KRL Camp Notes (7/29/18)

[KRL]

General Notes

- First day of players in full pads

- Practice ran 2.5 hours

- Because Sam Darnold hasn't signed yet some fans decided not to come, it was less
than a "sell out"

- There are no bikes this year so you have to search to find the players not practicing.
Today Marcus Maye, Xavier Cooper (DL) and Brandon Bryant (S) sat out

- It was what I call a "50/50" practice where the defense won some periods but then
the offense responded in other periods

Player Notes

- The competition at K between Cairo Santos and Taylor Bertolet remains even in my eyes.
But Bertolet's leg seems stronger because his kicks go through the uprights much higher
than Santos

- Strong practice for the ILB tandem of Darron Lee and Avery Williamson.  Williamson
continued his strong play but it was Lee who surprised.  He showed strong & violent hands
in 1 on 1 blocking drills and was able to take on and shed blocks as he had TFL's during
team periods

- Dimitri Flowers (FB) needs to improve his blocking if he's going to win the spot over
Lawrence Thomas.  He got exposed during 1 on 1 blocking drills

- Rashard Robinson (CB) makes way too many mistakes in his assignments.  He seems to be out
of position a lot

- Trumaine Johnson has the ability to diagnose and run the route before the WR does.  Seems
like he was always between the QB & WR before the ball was released

- Nathan Shepherd & Foley Fatukasi flashed again today as they each had a couple more TFL's

- Obum Gwachum (OLB) showed variety in his game as he was strong in run support and shared a
TFL with Shepherd.  It will be interesting to see if he shows up in games because he has
a prototypical OLB frame

- Strong day for the TE's Eric Tomlinson, Chris Herndon & Neal Sterling.  With the pads on
Tomlinson was able to display his blocking ability and his hands are extremely reliable.
Herndon & Sterling made tough catches over the middle all day and both had TD's during
a red zone period

- Lorenzo Mauldin flashed as he had a TFL and a "sack" during 11 on 11's

- Trenton Cannon had another strong practice as he displayed his speed. But more importantly
he doesn't shy away from running up the middle like some "speed guys" do.  He had a TD on a
shifty inside run during a red zone period

- Derrick Jones had another INT during 7 on 7's against Teddy Bridgewater

- Leonard Williams & Jamal Adams continued their strong play with TFL's, "sacks" and
smack talk (from Adams) 

QB

- Josh McCown was sharp as he had good chemistry with the TE's mentioned earlier.  And he
finished practice threading the needle to Sterling for a TD during a situational period.
The offense was down 16-10 with 9 seconds left from the 10 yard line

- Teddy Bridgewater was average as he struggled making connections with receivers during various
periods.  He did have a good end to practice like McCown during the situational period.  He
made a pinpoint throw to Tre McBride (WR) on corner route against double coverage for a TD

Keep An Eye On

- Parry Nickerson (CB), he has an incredible nose for the ball as it always seems to find him.
Now he needs to pick those throws off because he should have 3-4 INT's

Standouts

- Neal Sterling

- Chris Herndon

- Jamal Adams

- Darron Lee

- Leonard Williams

- Trenton Cannon
 

[Patriot Killa]

Parry is going to be a PROBLEM for the opposing QB!! 

Trenton Cannon can be a third down back. He’s trying to show the coaches he has the ability to run up the middle despite his size. They only viewed him as a KR/PR when he was drafted.  I think he can do it.

[doublel9]

Awesome, KRL. Can you somehow get inside Jackie Davidson's office and diagnose what's going on in there?

[The Crusher]

Let’s go Jamal!!!

[Patriot Killa]

Darron Lee looks damn good too. Could we all be wrong about Lee?

[Dinamite]

Thanks @KRL.  How did Shepherd look in pads. He was looking good in prior practices.

[joewilly12]

Lets go Neal Sterling!!!!!!

[Losmeister]

10 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Darron Lee looks damn good too. Could we all be wrong about Lee?

i'll eat triple servings of crow if i am wrong about lee.

until then, insert allen iverson quote

[JoJoTownsell1]

12 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Darron Lee looks damn good too. Could we all be wrong about Lee?

Lee is 23. Many first round picks this year are 22-23. 
Lee improved from his rookie year to his 2nd year. Making more impact plays. If he can take another step forward in his development then the pick will look OK.

Watching Lee play, and knowing his limitations (size) I think the hope is that he is very good playmaker (forces fumbles/makes plays in the backfield with his speed). He doesn't have the size/strength to be a stout force like a David Harris. 

 

[joewilly12]

4 minutes ago, JoJoTownsell1 said:

Lee is 23. Many first round picks this year are 22-23. 
Lee improved from his rookie year to his 2nd year. Making more impact plays. If he can take another step forward in his development then the pick will look OK.

Watching Lee play, and knowing his limitations (size) I think the hope is that he is very good playmaker (forces fumbles/makes plays in the backfield with his speed). He doesn't have the size/strength to be a stout force like a David Harris. 

 

Tyrann Mathieu maybe. 

[Patriot Killa]

3 minutes ago, JoJoTownsell1 said:

Lee is 23. Many first round picks this year are 22-23. 
Lee improved from his rookie year to his 2nd year. Making more impact plays. If he can take another step forward in his development then the pick will look OK.

Watching Lee play, and knowing his limitations (size) I think the hope is that he is very good playmaker (forces fumbles/makes plays in the backfield with his speed). He doesn't have the size/strength to be a stout force like a David Harris. 

 

He showed a lot more dominance today. Very violent hands and hit hard. Just seemed like a whole different guy. Showed a ton of intensity.

[Losmeister]

if you look atthe film you'll see he gets blown up in the hole cos his footwork is horrible. he does some weird stutter step then the FB blows him the **** up.

 

[Patriot Killa]

7 minutes ago, Losmeister said:

if you look atthe film you'll see he gets blown up in the hole cos his footwork is horrible. he does some weird stutter step then the FB blows him the **** up.

 

That’s what I’m saying all of that has seemed cleaner and he’s been powering thru easier. Idk. I’m not necessarily advocating for Lee but maybe he’ll look good.

[joewilly12]

Darron Lee looked a lot stronger when I saw him camp on Saturday looks to me like he has been hitting the gym. 

[Losmeister]

3 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

That’s what I’m saying all of that has seemed cleaner and he’s been powering thru easier. Idk. I’m not necessarily advocating for Lee but maybe he’ll look good.

right on. 

we'll just wait and see.

and pray pray pray...

[Patriot Killa]

2 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

Darron Lee looked a lot stronger when I saw him camp on Saturday looks to me like he has been hitting the gym. 

It’s said that he was putting himself through 3 intense workouts a day all of June while getting ready for camp.

[JohnJ]

13 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

He showed a lot more dominance today. Very violent hands and hit hard. Just seemed like a whole different guy. Showed a ton of intensity.

Lee has put on some muscle and he looks like he's in fantastic shape. He's bigger. You can see it in his gait even, that he feels really good, and strong.

 

People need to stop trying to pigeon hole him into a type and just let the dude mature.

 

He's not limited at all. But is a fantastic athlete and is fast and quick. He needed some time to adjust. Most guys do.

 

 

[C Mart]

52 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Parry is going to be a PROBLEM for the opposing QB!! 

Trenton Cannon can be a third down back. He’s trying to show the coaches he has the ability to run up the middle despite his size. They only viewed him as a KR/PR when he was drafted.  I think he can do it.

They did?  

[Patriot Killa]

2 minutes ago, C Mart said:

They did?  

To my knowledge, yeah. That’s how they felt about him and that’s the primary reason they drafted him. Boyer pointed him out as a potential KR/PR threat.

[C Mart]

47 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Darron Lee looks damn good too. Could we all be wrong about Lee?

We all?  Some here have mentioned he played well the 2nd half of the season. 

[Patriot Killa]

1 minute ago, C Mart said:

We all?  Some here have mentioned he played well the 2nd half of the season. 

Haven’t seen that. Few people have mentioned he had a stretch of good games last year but I have yet to see anyone say that.??‍♂️ 

And if they did say that then they would be lying. He was up and down last year but he did look good late.

[JohnJ]

Ima love when Lee wows the naysayers.

 

Just gonna pick up where he left off last year.'

 

The better the D the better the individuals will look

[Patriot Killa]

2 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

Ima love when Lee wows the naysayers.

 

Just gonna pick up where he left off last year.'

 

The better the D the better the individuals will look

Shouldn’t it be “The better the individuals, the better the D will look?”

[C Mart]

9 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Haven’t seen that. Few people have mentioned he had a stretch of good games last year but I have yet to see anyone say that.??‍♂️ 

And if they did say that then they would be lying. He was up and down last year but he did look good late.

I wasn’t lying. Was he perfect? No. But he played well the second half. Coaches even said so. The coaches in here of course just mentioned his little size. 

[JohnJ]

Just now, Patriot Killa said:

Shouldn’t it be “The better the individuals, the better the D will look?”

Yeah the more good guys the better the D, in theory. But it's a team game and until the unit is good individuals just aren't gonna be as good.

 

But individuals will shine more the better the D plays as a unit. So if this D comes together guys like Lee and Leo will start to get more love from the fans as they can fulfill their roles better. There's several young guys that should be improved that will help that. Including Adams and Maye also.

[Patriot Killa]

12 minutes ago, C Mart said:

I wasn’t lying. Was he perfect? No. But he played well the second half. Coaches even said so. The coaches in here of course just mentioned his little size. 

I don’t have an issue with his size as long as he can show dominance when bursting thru the gaps and filling his assignment. My issue is how he got caught blind in coverage a ton last year.

I’m by no means a Lee hater. I like the guy and I hope he shows more consistency this year but he was up and down a lot last season aside from his stretch of good games starting week 7.

[flgreen]

Great job again KRL

 

One of the few bright sides of the Darnold hold out (non-signing) is that we get to talk about the other young guys on the team.  Lets face it, if Darnold was in camp right now we would be more interested in how the OL reacted when Darnold farted in the huddle then how Parry Nickerson looks.  The reports on the young guys sound really good.  I'm happy we're getting them.  Thanks guys

[BroadwayBen]

1 hour ago, Patriot Killa said:

Trenton Cannon can be a third down back. He’s trying to show the coaches he has the ability to run up the middle despite his size. They only viewed him as a KR/PR when he was drafted.  I think he can do it.

Opportunity even more for the taking with McGuire expected to miss 3-6 weeks with the broken foot. 

[Drums]

What about Legget? I thought I saw his name "pass from McCown to Legget" or something like that yesterday but seems like he'll be looking for a new job soon. 

[Jetster]

18 minutes ago, C Mart said:

I wasn’t lying. Was he perfect? No. But he played well the second half. Coaches even said so. The coaches in here of course just mentioned his little size. 

Could it be like Parcells & Belichick say, "you can't judge a draft pick for 3 years often"? This INSTANT STAR stuff is rare in this league, especially in the thinking positions. RBs, you give the ball.

[Jetster]

My son who lives in Tennessee said Avery Williamson is a damn good LB. So, if Lee can take that next step, Adams seems like he's playing faster, Trumaine & Mo locking up the corners, Nickerson playing in nickel, you still have Skrine, Maye, Middleton, Brooks. Think about the Jets secondary in 2016 & 2 years later.

The depth is incredible & they seriously could be one of the better secondaries in the league. If we get something out of these no name LBs, they could be fun to watch. Bowles not going after Matheau tells me he thinks he's finally got the horses to do some crazy blitzing.

[Maxman]

2 hours ago, joewilly12 said:

Darron Lee looked a lot stronger when I saw him camp on Saturday looks to me like he has been hitting the gym. 

NFL players do that now?

[Maxman]

@KRL thank you, great stuff as always.

[Jetster]

13 hours ago, Patriot Killa said:

Parry is going to be a PROBLEM for the opposing QB!! 

Trenton Cannon can be a third down back. He’s trying to show the coaches he has the ability to run up the middle despite his size. They only viewed him as a KR/PR when he was drafted.  I think he can do it.

Imagine if Jones & Clark progress? Middleton & Brooks are damn good backups at safety. Bowles might just have the combinations he was looking for to be able to blitz from everywhere. Lee & Adams could be PITAs along the LOS before the snap, disrupting rhythm so Leo can feast. 

We need someone to emerge on that edge. Luvu, Donahue, Mauldin, Bass, Cooper, Gwacham, Hewitt, Martin, Wint? That's a lot of no names right there but whoever emerges out of this group will have a chance to get to the QB if this secondary ends up as good as they look early in camp. 

I think with a lot of young guys in year 2 & 3, playing faster with more experience, it could be a disruptive bunch. Especially with inexperienced or average QBs. Bowles & Rogers have to start showing something on defense this year or they needs to be ousted. No more excuses with the amount of money & draft picks used on defense. Nothing worse than defensive coaches with sh*tty defenses. Look what Zimmer did up in Minny. 

[JohnnyLV]

20 hours ago, Patriot Killa said:

Parry is going to be a PROBLEM for the opposing QB!! 

Trenton Cannon can be a third down back. He’s trying to show the coaches he has the ability to run up the middle despite his size. They only viewed him as a KR/PR when he was drafted.  I think he can do it.

Cannon I think can be a three down back not just a third down back. Not only is he flashing, he is showing himself to be skilled between the tackles and tough and silly fast.