A few more notes from the morning practice: (did anybody catch the afternoon session?)
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Jennings, Norwood, Chandler Williams and CJ Gaddis practiced catching and returning punts.
The team did a few drills and then gathered together on the far field for stretching exercises. That struck me as odd. I expected the stretching to come before anything else.
The offensive line was like musical chairs. From one drill to the next, there was no telling who would play together. Never mind first string, second string, etc. It didn't look like there were designated units at all. It was as if someone just tagged guys on the spur of the moment and sent them in.
One early drill had Clabo and Ojinnaka back at their tackle positions from the end of last season, with McClure as the center, and Blalock at one guard spot. But the other guard spot was filled by Kurt Quarterman rather than either of Forney or Batiste. Quarterman was then right back out with the next group, which also included Doug Datish and Michael Butterworth.
The first two sets of wide receiver drills were basic toss and catch, with the WRs lined up to go out for passes one at a time. The RBs were off running drills separately, and the TEs were working separately from the wideouts. Shockley threw to the TEs while the other three QBs took turns throwing to the WRs.
One twist that I liked was that after the WRs caught the ball, they ran with it to the end of another line and then threw it back to an assistant near the QBs. They weren't just giving the ball back. They were running to a designated spot and throwing 20 or 30 yard passes to the assistant. No doubt Mike Mularkey was behind that. We'll see some trick plays with WRs throwing the ball this year, and Inspector Gadget has them working on their passing skills from the very first practice.
At that time the defensive guys on the far field, working in groups and too far away to tell how well any specific players were doing. The offensive linemen were at the back end of that field, receiving instruction from coaches and occasionally blocking each other.
The next drills had the LBs and DBs coming over to the near field to cover the receivers in one on one drills. The quarterbacks were right around the 40 yard lines, with guys going out for passes towards each of the end zones. Harrington and Shockley were throwing to the running backs and TEs on one side, while Redman and Ryan threw to the wideouts on the other side. Redman and Harrington switched places later on.
I wrote down as many of the matchups as I could:
Milloy covered Hartsock. Brooking covered Mughelli. (?) covered Finneran. Boley covered Norwood. Irons covered Jennings. Chevis Jackson covered Harry Douglas and made a strong play to break up the pass. Nick Turnbull covered TE George Cooper. Tony Taylor covered Snelling. Fontenot covered Chandler Williams. Hutchins covered Horn. Antoine Harris covered Zinger. Decoud covered TE Jason Rader, who dropped the pass. Earl Everett covered Thomas Brown, who also dropped the pass. Grimes covered Weems, cutting in front and interecepting Redman's pass. Stone covered Hartsock. Milloy covered Zinger, who made a nice catch. Grimes covered Roddy White, who also made a nice catch. Chevis Jackson covered Jenkins. Travis Williams covered Norwood, who made a great catch. Houston covered an unknown WR (I wrote down #17 - if anyone catches Sunday's practices, look for a name). Hutchins covered Harry Douglas, who made a great break to get separation and then caught a deep pass over the shoulder. In a game, that would have gone for a touchdown. The horn sounded with Finneran up next.
In the drills that I saw with the DTs, Kindal Moorehead was the one working with Rashad Moore. After seeing Moore on the practice field, there is no doubt in my mind that Smith has him in mind for the nose tackle spot. He is just plain BIG. Montavious Stanley worked with Babineaux. I didn't catch who Tim Anderson worked with, but I'd guess it was David Patterson. I also didn't catch if the DEs were working in designated combinations.
On the DB units, Houston and Grimes worked together with Coleman and Milloy. David Irons, Chevis Jackson, Daren Stone and Antoine Harris made up a second unit, while Jimmy Williams, CJ Gaddis, Wilrey Fontenot and Glenn Sharpe made up a third unit. Von Hutchins played nickel defender with the first group. Nick Turnbull sometimes replaced CJ Gaddis with the third unit. I didn't catch who else may have played nickel or what group DJ Wolfe worked with.
Coach Smith had said on a radio spot that the team would do some 7 on 7 drills (really 6 on 7 - leaving out the linemen on both sides). He took it a step beyond that - the practice ended with full 11 on 11 action that had some interesting groupings.
One lineup that I noticed in particular featured the "unknown" guys who weren't listed on the roster. Matt Ryan was at quarterback, with Stepanovich as the center, Sam Baker and Ben Wilkerson (!) as the tackles, D'Anthony Batiste and Harvey Dahl (!) as the guards, Zinger at TE, Corey McIntyre at fullback, and Jennings and Landry (the unknown #5) as the wide receivers. The play was a handoff to the halfback, Hall (the unknown #20), who slipped through the line like he was invisible. I know nothing about him, but he's a little guy - noticeably shorter than Adam Jennings, who was the first one over to congratulate him on his good run.
The defense on that play had Moorehead and Moore at the DT spots, Simon Fraser and Willie Evans as the ends, Lofton, Nicholas and Travis Williams as the LBs, and Jimmy Williams, Turnbull, Fontenot and Sharpe as the DBs.
On both sides of the ball it was an interesting combination of a few projected starters in with a mix of key backups and hopeful prospects. Many of the other plays had that kind of mixture as well.
