Anthony Borbely
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Louis Delmas is the most impressive player during Lions' first day of rookie minicamp
by Tom Kowalski | Opinion
Friday May 01, 2009, 4:50 PM
The Detroit Lions are holding a three-day minicamp for rookies and free agents. Here are some impressions of the first day of camp at the Allen Park practice facility:
3:10 p.m. -- The stretching period. This activity is taken a lot more seriously under new head coach Jim Schwartz than it was under any other Detroit head coach in recent memory. Under former head coach Rod Marinelli, who was normally a stickler for details, the stretching period was pretty loose with about half of the guys paying attention to the athletic trainers who were calling out the different stretches. Marinelli said he liked to use that time before practice for the coaches to chat it up with their players, giving encouragement, last-minute tips and advice, etc.
With Schwartz, the majority of the coaching staff stands off to the side and lets the trainers and strength and conditioning coaches run the stretch drill.
I don't see any problem with either approach. After all, these are professional players - they know how to get themselves ready for a practice. Some guys take stretching very seriously, others don't. The guys who want to stretch are going to be focused and pay attention, the guys who don't are just going to go through the motions anyway.
3:13 - Derrick Williams, the receiver from Penn State and third-round pick, is wearing No. 13. As of now, there are no numbers in the 80's available - the No. 88 isn't retired but since Charlie Sanders went into the Hall of Fame a few years ago, it's no longer distributed.
For the record - and for now - Matthew Stafford is wearing No. 9, Brandon Pettigrew is sporting No. 84, Louis Delmas has No. 26, DeAndre Levy has No. 54, Sammie Lee Hill is No. 79, Aaron Brown has No. 41, Zach Follett is wearing No. 55 and Dan Gronkowski has No. 47.
Also, it's Levy as in former Lions offensive coordinator Dave Levy, not like former Bills head coach Marv Levy.
3:20 - While the offense is going through some basic team plays, the defense has broken into individual drills. ... Sammie Lee Hill isn't THAT big. ... We're three minutes into the drill and Hill is already huffing and puffing ... My guess is that the training staff will have a discussion with him later today. ... Louis Delmas is thin, he's not small - big difference. ... He's very quick, too.
3:25 - The offense has broken into individual drills, too. .. The quarterbacks - the other guy is Justin Goltz, a tryout guy - are doing some scrambling drills. ... Watching the receivers and linebackers, it's obvious these guys haven't done much real football work in months because they're rusty and still getting their legs under them. ... A lot of technique instruction is going on at all the positions, not just in hand and foot placement, but how the coaches want the drill run.
3:36 - All right, the quarterbacks are now throwing routes to the receivers - but against air. ... It's about as thrilling as you would expect it to be. They're all short routes so nothing to get too excited about yet. ... OK, I'll give Stafford this - he gets it there in a hurry. ... Gronkowski looks as big as Pettigrew, but Pettigrew is smoother. ... Now they're throwing a couple of curl routes and you can see Stafford start to hum it a little. ... Levy and Follett, just from size and appearance, look like Jordon Dizon. They'll have to separate themselves when the pads come on. ... Throwing 10-yard out routes and Stafford is showing another good trait - he's not waiting on the receiver. He's letting it fly on time and it's arriving just after the receivers make their break. ... The receivers are dropping a lot of passes but that's not because of the velocity of the throw, it's because they're rusty.
3:50 - Water break. ... Apparently offensive line coach George Yarno doesn't believe in long water breaks. ... One-on-one passing drill ... Levy covering a back out of the backfield and he did a decent job. He's got some speed and quickness. ... Tryout cornerback Bradley Pruitt just made a sweet break and nearly intercepted a pass on an out route. ... Gronkowski against Delmas - a five-yard quick route, Delmas was all over him but Gronkowski held on ... Derrick Williams caught a nice pass on a deep crossing route, very smooth and showed some wheels after the catch. ... Stafford just missed an open Eric Fowler downfield and, while I don't know whose fault it is, Stafford's not happy.. ... Then a pass to Pettigrew was read perfectly by Delmas who stepped in front for the pick - but dropped it. He's not happy either. ... Gronkowski's a pretty good route-runner.
4:00 p.m. - Team drills ... It's going to take awhile for Delmas, when he steps up into the box, to get used to the speed at this level. That's true for all rookies making that jump. ... Stafford just threw a tight play-action, rollout route to Pettigrew. ... Another play action route to Pettigrew, who was well covered and tripped as the ball arrived, but Pettigrew still hung on. ... When he's playing deep and coming up on support, Delmas doesn't tip-toe into the action, he's on a full sprint. And it looks like he knows where he's going and knows how to get there. It's going to be interesting to see these guys in pads. ... Tryout running back Antone Smith is small (5-8, 191), but, man, is he quick. I wonder if he has any return ability. ... This Goltz kid - the tryout quarterback - doesn't look all that bad. He's not making the team, but for a rookie out of Occidental, he's doing a pretty good job.
4:10 - Four-on-five pass-rushing drills and seven-on-seven. ... Another great read by Delmas (coming up from a deep zone position) and another dropped interception. This one wasn't easy, but he still should've had it. ... Sammie Lee Hill is not impressing, but all those big guys are pretty gassed at this point. ... There goes Delmas again - jumping another route. Either this kid has great instincts or he sneaked into the offensive meeting this morning. ... Williams made a nice grab of a low-thrown ball (by Stafford) over the middle. ... OK, suggestion No. 1 - when Stafford's throwing the ball, look for it quickly. Tryout receiver Sean Bailey just took one off the facemask on a skinny post. The ball hit his mask and flew about 20 yards backward. ... The knock on Stafford was his ability on "touch'' throws, but he just dropped a nice 20-yard out route to Williams - perfect timing and touch getting it over the "under'' corner.
4:25 - This it, end of practice.
