Missed the first open practice as I was in Atlanta, so I was really anxious to see this one. Got there early, just after OrangeXtreme and LurkerJohn. As HC Scott Shafer was about to take to the practice field, he noticed us, and walked over to share our hands and thank us for coming to practice. Cool dude.
Before I get into this, the usual disclaimer. This represents one day of practice. Coaches experiment, players get hurt, people have good and bad days. Take what is written with a grain of salt...there remains a lot of football to be played before the opener in MetLife against the Nittany Lions on August 31st.
The players got to the practice field early. First drill was a punting drill. No rush, Fisher vs Riley. They have been close for more than a year and remain that way. On this day, I think Riley was better. His height and length give him a small advantage over Fisher when both connect well. Fisher remains the quicker to get rid of the ball. I think that continues to give him a small advantage...getting a punt blocked is a huge deal. But Riley appears to have improved here somewhat. At the least, there is quality depth here.
Early in practice, there were some 7 on 7 passing drills. TH continues to get the snaps with the North unit, Loeb and Kinder take the rest. The breakdown might be 50%, 30%, 20%. Thought all the QBs struggled some here. It was cold and windy out and their arms might have been a little tight, but...not an impressive start. Thought Hunt was a little better than Loeb, who was a little better than Kinder. On intangibles, Hunt looks the most confident...has the best body language.
After that they ran some red zone scrimmage situations, then some 'normal' yardage situations. Loeb had a long TD pass to AC III, Hunt made some nice tough passes into tight coverage and was the only QB to break into the open field on a run. Kinder had some nice passes, though most were short. Loeb threw his short and medium passes well but was noticeably bad on longer passes, mostly overthrowing them. Kinder and Loeb are playing with the South unit or worse almost exclusively, which doesn't help them look good.
At RB, Smith brought off a long run for a TD, seemed to get at least a 10 yard gain everytime he touched the ball and looked outstanding. His lower body is huge now, getting to Delone Carter like status. PTG was in sweats, out all spring. He spent parts of the afternoon visiting the young RBs, gently encouraging them. AB was also in sweats. Did not see him dance or leap over high buildings on this day. AAM didn't get a lot of reps, was hit hard by several people in one violent set of collisions. McFarland got almost no reps in the scrimmage sections but looked good catching the ball in 7 on 7 drills. GM is getting a lot of work and was again impressive. He has been busy in the weight room. Might have the biggest arms of any of the skill position players. Showed the ability to run over players, run around them and make people miss. He is impressive.
At WR, Jerrod West looks like the #1 receiver by a large margin. Strong, physical, showed good hands, and he is a big target. After that is Chris Clark, who looks like our quickest WR. Gets open consistently and catches it consistently. Still really skinny. The 3rd best WR today was Adrian Flemming, who has size and some speed. AC III had the long TD and several other nice receptions. Dropped one ball. Looks noticably stronger this spring. Overall quite impressive.
If the season started today, I think those would be our top 4 WRs. Kobena got a lot of reps but didn't do much with them. Funderburk and Hale barely played. Hale looked like he got banged up during the practice. My guess is that given the depth at RB and the lack of depth at WR, AB will get a lot of snaps here in the fall. Was disappointed in the lack of PT/lack of production out of Funderburk. Maybe he just wasn't feeling well.
Wales looks like he is far and away our best TE. Parris had a couple good catches. Sugar Bear is still out but he was doing laps around the practice field and ran well. No sign of a limp...I think things should be fine for him in the fall.
OL depth chart:
OT Hickey | (couldn't see)
OG Robinson | (couldn't see)
C McPherson | Emerich
OG Trudo | Knapp
OT Foy | Anyaegbunam
Foy didn't exactly look dominant out there. Robinson looked like he belonged out there, was mauling and holding his own with Macky and Sean.
The starters look set in stone. Nobody is getting reps with the North unit but them.
Jacob Green looks like he might be our best option at H back. Good hands and pretty quick feet as well.
On defense, the big news is Josh Kirkland is working with the North unit at OLB, along with Lynch and Spruill. Vigille has been relegated to the South unit with Arcinega and Coker. Arcinega and Coker both run well and made some nice plays. Kirkland is a legit 6'2 but is really light for a LB. Listed at 198, might not be that. The reason he is playing is pretty clear, he can fly. They used him like they used Davis last year, he blitzed a lot and did some damage in this capacity. But Josh was all over the field and had an excellent practice.
Defense Depth Chart:
DE: Welsh | Albrecht (Walk on from Hudson Falls)
DT: Bromley | Raymon
NT: Jones | Sloan
DE: Robinson | Coleman
SAM: Lynch | Coker
MIKE: Spruill | Arcinega
WILL: Kirkland | Vigille
CB: Anderson | Reddish
CB: Lyn | Whigham
SS: Eskridge | Mims (walk on from Nottingham)/Desir
FS: Wilkes | Morgan
Manley got some PT on the DL as well.
Welsh looked like our best pass rusher at DL. He has a way of getting an angle on the OT.
Eskridge had a nice pick in the endzone, stepping in front of a pass from TH.
Wilkes appears to have the FS spot locked up, no reps for Morgan with the North unit.
Mims is working with the South unit at SS a lot...I think he had more reps there than Desir did, which is shocking to me.
Reddish gets his share of reps with the North unit; the Big 3 CBs remain just that.
Zian Jones might be the biggest surprise of the spring on the DL. Looks good. Consistently. Really active, in the backfield a lot. Sloan is pretty badly out of shape right now, has to knock some pounds off to get in the rotation. Will be tough for him to beat out Eric Crume, who spent much of practice jogging around the practice field. He is a very large man built in the shape of a square.
Regarding special teams, besides the punters, who I have already talked about, Sam Rodgers remains the long snapper. He had 3 straight bad ones to start off the live punting drill, but then was fine. Maybe his hands were just cold? No idea. But I have never seen him struggle like that.
At placekicker, Ross Krautman got almost all the chances to kick in red zone drills. And he delivered on them, kicking the ball high and straight. Except for the first one, which was blocked by Keon Lyn. Pretty sure it was bad blocking that led to the block. Young Norton, who incidentally was the first player to make it back to the locker room at the end of practice, missed the one chance he had wide right. So Ross looks to be in control of this position as of right now.
Lots of blitzing by the defense. They are playing really aggressively. I would love to see Arcinega, Spruill and Davis end up with the starting jobs at LB, with Spruill being moved to the SAM position. That would be great grouping of athletes to pair together. Perhaps it will happen.
The offense is doing a lot of work on running plays and short passes. Not much being done with medium or long passes. I hope the lack of sophistication with the passing game is more about not being willing to show much in a public setting than about being willing to take chances and throw the ball downfield.
We will find out seen enough.
Overall, I can say the defense is fast and athletic, the offense looks like they will be good at running the ball and the passing game looks like it is going to take a step backwards (for a variety of reasons). Will know a lot more after next week. Man, I wish all the players who are out of the spring with injuries were around to play...
