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OFFICIAL 2014 Training Camp & Preseason: News & Tidbits Thread (1 Viewer)

At one point, the offensive starters lined up against the defensive unit. At every defensive position, the four-deep roster was lined up, one behind the other at each position. As the offense was shifting and motioning, the defensive players went through their checks and calls. Each side of the ball only took a few steps into the play, but that’s the most important split second. By having the four-deep defense on the field, the less experienced players could mirror and learn from the players in front of them.
Ok, that's just cool. One of those things that's obvious after you see it the first time.

 
Chip Kelly is winning fans over quickly. He may or may not succeed but by God he has some innovations he is bringing to the game. He reminds me of John Gruden from an Xs and Os standpoint and I hope that's not an insult to Kelly who I believe will leave his own mark on the game. Philadelphia has an opp over the next 2-3 years to really distance themselves from the rest of this division. They're not even close yet but you can see the foundation being laid for a "system" or way of things being done.

New England

Pittsburgh

Green Bay

These teams have systems and ways of doing things from top to bottom and players come and go but the team rolls along, you can see Philadelphia on a possible track for this type of success. I'm not quite sold on everything but I also am not resisting change and adapting to their new way of things. I initially thought the DeSean Jackson departure would really hurt them and it still might take them down just a notch on the 2014 outlook but overall I think that was a sign that things are different and not all players, even players with mad skills like Jackson, if you are not 100% on board with Kelly's ways then it is hit the bricks. What other HC in the last 2 seasons who has taken over with a franchise has shown this kind of success? Philbin in Miami? LOL, Chuck Pagano in Indy? He had some help along the way. Marc Trestman? Put it another way, he may have the biggest impact as a HC hiring since Carroll and Harbaugh were gobbled up in Sea/SF a few years back.

Exciting times for Philly, they look like one of the few teams outside of the West division that can look forward to competing with Seattle and San Fran trying to make the Super Bowl. NFC is stacked.

 
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Seriously, Miami is gonna have to go and trade for someone. Who? I have no idea.

This is going from bad to worse. Pouncey is gone for half the season and possibly more, Brenner was the back up although they were allowing Shelly Smith to have a go at Center first. This is not good and anyone taking Moreno and Miller thinking they got a steal better rethink that just a bit. Worst inside trio at LG-C-RG in the NFL right now. Potentially Smith or Garner at Center with Dallas Thomas at RG, 3rd and short plus any goal line looks are gonna be tough for Miami to punch in.

Perhaps that means just a slight uptick for THill's TDs because I see no way Miami will have a solid running game, all the pressure on THill, rookie RT so we don't know if he will be upright or down 58 times again this year. David Carr sent flowers, that can't be a good sign.

 
Cotchery potentially could be a PPR machine, he led the Jets in receiving 3 straight years, last couple years had him talked about like he might be out of the league but suddenly found a niche with the Steelers. I know GO is more likely at TE to be the safety valve but there just are not many options with the Panthers on offense. Anyone actually think Carolina comes close to repeating what they did last year? I'm sure Panthers fans can sell it pretty good but I would have a hard time buying them right now as anything more than a 2nd or 3rd place finish, perhaps even dead last in the division.

NFC South is gonna be another stacked up division in the NFC IMHO. The Bucs are gonna be light years better than they showed the last couple years. Atlanta will be much stronger and has taken many steps to get better on both sides of the line. New Orleans has retooled the WRs and I believe they will be a lot more vertical this year, they have to if they want to try for a second trip to the big one.

 
I try to just let the link speak for itself but we need to start talking about Cooks and his potential impact to the team which has good pieces already with Colston(reliable), Kenny Stills(field stretcher), and here is hoping Cooks is a nice blend of both and can catch some of the balls Sproles left behind. Lot of balls to go around in the Saints passing game, usually north of 5,000 yards.

Another day, another "wow" moment for rookie Saints receiver Brandin Cooks. At some point, I'm going to have to borrow a Sean Payton term and start "de-recruiting" Cooks instead of continuing to pump him up. But that's hard to do when he keeps making eye-popping plays. This time Cooks took a screen pass from Drew Brees and shot past a couple hapless defendersfor a touchdown. Cooks also showed off some receiving skills on a nifty back-shoulder catch from Brees, among other highlights. "That was awesome. ... I think that just gives you a taste of what we have in him," Brees said of the screen play. "(Some people) are straight-line fast but not real quick or they have long strides or short-area quickness but not long speed. This guy has it all. He's got short-area quickness, great transition ability and phenomenal straight-line speed."

​Cooks is starting to sound like Randall Cobb or Percy Harving to me, not a bad thing as long as he can stay healthy. He is 5-10 as is Cobb, not sure they are the same player and perhaps Cobb is a lot better, at least right now. But give Cooks some time and it sounds like he might be special.

 
And don't forget about Toon

  • Fellow receiver Nick Toon has also continued to impress throughout training camp. The third-year pro sprung free for one deep ball and went up high to pluck another pass out of the air. It was just another typical practice for Toon this summer as he has probably racked up more catches in team drills than any receiver in camp. ... Of course Toon has looked good in training camps past, and his job this year will be to prove that it can translate onto the field. But Brees, for one, sees Toon playing more "natural" with more "confidence."
 
This just doesn't sound good.

  • The offense didn't exactly shine on a second consecutive day of padded practice. In fact, there was some noticeable drops and some mistiming between Ryan and his receivers, even with Julio Jones back on the field after a day off. "We need to execute much better than we have," Ryan said. "But the effort's there. And I think that's been encouraging."

Just feels like Ryan and the offense is never gonna fully explode like it should. They won 4 games all season with matt Ryan as their QB, a team that had made the playoffs several seasons in a row, I just find that odd. Brady had nothing much at WR and managed to rack up 11 or 12 wins. I'm not sure Ryan is up to the level of his WRs but that's me.

 
And don't forget about Toon

  • Fellow receiver Nick Toon has also continued to impress throughout training camp. The third-year pro sprung free for one deep ball and went up high to pluck another pass out of the air. It was just another typical practice for Toon this summer as he has probably racked up more catches in team drills than any receiver in camp. ... Of course Toon has looked good in training camps past, and his job this year will be to prove that it can translate onto the field. But Brees, for one, sees Toon playing more "natural" with more "confidence."
I've never been impressed with Toon outside of a flashy play here and there. Maybe the off-season has been good to him?

 
And don't forget about Toon

  • Fellow receiver Nick Toon has also continued to impress throughout training camp. The third-year pro sprung free for one deep ball and went up high to pluck another pass out of the air. It was just another typical practice for Toon this summer as he has probably racked up more catches in team drills than any receiver in camp. ... Of course Toon has looked good in training camps past, and his job this year will be to prove that it can translate onto the field. But Brees, for one, sees Toon playing more "natural" with more "confidence."
I've never been impressed with Toon outside of a flashy play here and there. Maybe the off-season has been good to him?
Flashy plays here and there are good for WRs. But I hear you if you are questioning "Can Toon be a reliable WR2 in this offense?"

My answer would be if that were true, hard to see the Saints investing a 1st at WR. I think Toon is good for depth right now for the Saints. They also have Morgan and Meachem walking around there as well I believe. I could see where Toon is probably fighting for a roster spot but he should claim the WR4/5 role here.

If I were going to guess here: Graham will have his usual silly numbers but 1,200-1,300 yds? That still will leave 3,700+ yards and the RB stable is not a receiving machine right now. Colston has missed 22 games over the last 4 seasons, he is 31 years old and missed on 1,000 yards receiving last year. I'll give him 1,000 as he has done it before but I think he might fade a little quicker than some other WRs do in their 30s, just a guess based on his injury history. He's never started all 16 games in a season, never.

2,700 left and I just want to make sure because I was surprised that NO RBs had about 150 receptions last year. And even though I am not a huge Pierre Thomas fan at this point, he did have 77 receptions last year. I would say that has to come down but why can't Thomas catch another 60-75 balls with Sproles leaving and really not much proven behind him? But if he doesn't and the Saints RBs come off 150 receptions which I believe they will, lot more balls for other receivers. I am warming up a bit to Khiry Robinson but NO always shuffles the backs in and out. 1,200 yards went to Saints RBs last season, I feel that will take a huge hit this year and I would not project it out much past 750-900 yds. I'll go high.

1,800+ yds left and you can see we have a lot of yards up for grabs from the WR2 and WR3 spots. I do feel Stills is gonna be the long ball guy and will make some big plays but probably very hit n miss when that will be. I do like Stills and his 32/640/5TD rookie performance should not be overlooked. What if Colston comes in with a few less yards this season but Stills adds a decent amount to his chip stack. So I'll give Still about 750-850 yds with room for more.

That would still leave about 1,000 yards on the table. That will be split up amongst a lot of WR3/4/5 types or back up TEs, some of those yards will fall off but there is plenty here to go around and I could see TE1, WR1/WR2 all being solid choices for starting spots on owners rosters. We might even see the WR3 spot here become viable.

 
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Seriously, Miami is gonna have to go and trade for someone. Who? I have no idea.

This is going from bad to worse. Pouncey is gone for half the season and possibly more, Brenner was the back up although they were allowing Shelly Smith to have a go at Center first. This is not good and anyone taking Moreno and Miller thinking they got a steal better rethink that just a bit. Worst inside trio at LG-C-RG in the NFL right now. Potentially Smith or Garner at Center with Dallas Thomas at RG, 3rd and short plus any goal line looks are gonna be tough.
Good posting. I'm staying away from Miami players this year.

 
SPARTANBURG — Observations from Tuesday’s Carolina Panthers training camp practice at Wofford College:

• Safety Tre Boston (sports hernia) practiced for the first time this camp but it didn’t last long. Boston was carted off at the end of practice with a groin injury and later he said it “was just a little tweak.”

• Rookie defensive end Kony Ealy struggled Tuesday. He was blocked consistently in one-on-one drills, including getting dominated by Byron Bell and later blocked to the ground by undrafted rookie Andrew Norwell.

• Receiver Tavarres King delivered the highlight of the day when he hauled in a 50-yard touchdown from Cam Newton during team drills. He beat safety Robert Lester in coverage.

• Cornerback Josh Thomas (back) practiced for the first time Tuesday after being on the non-football injury list during camp.

• There were no drops during punt return drills among Antoine Cason, Kenjon Barner and Philly Brown. The punts came off the feet of Brad Nortman and Jordan Gay and not a machine.

• Safety Colin Jones had a nice pass breakup on a hurried Derek Anderson throw. Jones has settled in nicely to his safety role after being primarily a special teams player last year.

• Kicker Graham Gano made a 60-yard field goal during practice. On the kick before it he made a 56-yarder with ease.

• Cornerback Charles Godfrey had a better day Tuesday. He batted away a Joe Webb pass intended for Brenton Bersin and then wagged his finger at Webb.

• Newton threw two interceptions Tuesday. Bene’ Benwikere and Cason each had one.

• Defensive end Wes Horton (groin) and linebacker Craig Roh (ankle) did not practice. Rivera expects them back when the team practices again Thursday.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2014/07/29/6185162/carolina-panthers-observations.html#storylink=cpy
 
Clifford said:
Funny how during the season Bridgewater was the unquestioned #1 overall pick and then he had one bad pro day and it all unravels.
100% agree. I have a couple of close friends who root for Cleveland and they were rooting for Bridgewater all season. He ends up in MN, not a lot written about him so not the pressure cooker Manziel is creating for himself. TB is getting a nice easy merge into the NFL, he is doing what he needs to in camp,he has a bright future in the NFL be it a starter or journeyman off the bench but I see him starting at some point.

 
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