TRAINING CAMP: DAY 3

NOTES AND NEWS FROM DAY THREE OF TRAINING CAMP:

We’re at Day Three at Dove Valley, boys and girls!

And the biggest news from the morning practice is Domenik Hixon’s shoulder injury. The speedy receiver landed on it during the later part of the morning session.

“I just came out and tried to make a play and landed on my shoulder. That’s football.” — Domenik Hixon 7/31/07

The injury is thought to be ‘slight,’ although he will not be returning to the field for the rest of the day. Mike Shanahan discribed the injury as a 1st degree shoulder separation. They will have a MRI done tomorrow to determine the exact injury and recovery time.

Hixon’s absence left room for David Kircus to show off his skills. He had some very acrobatic catches, but he also dropped or bobbled several passes leading Shanahan to mention his consistancy in his post-practice presser.

“He’s a little inconsistent. He drops the ball a few too many times, but he does come up with the big play. That consistency dictates whether or not you get a chance to play come game time. But David does show flashes and hopefully that consistency will improve and if it does improve he will have a chance to be on the football team.”

— Mike Shanahan 7/31/07

However, the ray of hope for Day 3 was seeing Rod Smith running (well, jogging) on the field after the second practice! Go Rod — we NEED ya buddy! :)

* Image provide by Erik Lars Bakke and Andrew Mason *

ONE-A-DAY GROUP

Veteran Players on one-a-day status included: Champ Bailey, John Lynch, Nick Ferguson, Tom Nalen, Matt Lepsis, Ebenezer Ekuban, Sam Adams and Stephen Alexander. Brandon Stokley and Adam Meadows both practiced after sitting out the morning session. Travis Henry also got the afternoon practice off.

OFFENSIVE LINE UPS: TUESDAY

Wide Outs:
With Hixon out and Brandon Stokley only practicing in the evening, David Kircus ran with the 1st Team and Brian Clark was the #3 WR.

Tight Ends:
No real change, Nate Jackson and Chad Mustard were also on the 1st Team for kick off returns.

Running Backs:
Again, no change. Travis Henry with Cecil Sapp running second. Mike Bell, Andre Hall and Young following behind.

O-line:
* 1st Team O-line was unchanged from yesterday: LT Matt Lepsis, LG Ben Hamilton, C Tom Nalen, RG Chris Kuper and RT Erik Pears. AFTERNOON: With Lepsis and Nalen sitting out the practice, Chris Myers took over at center, RT Erik Pears shifted over to the left side and Adam Meadows took Pears’ spot at RT.

DEFENSIVE LINE UPS: TUESDAY

D-line:
* 1st Team D-line stayed the same as the last couple of days: DE’s Ebenezer Ekuban and John Engelberger, DT’s Gerard Warren and Sam Adams. AFTERNOON: Elvis Dumervil lined up at right DE with Ekuban on one-a-days.

DIME PACKAGE NOTE: Ekuban and Warren were the tackles with ends Jarvis Moss and Elvis Dumervil.

Linebackers:
* With Ian Gold out with back spasms, the 1st Team LB’s were: D.D. Lewis at SAM, D.J. Williams at MIKE and Louis Green at WILL.

Secondary:
No changes here as CB’s Champ Bailey and Dre’ Bly and Safeties Nick Ferguson and John Lynch played on the 1st Team. Foxworth was their Nickel back and Cox joined the 1st Team during work on the Dime Package. Rookie Roderick Rogers did seem 2nd Team action late in the morning practice. AFTERNOON: Domonique Foxworth and Curome Cox filled in for Lynch and Ferguson in the afternoon and Karl Paymah filled in for Champ.

SPECIAL TEAMS LINE UPS: TUESDAY

Kick-Off Return Team:
On Special Teams the 1st kick-off return team looked like this: Safeties Steve Cargile & Hamza Abdullah, RB Cecil Sapp, LB’s Warrick Holdman & D.D. Lewis, TE’s Nate Jackson & Chad Mustard, DE Tim Crowder and O-lineman Chris Myers.

Returners consisted of WR Quincy Morgan and RB Mike Bell, with Kircus and WR Glenn Martinez each fielded some kicks as well. Morgan’s lead blocking was handled by Kyle Johnson, while Troy Fleming worked with Bell.

We have reports from both Kaylore and SoCal from Orange Mane, so I’ll dive right into the highlights from those…

RUNNING BACKS
The guys from Orange Mane say that Travis Henry put in another great morning practice! SoCal says that Henry impressed him today with his speed in plays to the outside.

“He has really gotten into a good groove now that he has gotten used to the tendencies of his offensive line.” — SoCal 7/31/07

Mike Bell seems to have had a better day on Tuesday according to SoCal, who says he showed ‘elusiveness in traffic,’ but still seemed to lack some of his former hole-busting power from last year. He mentions that Andre Hall and Sapp had rather quiet days. And with another dreary day for Selvin Young, Kaylore is convinced he’ll end up a victim of the first wave of cuts.

DEFENSIVE LINE:
First with the rookies. Over all a good day, as each of them were praised for both their 1-on-1 work and team drills. SoCal says that he saw Tim Crowder beat several of the O-linemen in drills today, and was named “player of the day” by Bates for his efforts. Marcus Thomas seems to also be improving. He did well in drills but struggled in the unit work in the afternoon. Jarvis Moss seems to be getting better every day as well. In the early morning Moss struggled in 9-on-9 work, but after some coaching from Bates and Johnson did much better in the afternoon.

“Jarvis Moss was very good in the drills this afternoon. He is going to be scary soon, he really will. He keeps getting better every day. In the live action, he also had one would be sack.”

— SoCal 7/31/07

As for our returning vets, Sam Adams seemed to have impressed Kaylore enough to predict him as a starter on opening day. Not to be out done, SoCal named John Engleberger to our final roster for his play so far.

“I am telling you folks I think Engleberger is going to make it. He seems to be a goods fit for this system and does a really nice job containing versus the run.”

— SoCal 7/31/07

“Adams is going to start opening day. He’s disruptive, strong, heady and stout and point of attack. He fatigues and that would be my only knock on him.”

— Kaylore 7/31/07

Elvis seems to be doing well also. Kaylore mentions that he didn’t preform all that well in individual drills, but SoCal thinks his strengths lay in full unit work.

“Dumervil did a nice job in the live action, getting two would be sacks. He really does a lot better of a job in live 11 on 11 action rather than in the 1 on 1 drills.”

— SoCal 7/31/07

OFFENSIVE LINE
The guys both agree that the O-line looked better today. Rookie Ryan Harris seemed to be doing much better and playing with more confidence, although he will still need at least a full year to develop. Ben also had a better day, and although Chris Kuper seemed to struggle during the early session, he seemed to do better later in the day. With several of the starters out Kaylore and SoCal got more looks at some of the deeper players on the roster, including Emmanuel Akah.

“Akah is playing very well and I hope the coaches notice. He’s my sleeper to make the team. He has good size and strength and has consistently been pretty decent in all areas. If he can play in field goals he could earn a spot, maybe.”

— Kaylore 7/31/07

On the flip side, SoCal mentioned that Adam Meadows looked bad today.

“Meadows is really struggling this camp and if we any quality depth whatsoever at tackle, he would be a candidate for early cuts. Jarvis Moss had one play where his first step just made Adam Meadows look stupid.’

SoCal 7/31/07

WIDE RECEIVERS AND TIGHT ENDS:
With Domenik Hixon injury and Walker off in the afternoon, several of the other WR got to display their skills. David Kircus took advantage of this and made some great plays including jukes on both John Lynch and Dre Bly (can anyone say punt returner?).

But the story of camp so far is Brandon Stokley!!!

“Stokley stepped up and like yesterday, really made a number of impressive plays, including a tough catch in traffic along the sideline. Right now there is little doubt that until Marshall and/or Smith return and prove themselves, Stokley has a stranglehold on the No. 2 position. He has really earned it and has been very impressive the last two days. His recovery has really been great.”

— SoCal 7/31/07

As for the Tightends, the unit struggled a bit according to our men on the scene. All of them dropped passes (Alexander actually dropped three). Dan Graham was also slow to start today, but came on strong in the afternoon hooking up on a several passes from Cutler. Nate Jackson also stood out today.

QUARTERBACKS:
Jay Cutler started out rough this morning, lacking the spectacular accuracy and timing he has displayed so far in camp. However, by the afternoon, thing were back to normal and Jay Cutler rocked the house again!

Of note is the building of chemistry between Daniel Graham and Cutler. In the afternoon, the two hooked up several times and that seemed to get both of them going. Also, the addition of Stokley into the afternoon lineup didn’t hurt! :)

“Jay Cutler returned to form this afternoon. Like Sunday and Monday, Cutler was very sharp this afternoon, and not just on dump-offs or underneath throws. He hit on a large number of intermediate throws and was very accurate the entire afternoon.”

— SoCal 7/31/07

Patrick Ramsey seemed to show signs of improvement today. Neither of the guys went as far as to say he looked good, but I think an “OK” is movement in the right direction.

“(Ramsey) played better today. His throws are more on time and he is settling down in the pocket. He’s getting better at the deep ball and his check downs are more consistent. He still made some goofball throws, but I think he’s starting to grow a bit. It is my hope that maybe he can stick here and take some coaching and grow for a bit as player rather than bouncing from system to system where no substantive progress is made.”

— Kaylore 7/31/07

SECONDARY:
Champ and Bly both had great days — surprise! But Karl Paymah really turned it up the last couple of days and he too is getting noticed.

“Keep an eye on him. He’s really thriving in the new style of defense and he’s much more confident than he was in previous years. His size and athleticism are impressive and he was making several plays in drills and scrimmages. He’s very physical and very good at jamming.”

— Kaylore 7/31/07

Foxworth played well today according to the guys and so did Hamza Abdullah and Curome Cox.

“Abdullah lays the wood when he hits and has shown great pursuit in run drills. I like how he warps up and tries to get a good pop now and again. His coverage is pretty good too.

Cox is more of a coverage guy, but he plays very physical and is comfortable in a zone, which is helpful. He’s very aggressive at making plays on the ball and often tries to punch the ball out of the ball carrier’s hand. His speed is pretty good too and he doesn’t bite on play action too much.”

— Kaylore 7/31/07

SPECIAL TEAMS:
Of note here, it seems that even though Todd Sauerbrun has lead the league in punting yardage, he also takes to coaching well. Kaylore reports that Scott O’Brien worked with him on better foot placement, and that Todd immediately integrated it into his game play — I like that!