Thursday, August 11, 2011

August 11th Camp Notes

Apparently I picked the wrong practice to go to! Yesterday's night practice was described as a physical, hard hitting practice. Today's practice resembled a Friday practice before a Sunday game, meaning it was really light. It was almost like an extended walk through. Regardless, I still had a good time as the weather was beautiful and I had an awesome seat covered by the shade provided by the roof of the press box.

Lets get on with the report:

Michael Jasper wins the first man on the field award. I hope this is an indication of his work ethic. I've seen him come out early the other days I was at camp as well.

Dave Wannstedt was one of the first few coaches out and while observing him interacting with other coaches I realized he has a certain aura to him. This guy was a prominent coach in this league before and here he is, taking on this low key role in Buffalo. It feels good having an experienced guy taking on this role.

Jasper and Chris White were playing 1 handed catch. Both men lost, for those keeping score.

At this point the rest of the team made their way out and Torell Troup came out with a huge club on his injured right hand. Maybin was extra excited to inquire about Troup's new weapon.

Roscoe came out with just a hat on (no clothes). This was weird. Just messin'. As Gailey said yesterday, Parrish will be taking it easy for the next week or so. Shawn Nelson and LB Eddins were also sitting this one out. Alex Carrington warmed up with the Linebackers again. David Nelson, Donald Jones and Marcus Easley were participating - all guys who have been dinged up the past week.

After all of the stretches and standing around, we got some 7 on 7 stuff.


  • Lee Evans had a beautiful over the shoulder catch to start the drill off.
  • Evans dropped one on the very next play.
  • Donald Jones had a nice catch over the middle.
  • Chandler brought one in.
  • Stevie Johnson with a short reception.
  • Fitz overshot Lee Evans on the next play.
  • Chandler brought in another reception.
  • Aaron Williams sighting. Williams had a nice breakup on a ball heading toward the endzone.
  • Brad Smith, lined up as receiver, caught a nice touchdown in the corner of the endzone. Crowd approved!
  • The next ball was almost picked off by Jammie Kirlew. 
  • Reggie Corner made a nice play to break up a ball coming to David Nelson
  • Kamar Aiken had a beautiful Touchdown catch from Levi Brown that got a nice response from the crowd.
  • Roosevelt caught his 2nd touchdown of the day.
  • On the other side of the field I noticed Antonio Coleman lost a one-on-one battle to Cordaro Howard.
  • Mike Caussin had a nice catch on the next play.
  • Lionel Dotson (who was being yelled at to report to some special teams duties early on and didn't hear his name over the megaphone which led to the coach going nuts) lost 2 consecutive battles to Colin Brown, #74.
  • TJ Langley beat Isaiah Thompson. Not in a fight this time.
  • Erik Pears beat Jammie Kirlew (pretty sure that's the last time I'll mention that name again) handily
  • Meanwhile, on the other side, Fitz had a beautiful toss to Stevie Johnson. Johnson made a hell of an effort to bring this one. Crowd loved it.
  • Fitz went back to #13 again but was a little bit off.
  • Fitz completed one to David Nelson.
  • Andy Levitre beat Spencer Johnson on the other side.
  • Bad throw from Fitzy to Chandler.
  • Completion to Donald Jones.
  • Fitz rounded up this drill with a completion to CJ Spiller.

Time for special teams on the other field. I decided to skip this and keep my nice, shaded seat.

Time for the real 7 on 7.

  • BIG run to the left by Fred Jackson.
  • Incompletion to Jackson on a short pass.
  • Completion to David Nelson.
  • Catch and run by CJ Spiller. Decent gain.
  • No Troup yet during this session.
  • Short dump off to David Martin for a short gain.
  • Another short completion to Jackson. Erik Pears held his own against Kelsay and kept him at bay.
  • Thigpen roll out left and completion to Marcus Easley. 
  • Troup just checked in.
  • Thigpen completion to Buster Davis. Davis looked smooth here.
  • Bad throw to Roosevelt. Naaman never had a chance.
  • Next play was the first ball I've seen Naaman drop.
  • Thigpen fakes right, goes left to Easley. Easley is looking REAL good.
  • 3rd team is out. 3 consecutive plays to Johnny White.
  • Levi threw deep to Hubbard but he under threw him by a mile. Incomplete.
  • Pass break up by DOYLE MILLER, intended for Kamar Aiken from Levi.
  • Levi completion to Easley.
  • First teamers back in.
  • Designed screen to Stevie Johnson that the D was all over.
  • Dareus dominated the next 2 plays. Would be sack on Fitz on the first one. 
  • Good long completion from Fitz to David Nelson. On this play Bell and company stuffed Chris White.
  • Rollout right, completion to Chandler. McIntyre did a good job blocking Kelsay on the rollout.
  • Another short completion to Chandler.
  • GREAT catch over the middle by Donald Jones. D Bell held up Merriman on this play. Good work, Bell.
  • Second team is back on.
  • Short run by Johnny White.
  • Thigpen with the right sideline completion to Easley.
  • Quick toss to Johnny White.
  • Run right by Johnny White stopped by MOATS. Moats was in perfect pursuit of White here.
  • Caulcrick brought in a short reception.
  • MAYBIN WATCH: Cordaro Howard stopped him here. Maybin couldn't do anything at the point of attack.
Horn blows, looks like we're going to 11 on 11.


  • Kelsay starts it off with a would-be sack on Fitz. 
  • Incomplete to Lee on the deep right side. Lee and Fitz just aren't clicking.
  • Completion to Donald Jones.
  • Spiller run sniffed out by Merriman who would have smashed Spiller if they were really hitting.
  • Fitz incompletion to Easley.
  • Another incompletion to Evans from Fitz.
  • Run by Johnny White that was stopped near the line.
  • Completion to Easley from Fitz.
  • Quick throw to Johnny White that turned into a nice play. Troup got a good push on this play.
  • Thigpen incompletion. Didn't catch the intended target.
  • The last play of the day was an incompletion to Caussin.
Camp ended a bit early today, at 4:48 pm. Like I mentioned above, this was a real light practice. No pads. No hitting.

AFTER PRACTICE:

Afterwards Thigpen was throwing to Mike Caussin who wanted some extra reps.
Chad Rinehart also did some extra drills by himself.
Fitz was talking with Easley extensively after practice, telling him where he needs to be on whatever route they were discussing.
Nelson was also catching a few balls as well.

I took a lot of video footage today. I will sort it out tomorrow so if you want to see footage from today's camp, come back here and check it out. 

I also realized that tweeting, shooting video and taking notes was a bit challenging and I didn't get to focus on certain guys as much as I hoped to. I was getting all sorts of questions on twitter about certain guys but I truthfully couldn't keep up with everything. I've decided that while the video footage is nice, it's not necessary and that focusing on certain guys is likely the more productive thing to do. I apologize if I don't say much about a certain guy.. like Alex Carrington who I observed more in warmups and less in actual play.


RANDOM NUGGETS OF INFO:

Carrington is so much bigger than last year. He appears to have kept his speed as well.....Fitz and Thigpen were doing rollout drills at one point and I noticed how well Thigpen runs and how well he throws on the run. Beautiful spiral and velocity...Merriman and Kelsay were by each others side the entire first half of practice. They were constantly communicating together and being coached up...I didn't really see much from the Defense today but then again, they've been dominating camp lately...Justin Rogers was not practicing again but was working hard on the workout bike...Cordaro Howard and Mansfield Wrotto are essentially the same guy, right? Both from Georgia Tech with similar size and weight...I tried singling out Erik Pears on a few plays and he seemed to hold his own today...Just wanted to give Spencer Johnson some props for his play so far in camp. He's so far under the radar and gets so little attention, Felton Huggins is even laughing...


Today's Standouts: Scott Chandler, Dareus, Stevie Johnson and Marcus Easley.


Excuse any typos or mistakes, I wanted to get this report up for you guys as quick as possible. It's now time to watch the Chargers v. the Seahawks in the first televised preseason game. Make sure you come back tomorrow as I'll post some videos and have some thoughts on the latest news surrounding Lee Evans.


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