only made me stronger."
3. Atlanta ranked No. 1 in the league in rushing offense each of the past two seasons, so it's the passing game that most comes under scrutiny, and deservedly so. But the aerial deficiencies of the past don't just begin and end with Vick and his erratic performances. A quarterback has to have receivers bail him out every so often, and other than the efforts of Pro Bowl tight end Alge Crumpler, that hasn't happened very much.
Roddy White
Wide Receiver
Atlanta Falcons
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Rec Yds TD Avg Long YAC
29 446 3 15.4 54 72
The Falcons used first-round selections on wideouts Michael Jenkins (2004) and Roddy White (2005) and have spent much of the offseason taking about the progress the two youngsters made this spring. Well, it's time for the wide receiver tandem to walk the walk.
Based on Thursday's practice, it appeared White is more prepared to step up his game. Both wideouts flashed some inconsistencies in the practice, but White definitely went after the football with more aggressiveness. A legitimate long-ball threat, White still needs to sharpen his routes and not drop as many easy balls, but he clearly exudes big-play potential. Jenkins simply doesn't fight hard enough for a ball that's contended for in the air. He seems to have good enough body control, and his lean and angular frame should allow him to get over the top of cornerbacks, but the former Ohio State star just doesn't have a polished look about him yet.
Polished or not, though, it's time for the two young receivers to shine. Crumpler is a stud, and it's no secret he's the receiver Vick has developed a comfort level with. In fact, there are times Vick has tunnel vision for his go-to tight end. The sentiments of Falcons officials is that with Crumpler on the shelf much of the offseason because of knee and shoulder surgeries, Vick had more time to work with the wide receivers and less time to rely on the tight end. Time will tell whether that pays dividends. It was surprising to see Crumpler do as much as he did Thursday, although the practice was a noncontact affair. There was one telling moment, though, that signaled Crumpler still has some work to do in rehabilitating his shoulder. He burst down the middle, Vick led him by about a yard and, rather than extend for the ball, Crumpler short-armed it. A prudent move, for sure, since he doesn't need to be laying out for passes on the first day of camp.
4. The Falcons' offensive line came under considerable fire last year, particularly for its pass protection (or lack thereof at times), and one noncontact session is hardly sufficient observation time to make a call on the maligned group.
A big question will be how well 13th-year veteran left tackle Wayne Gandy, acquired from New Orleans in a trade, adapts to the zone-blocking scheme the Falcons use. Gandy is a bigger blocker than the Atlanta staff typically prefers, and change isn't always easy at 35. Gandy is a quality player, and maybe an even better person, and the Falcons need to get a good year or two out of him while they continue to groom Frank Omiyale, a promising youngster who didn't play a snap as a rookie in 2005. The blocking scheme here demands physical flexibility and quickness, with cut blocking on the back side of running plays, and it will be interesting to see how well Gandy fares in the system. There were a few occasions Thursday when he got beat inside, but again, with no pads on, making a viable assessment is not only difficult but also unfair.
The team could really use right guard Kynan Forney, maybe the unit's one player with Pro Bowl potential, to get back to his pre-2005 form. Forney is a solid in-line blocker and a little better pass protector than people think, but he definitely slipped some last season.
Of course, what the Falcons really need, at least in the passing game, is for Vick to demonstrate better timing. Pass protection is a synergistic enterprise, and part of the reason the Falcons surrender as many sacks as they do is that Vick is always trying to make a play and holds the ball too long. When the quarterback starts scrambling around, and Vick begins doing that moonwalk move of his, it's only natural that protection breaks down. Vick has been sacked once every 10.4 drop-backs in his career. That's far too high a number for a guy who is so elusive outside the pocket.
As for run blocking, there's no reason to suspect the Falcons will slip in that area. Atlanta relies on its backs making one cut and going, and Warrick Dunn, even at 31, is marvelous in the one-cut system. Rookie Jerious Norwood, a third-round pick, had some nifty runs Thursday and could provide a speed dimension the Falcons haven't had of late. Former first-rounder T.J. Duckett looks trimmer and, heading into his contract year, might be more motivated. But the reality is that Duckett, who was dangled in trade talks in the offseason, is more a downhill runner and just might not be a good fit for this system.
5. Kicking coach Steve Hoffman, who in 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys always seemed able to unearth some placement specialist off the street who would come in and perform well for the minimum salary, might finally have run out of magic. There was nothing inspiring Thursday about Zac Derr or Tony Yelk, the two young kickers in camp, neither of whom has attempted a field goal in an NFL game.
The Falcons want to get younger at the position, to develop a kicker who will be around Atlanta for the next several years, so they opted not to re-sign 12-year veteran Todd Peterson. The wisdom of such a move is dubious, to say the least. Some people here privately talk about how Peterson's average conversion in 2005 was just 31.0 yards and he couldn't handle the kickoff chores. True enough. But the guy converted 23 of 25 field goals, and his 92.0 success rate was the fourth-best in the NFL. In a league where nearly 25 percent of the games are decided by three or fewer points, you want someone who can hit the makeable kicks, and that person probably isn't in camp here right now.
There are some office politics involved with the decision not to retain Peterson, and it's almost as if some members of the organization hold him responsible for extending the franchise's dubious streak of never having posted consecutive winning seasons because he had an overtime field goal attempt blocked at Tampa Bay in the penultimate game of 2005. Those people might be a tad shortsighted. The guess here is that Atlanta will watch Yelk and Derr kick for a few weeks in camp, then go sign a veteran free agent, someone like Paul Edinger.
PennState-JD
Footballguy
if you can, I'd love to hear how the new safeties, Crocker and Milloy, are doing.
Also, if Lavalais is any slimmer and if he will get any kind of push from Shropshire or maybe even Jackson.
Also, if Lavalais is any slimmer and if he will get any kind of push from Shropshire or maybe even Jackson.
