Nav22
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It was my second time going to camp, the first time being Oxnard in '06. My buddies and I were hooked up with VIP passes, which had its obvious perks.
Here are my comments/observations that I find slightly interesting, maybe you will too.
I'll try to hold off on straight play-by-play analysis, since I'm sure all the fanatics read all the DMN blogs by now. I'll post pics as soon as my friend sends them to me from his iPhone.
- Tank, Flozell, L. Davis... large, large, large men.
- We arrived about 15 minutes into the morning practice. When I saw the first-team offense practicing against air, my heart sank. No Flozell in sight, no Colombo in sight. Did BOTH of our OTs somehow get hurt?! :bang2: I was real antsy until I saw Todd Archer walk by. I asked him for an update and he gave me the good news... both OTs were simply given the morning off.
- PacmAdam Jones looks as good as advertised.
- Anthony Henry will still get beat deep from time to time, but he's still great underneath when he's in press coverage. He jumped inside the WR on a dig route and snatched an INT.
- Stating the obvious here, but it looks like Roy will not see the field in nickel or dime packages.
- Julius + vision + terrific receiving ability = Felix. Felix looks so smooth as a receiver... I can't wait to see what Garrett can come up with.
- Barber and Witten are terrific leaders by example. Anytime they got the ball, they took it to the endzone even after the whistle blew. It's great to have that attitude from your best players... nice to see.
- Speaking of Witten, he's awesome. After the morning practice, he started signing autographs on one end of the VIP section... my friends and I were on the opposite end, and I figured there's no way he's migrating ALL the way down to our end to sign everybody's stuff, but he did. He stayed to sign a ton of autographs after the afternoon practice too.
- Carpenter had 2 very nice plays in coverage. The first was an INT of Romo that would've been returned for a TD. Then he broke up a Romo pass in the endzone a little later. Carpenter owns Romo.
- T.O. made quite an entrance into the afternoon practice. Obviously, he was the very last player to make it out onto the field. But that wasn't it. While everyone else was already dressed when they came out, T.O. laces up his shoes and puts on his shoulder pads/jersey on in front of the crowd. Then he strolls right by the crowd (they're cheering loudly, of course) and shakes a few hands. This is going on while the rest of the team is stretching.
Oh, and that was before Rowdy circled the field on his 4x4. That loud vomiting we heard must've been coming from Miami...
- Martellus Bennett looked pretty solid to me. Found soft spots in the middle multiple times for receptions. I had read previous reports that he has looked awful, but he looked fine to me.
- Spoke to Jay Ratliff for a minute after the morning practice. I knew he had been frustrated by being shuffled to and from NT and DE, so I asked if they were planning on keeping him at DE. He said he spent the previous 3 days at DE and played NT today, so my guess is as good as his.
An older gentleman next to me nudged me and asked me who Ratliff was... I answered, "Jay Ratliff, nose tackle slash defensive end". Ratliff overheard me and continued, "Slash tight end, slash wide receiver..." :laugh2: Something tells me he's still a bit frustrated about it.
- Don't buy any talk of Hurd or Austin unseating Crayton as the #2. Crayton's just a technician out there... extremely precise routes, great hands, and he CAN beat you down the field due to his ability to sell the double move. Ask Jenkins or Scandrick.
- Got onto the field after the afternoon practice to meet a few players and get some autographs. First up were Bobby Carpenter and Zach Thomas. Zach stood around for a minute after signing just to chat with my friends and me, which isn't at all typical. Extremely cool guy. I asked him how he's picking up Wade's D, and he said it's coming along real well and sounded very confident that he'd be able to pick up where he left off on the field. His biceps are freakin' massive.
Barber nearly got away, but I shouted his name and he stopped in his tracks and was willing to sign. Very nice of him. He made sort of a grunting sound after I thanked him, which was the only thing he said at all. Yep, he's as shy as he seems.
Flozell seemed surly even while signing autographs. Like he was almost annoyed to be doing it.
- Very cool experience overall. Major props to Trent with the Dallas Cowboys who got us onto the field.
Here are my comments/observations that I find slightly interesting, maybe you will too.
I'll try to hold off on straight play-by-play analysis, since I'm sure all the fanatics read all the DMN blogs by now. I'll post pics as soon as my friend sends them to me from his iPhone.- Tank, Flozell, L. Davis... large, large, large men.
- We arrived about 15 minutes into the morning practice. When I saw the first-team offense practicing against air, my heart sank. No Flozell in sight, no Colombo in sight. Did BOTH of our OTs somehow get hurt?! :bang2: I was real antsy until I saw Todd Archer walk by. I asked him for an update and he gave me the good news... both OTs were simply given the morning off.
- PacmAdam Jones looks as good as advertised.
- Anthony Henry will still get beat deep from time to time, but he's still great underneath when he's in press coverage. He jumped inside the WR on a dig route and snatched an INT.
- Stating the obvious here, but it looks like Roy will not see the field in nickel or dime packages.
- Julius + vision + terrific receiving ability = Felix. Felix looks so smooth as a receiver... I can't wait to see what Garrett can come up with.
- Barber and Witten are terrific leaders by example. Anytime they got the ball, they took it to the endzone even after the whistle blew. It's great to have that attitude from your best players... nice to see.
- Speaking of Witten, he's awesome. After the morning practice, he started signing autographs on one end of the VIP section... my friends and I were on the opposite end, and I figured there's no way he's migrating ALL the way down to our end to sign everybody's stuff, but he did. He stayed to sign a ton of autographs after the afternoon practice too.
- Carpenter had 2 very nice plays in coverage. The first was an INT of Romo that would've been returned for a TD. Then he broke up a Romo pass in the endzone a little later. Carpenter owns Romo.
- T.O. made quite an entrance into the afternoon practice. Obviously, he was the very last player to make it out onto the field. But that wasn't it. While everyone else was already dressed when they came out, T.O. laces up his shoes and puts on his shoulder pads/jersey on in front of the crowd. Then he strolls right by the crowd (they're cheering loudly, of course) and shakes a few hands. This is going on while the rest of the team is stretching.
Oh, and that was before Rowdy circled the field on his 4x4. That loud vomiting we heard must've been coming from Miami...
- Martellus Bennett looked pretty solid to me. Found soft spots in the middle multiple times for receptions. I had read previous reports that he has looked awful, but he looked fine to me.
- Spoke to Jay Ratliff for a minute after the morning practice. I knew he had been frustrated by being shuffled to and from NT and DE, so I asked if they were planning on keeping him at DE. He said he spent the previous 3 days at DE and played NT today, so my guess is as good as his.
An older gentleman next to me nudged me and asked me who Ratliff was... I answered, "Jay Ratliff, nose tackle slash defensive end". Ratliff overheard me and continued, "Slash tight end, slash wide receiver..." :laugh2: Something tells me he's still a bit frustrated about it.
- Don't buy any talk of Hurd or Austin unseating Crayton as the #2. Crayton's just a technician out there... extremely precise routes, great hands, and he CAN beat you down the field due to his ability to sell the double move. Ask Jenkins or Scandrick.
- Got onto the field after the afternoon practice to meet a few players and get some autographs. First up were Bobby Carpenter and Zach Thomas. Zach stood around for a minute after signing just to chat with my friends and me, which isn't at all typical. Extremely cool guy. I asked him how he's picking up Wade's D, and he said it's coming along real well and sounded very confident that he'd be able to pick up where he left off on the field. His biceps are freakin' massive.
Barber nearly got away, but I shouted his name and he stopped in his tracks and was willing to sign. Very nice of him. He made sort of a grunting sound after I thanked him, which was the only thing he said at all.
Yep, he's as shy as he seems.Flozell seemed surly even while signing autographs. Like he was almost annoyed to be doing it.
- Very cool experience overall. Major props to Trent with the Dallas Cowboys who got us onto the field.
and was relying on a friend's phone... and he's a die-hard Packers fan, so he didn't take as many pics as I would have.