Training Camp Thread

[kravix]

Figured I would start a thread for discussion about news and reports from Day 1.

I listened to the Owen Daniels inteview on 610 after the first practice. I didnt take notes, I really should have and will try to do better next week.

OD did say that when he lines up against MW if Mario gets his hands on him its all over because they are so long.

Duane Bown did practice witht he 1's, he looked pretty good according to Brook Bently. edited

AJ caught a long TD pass, and he is looking good evidently.

[Mike]

Couple of things I caught from listening to various reports.

1) There seems to a sense of urgency. Expectations are up, players are playing fast, everyone is accountable. "It feels different around here."

2) Nobody got hurt (knocking on wood). First day last year Chris T blows up a knee. Or as Emmitt would say "blowed up his knee."

3) Initial reports were that practice would run to about 10:30 but the horn sounded at 10:10 or so. That could be a sign things were crisp and Kubes was happy with the work they got in. (speculation on my part)

[papabear]

I heard they called it early too. There was a some talk f how Kubiak was going to ease into things....no or light hitting for a couple of days, afternoon practice would be more of a walkthrough/teaching session than a workout. Basically try to keep everyone healthy. With OTA's and they way most guys stay in shape there really is no need for the grueling training camps of the past. The rookies need the work and time to learn, but for the most part there is no reason to kill the guys in camp with killer workouts.

[Arky]

Some good pics here:

http://www.chron.com/sports/photogal...AMP_DAY_1.html

[kravix]

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/St...?story_id=4420

Quotes from the morning practice from the mainsite.

Biggest suprise that shouldnt have been a suprise. Chris Taylor is looking great and will start taking reps at FB.

(on if he feels if RB Chris Taylor is back to where he was and where he fits in) “I felt that way the last four or five days of OTAs. I did not feel that way initially. It looked like he was definitely not the same. But he came out of OTAs very good. He looked good this morning. We are also going to work him a little bit at fullback. So, he’s a big part of this team and he needs to have a good camp and stay healthy.”

Dejavo from last TC? And not to long ago Kubes was saying that he wasnt going to play him there at all.

[papabear]

I think with the emergence of Walter, Davis, and hopefully Jones that Kubiak is going to want to use those weapons more....meaning I expect a lot of 3 WR 1 RB sets. I really think in order to carry that 4th running back (I think it will be Taylor if healthy) that we only carry one "real" FB with Taylor and maybe somebody like Dreesen as emergency back-ups.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by kravix

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/St...?story_id=4420

Quotes from the morning practice from the mainsite.

For those that haven't figured this out yet, if you only read one link/article/item each day from camp (aside from ItB.com, of course ), make it the quote sheet on the official site.

Some other tidbits:

(Kubiak on having all his players in camp) “The only one that’s not here is (RB) Chris Brown. I’m dealing with him on a family situation and I’m expecting him to be back here tonight and on the field in the morning.”

(Kubiak on T Duane Brown signing his contract right before practice) “We got it done early this morning, but it took some time for him to sign and stuff. He’s the only guy I’ve ever seen sign a contract with his ankles taped. But we got him out here and we had a portion of the practice with him.

[Keith]

gotta run, but here is a little write-up:
http://www.inthebullseye.com/archive/2008/20080726.html

Had to leave around 30-45 mins early, so for anyone else who went, please let us know your impressions.

[Mike]

Nice takes on Gibbs. He is a bad ass equal opportunity ass chewer for certain. Cook is going to have his hands full making this team, especially of all the RB's stay healthy and CT taking snaps at FB. Nice to see Chester being coached up. Man, I think Gibbs is really going to have an profound effect on this group.

[NBT]

Yeah Abate is already gone. I think taylor will be the B/U FB this year.

[painekiller]

Sorry about this, but did not have time this morning to post much here and I only answered some questioned on TT.com. Here is some observations of the OL drills from there.

Gibbs is a beast, he would not let the players slow down during running blocking drills. 123-123-123-123, just about that quick.

Pitts looks the best he ever has. Maybe looking to make the next step.

Myers is the real deal, great technique. Surprising strong in one on one drills.

Brissel looked solid, appears to be ahead of Weary, who was getting a lot of gruff from Gibbs.

Winston is solid.

Brown appear to be stronger against the speed guys and not so ready for the power move just yet. He was getting frustrated, and showing a lot of fire. Nading was eating him up, where he had some very good reps with Mario (he also had some very bad reps with Mario, but that is because Mario is a beast). He was taken in early from practice after the trainers had tried to stretch out his legs, might be cramps.

I will be looking for Salaam to be the opening day starter.

White is ahead of Eslinger who is not very far behind. Studdard looked over matched and slow.

Frye work out at tackle and I did not see much from him because of multiple player groups.

Butler had some good reps.

Didn't have a roster and missed some of the other guys.

DL drills, Okam was surprising, he was able to get into the blocker and then quickly get separation and move to make a play. If he was to loose 10 to 15 lbs, wow. As it is he is a wow.

Okoye is quick, and after practice he was working with Jethro on beating a double team. I really like Jethro.

Zgonina is practicing like his football life is on the line, and it is. He looked very solid.

Mario............................................. ...........................................and ditto.

Sorry I missed a lot of the 7 on 9 drills and such, watched the big uglies.

BTW we are going to cut some very solid players, and that is a first.

I can already tell that my pretraining camp roster prediction will have some big changes.

I will try to get a better look at the glamour guys.

[painekiller]

I have to say something about Walker. He is not the biggest or the fastest player, the kid just seems to always find the hole and make positive runs.

He is going to be hard to cut.

[edo783]

Originally Posted by painekiller

I have to say something about Walker. He is not the biggest or the fastest player, the kid just seems to always find the hole and make positive runs.

He is going to be hard to cut.

Sounds a bit like DD how was.

[Arky]

Originally Posted by painekiller

I have to say something about Walker. He is not the biggest or the fastest player, the kid just seems to always find the hole and make positive runs.

He is going to be hard to cut.

If they cut him, somebody is going to pick up a nifty little running back. I think one of the "old guys" may get injured (and soon) which would make it moot.

There's something to say for his youth and, so far, his ability to stay healthy..... He and Slaton are just a couple of months apart in age; Darius being two months older...

[Arky]

Day 2 pics here:

http://www.chron.com/sports/photogal...AMP_DAY_2.html

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by painekiller

I have to say something about Walker. He is not the biggest or the fastest player, the kid just seems to always find the hole and make positive runs.

He is going to be hard to cut.

He looked even better today, day 3.

[painekiller]

A few notes from day 3.

Chris Brown had better pick it up or he will be pushed down the depth chart. He fumbled and had a poor day. Gibbs was in his ear on multiple occasions. Walker is making the case for him to get a roster spot, Brown isn't.

Butler stood out today, but not for good reasons, again he got a lot of attention from Gibbs, and not the good kind. False start and a few missed assignments. (Never caught Frye today).

The times I focused on Adibi in passing drills, he looked very solid.

Greenwood made a huge play against Chris Brown and got the ooohhh from the fans.

Earl Cochran had a huge play from the LDE position against the run, every defensive player got a charge from that. Jethro was pounding heads in approval from that one.

Moffit was always around the ball, and on one pass play he had Chris Taylor on a deep route and appeared to have him stride for stride, nice job.

BTW I miss my replay button when I'm at practice.

Shane Boyd is better than all the backups QBs from last season not named Sage.

Jacoby Jones had a very nice PR. Without the replay not sure he wasn't down at the start of the play, but he made some nice moves getting by the 2nd wave.

Near the end of practice it appeared that Kubiak was really tearing into the team. Today's practice seemed to be slower, and less intense as a whole. And I believe Kubiak was venting his displeasure.

I think I said it yesterday, but it bears repeating, we are going to be cutting some real football players this season, guys like Zgonina and Walker know they are on the bubble and they are playing like it.

Lastly Brown is showing a fire to succeed. He was banged up a few times and went to the side and stretched, but he always can back in when the 1st team did it's next set of reps. Once this kid gets his legs under him, he will be OK. (Do not take that to mean he is the opening day starter).

Hope to see some of you out at Tuesday mornings practice.

[nero THE zero]

Paine, I really appreciate the recaps. Keep 'em coming.

[kravix]

Here are my thoughts from Day 3 practice.

QB-

Schuab looked good. He had one real bad pass to AJ in double coverage that was just up for grabs. Another, either he overthrew a timing pass to AJ that would have been a TD or AJ was off. The rest were mstly short throws with zip and accuracy.

Sage looked solid.

I have to disagree with pk about Boyd, he didnt seem to make read progressions, was staring down his recievers, and made some piss poor throws because of it.

I didnt catch Brinks.

WR-

AJ didnt get huge seperation today, but he was still AJ and made some good cathces and there were a few times he got his seperation after Schuab had made his read there.

Walter looked great. He caught a ton of passes, although he did drop one very short. He made a great diving catch to.

Davis was getting decent seperation and showed his ability to run good routes catching some shorter passes.

David Anderson dropped a few passes, had at least one good catch but looked shakey.

I didnt catch JJ or Williams so Im not sure there.

JJ seemed to be limping around alot during ST practice. His return looked pretty decent, but there was a flag on the play that most likely would have brought it back.

RB

Green looked good. If healthy he is the best RB on the roster. He had some good runs and some bad ones.. But I think more of it was the OL or DL than him.

Brown looked bad. He had one decent play to the edge, but other than that he came up short.

Slaton looked good at times and worse at others, there were a few plays he had Kubiak on him for dancing a bit in the backfield. Little rookie things but all together very primising.

Taylor looked ok. Nothing great or bad about him.

Walker....... Wow. He looked better than any of the other RB's out there. It didnt matter if he was taking reps with the 1's, 2's, or 3's. He was just getting it done, and looked faster than any of the other RB's. I think he knows that he is a long shot and his bringing it.

OL

Our running game looked pretty sad today, most of the decent runs were outside or cut backs from the running back to go the opposite direction. I have to say that this is probabaly due to no cut blocking in practice and learning the new system.

Brown looked good and like someone else said his explosion to the second level is fast. There was one really great run play where he hit his man, drove him, released and made it to the LB by the time the RB was hitting the hole he made.

Gibbs was on fire, but I didnt hear the wonderful specifics that Kieth heard the other day. Maybe it was the music they pumped in?

I agree with pk.. Butler was struggling and wasnt doing very well.

Winston held up very well againt MW when they lined up in thier pass rush package.

DL

Just some general observations. They seemed to play the run good on the inside, but not so good on the outside.

The pass rush package was Mario, Weaver, Amobi, Colvin.. Left to rigt. They did pretty good, there were definatly a few plays that would have been sacks. There was one where Mario and Colvin colapsed the outsides at about the same time, it was pretty.

I have to say that I didnt see Mario comming off the ball any faster than last year. He still seemed like the last man moving, altough I was only really able to catch him when he was lined up a LDE. He still played great, I just didnt see the explosion off the ball I though I would.

Okam is huge.

TJ seems to have gotten over his slow meandering everywhere, and seemed pretty peppy the whole practice.

LB

I didnt really catch much of them, but it did seem like thier coverage over the middle was pretty solid, and thier presence at the line and outside was good.

Johhny Holland is intense. He is always coaching and the players seemed to respond to him very well. Most of the mistakes the LB's made they knew it right away to. The LB's dont take a single minute off, whether its indivdual drills or anything else. They were all full speed and intense.

DB

I was slightly worried about this, and after today I am still worried.

Bennet was awesome, he stuck AJ at the line and kept with him all the way down the field. He deflected anther short pass, and looked good every play I watched him.

I only watched Reeves on one play I think. He pressed AJ at the line pretty good and stayed on him ok. He didnt get burnt, but I think that had the play lasted a bit longer he may have gotten beat.

Fletcher was meh. He seemed to get beat often, and his only good play was a press on AJ at the line and keeping with him, although had the safety not been there on the play AJ would probably have caught it and taken it home.

I didnt catch much of Molden, he did seem to be very active though.

Demps played ok from what I saw.

#29, he wasnt even on the list and i didnt catch his name, had a good break up and almost int, but it was against 2-3 string guys.

All in all there were no big passes, and coverage seemed pretty good, especially with the starters. DRob and Faggins were there cheering on the other DB's and helping them the whole time. DRob did warmups and stuff with the team, he was full speed and never limped.

I agree with pk that the practice seemed some what slugginsh and today was much cooler than yesterday it seemed. I dont think Kubiak was very happy either as he seemed more and more agitaed as the practice progressed.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by kravix

Here are my thoughts from Day 3 practice.

QB-

I have to disagree with pk about Boyd, he didnt seem to make read progressions, was staring down his recievers, and made some piss poor throws because of it. He seems much more accurate than BVP ever was, I am not wanting him to be the starter or the backup just yet, but he is not a wasted roster guy like last years 3rd and 4th QBs.
I didnt catch Brinks. Boyd and Brinks are rotating the practices they work so the arms stay sharper. 1st and 2nd string QBs did not throw in all the drills, that is for the back ups to do.

#29, he wasnt even on the list and i didnt catch his name, had a good break up and almost int, but it was against 2-3 string guys. #29 is listed as #39 on the sheet,. Derrick Robinson CB from Rutgers, and he maybe playing his way into a PS position. (Good thing for him).

There is so much going on during ever second of practice, no one person can see it all. Thanks for adding to our observations.