Here’s what I pulled out of today:
— Mostly individual drills, minimal 7’s or 11’s. I get the notion of ‘safety’ but I’m sure there’s a general sense of disappointment among fans who came out for Day 1 of Training Camp.
— The offensive, defensive, and special teams units were so spread out that it forced you to pick a unit and focus strictly on them, so offense it was for me today!
— Why wear those contact helmets in shells if there’s no contact?
— Daniel Faalele is a monster in person. I know we said Ben Cleveland was a big boy last year, but I think you could hide Justin Tucker and Jordan Stout behind just one of Faalele’s legs.
— Tyler Linderbaum is noticeably stout, but his compact frame doesn’t seem to have any issues dealing with nose tackles (again, just shells today so take that with a grain of salt!) We’ll have to see how he fares when pads are on and the energy turned up.
— The debate about WR5/6 and beyond is the main one, but even within the WR2-4 range there’s a fair debate about how you’d rank their skill level. For me it goes: Tylan Wallace, James Proche, Devin Duvernay
— Wallace came into camp noticeably jacked! Did he take the same off-season training program as Lamar Jackson? His routes are smooth, burst looks great, and soft hands on the catch. I genuinely think he’ll surprise some people very soon…
— Proche just needs reps. I think he has solid WR potential and what I picked up on today was that he never seems to have wasted steps in his routes. Everything is precise, clean, and what appears to be accurate.
— Having a Pro Bowler in Duvernay as my current WR4 isn’t a knock… but I think he’s still a bit clunky and rigid in what limited drills I watched.
— WR5-8 goes like this in my book: Jaylon Moore, Shemar Bridges, Binjamin Victor, Bailey Gaither/Slade Bolden.
Moore – to me – would be a damn fine WR5. He looks the part of an NFL wideout, his routes are clean (as are his hands), and he exudes confidence. Victor on the other hand is starting to cause me to sour on him… he’s a little showboat-y at the catch point, turning simple receptions into circus catches (he leaps at everything) and it’s asking to get drilled once pads go on. He also loves a good high step and his strides are so long that one bump could do him in on any given route.
— And of course, Rashod Bateman is as advertised.
— Jackson missed some easy throws in 7-on-7 drills, but it looked more of a timing/spot issue (hard to say who that was on).
— Nick Boyle had a trio of drops in team play and given that this offense is short on wideouts and could lean heavily on Tight Ends for receptions, dropping these balls in shells without contact is not great!
— I have a rare defensive note! In the final round of 7-on-7 drills, the secondary was wildly sticky. Bateman’s potential reception being broken up by Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Stephens breaking up a pass of his own, a ball ripped out of Proche’s hands on the far sideline, and Lamar being limited to middle-of-field completions barring a single Duvernay deep ball completion was – in my opinion – more of a function of solid secondary play than receiver ineptitude.
That’s about all I can send for notes on a day where not much happened outside of individual drills, and the things that were possibly worth noting are classified information per ‘the code.’
