Mr. Scot
The Voice of Reason
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- Jul 26, 2003
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Early start this year. Prior camps have gotten started right around 10am. This year, I pulled up around 9:40 and the field was already full of players.
First sight I saw when I walked up to the entrance was Claussen running up the sidewalk to the field. Also saw LaFell and others of our new draftees, but Claussen was the only one booking it.
Initial observations: Ed Johnson is round, really round. Similarly, but better, Tank Tyler lives up to his name. Pike is tall, and has a buzz cut. As Kenny Moore was walking up, one of the fans said “Go Independence” and elicited a smile. Also noticed John Kasay walking up talking with trainer Ryan Vermillion. Don’t know that I’d read much into that, but it was noteworthy. The rest of the special teams crew rolled up later. Next to the other players, they look like members of Best Buy’s “Geek Squad”.
Marty Hurney was out early. A little after I got there, new team president Danny Morrison came out and made a real effort to engage the fans who were outside the fences (never recall the prior team pres. even so much as acknowledging the fans). I got the chance to say hello and he made sure I had a copy of the roster sheet (I already had one printed from online, but his was better). He seems to be taking his job seriously and really wants to spark some excitement in the team. Lots of credit to him.
Fair number of people out to watch, and oddly a lot of non-player people were inside the fence today. Someone mentioned they were people who had paid to be part of some special media thing. I don’t know the full deal there.
At the last camp, I remember noting how odd it was to not see Nick Goings out there. That feeling was multiplied this season. No Delhomme, no Peppers, no Hoover, and no Muhammad. Kemo, Lewis and of course, Harris, all gone too, but none of them were as longstanding as those four.
It really hit me just how different things are now the first time I heard Matt Moore call out “52 is the Mike”. That first call was always Delhomme’s voice before. No longer.
It’s worth noting too that I’ve heard Moore calling out the Mike LB before, but he sounded different doing it this year; louder, more authoritative. Perhaps he’s really taken it to heart that this is his team, now. If so, that’s a good thing. He’ll need that mindset if he’s going to succeed as a signal caller.
Speaking of voices, Jeff Davidson sounded gruff today too. Jerry Simmons was loud too, but that’s nothing new.
Last year, one of the first things I heard was Ron Meeks yelling out “Where’s Richard Marshall? Where’s Richard Marshall? Is he running?” Meeks didn’t bother asking where Marshall was today.
From departures to returns. Early on caught sight of Thomas Davis running around with the defense. Just drills, mind you, but he didn’t look like someone who’d suffered a major injury. Gross, Otah, Williams and Stewart were all on the field but not taking part. Stewart didn’t even stretch. Corvey Irvin was taking part in DL drills but had to stop at one point and get stretched out by a trainer.
One new pickup: A receiver named Trent Guy out of Louisville. He wasn’t on the roster I had printed so I had to look him up later. Smallish type, possibly another return option though I didn’t see him get work there. Apparently, he’s a Charlotte kid.
Number reassignments: Sentimentality over Na’il Diggs didn’t last so long. Recent acquisition Jamar Williams got his old #53. Armanti Edwards has Ryne Robinson’s #10. Undrafted guard Noah Franklin is sporting Kris Jenkins’ old 77 (someone had that last year, but I forget who). Newly signed RB Daniel Porter gets Goings’ old #37. Still no 17, 45, 87 or 90.
Speaking of numbers, I heard someone say today that Jerry Richardson won’t allow any player to wear the number “1”. I vaguely remember hearing something like that before. Given that there’s never been a “1” on roster that I can recall, sounds like it’s probably true.
Other changes from last year: Everette Brown’s previously written about increase in size is indeed noticeable. I could swear Tony Fiammetta actually looks thinner. I remember thinking for a second that Hilee Taylor looked really different. Then I remembered Taylor had changed numbers and it was actually Eric Moore I was seeing.
First group on offensive drills: Moore at QB, Sutton at runningback, Smith and Jarrett at receiver. O-Line consisted, right to left, of Garry Williams, Travelle Wharton, Ryan Kalil, Geoff Schwartz and Rob Petitti. Interesting that they’re trying Schwartz at guard, and ahead of Bernadeau. Still, it’s just minicamp. Barnidge was also the first TE in, same as last year, but it didn’t mean anything.
Noted that more than a few times today, the offense practiced an end around to Smitty. Not a new play in the arsenal, mind you, but they seemed to like using it today.
Watching the Quarterbacks: Moore’s first pass of the day was completed to Steve Smith. The throw was just a hair behind, but Smith adjusted well. After that though, I can really only recall seeing one pass I thought was a little off. Overall, Moore looked pretty good. He was clearly in charge, even stopping one drill before it started because he saw the outside guys were lined up wrong. His play action fakes looked good. And when he passes, the football comes out of his hands fast, very fast. Scherer has clearly preached “quick release” to Moore a lot. I noticed it last year, and Moore hasn’t forgotten.
Cantwell ran the second offensive group and was the only QB I saw tossing passes back and forth when others were running drills. Moore spent his spare time helmet off, gabbing with coach Rip Scherer. Claussen was third, Pike fourth. Don’t know how long that rotation order will last. Gantt believes Cantwell has a better chance of sticking than most. He could be right, but with that said, you could probably get away with stashing a Hunter Cantwell on the practice squad. I’m not so sure that’s true of Tony Pike.
Speaking of Pike, it’s really weird to see a #16 out there quarterbacking again. Hope he has better luck than the last guy who wore it. He had an up and down day. Some good moments, some bad. One pass to new receiver Trent Guy was waaaaayyyy off target.
Claussen’s first pass of the day was a perfect throw…right to defensive back Marcus Walker. Could have been a clean pick but I’m not sure Walker saw it coming. The ball hit him right in the bread basket and he dropped it. Welcome to the NFL, young fella.
Does that mean Claussen looked bad? No. It’s been said that he has near-perfect mechanics as a passer, and watching him throw, you’d believe it. He had his fair share of completions, including a pretty nice one to Jeff King later on. Likewise, Pike had his moments. Both, however, were clearly having to adjust to the speed of the NFL. Claussen held the ball too long more than once, as did Pike (one time noticeably so). It’ll take reps to get better, but camp is still a ways away.
Barking out signals, Claussen actually sounded a little quiet at first. Someone likely mentioned it to him, as by the end of practice he was a lot louder and sounded more commanding. Good sign, as it points to his being receptive to suggestion and capable of adjustment. Pike was fairly even from start to finish. Cantwell sounded decent, but not as good as Moore.
Summing it all up: Of the quarterbacks today, Matt Moore easily looked the best. It wasn’t even a contest. Realistically speaking though, anyone who expected it to be one on the first day of minicamp probably wasn’t thinking it through. Moore may be a new starter, but this is his fourth NFL season. Claussen and Pike are rookies at their first minicamp, and when you watched them, they looked like rookies at their first minicamp. Neither Claussen nor Pike can rightly be judged solely by what they did today. Time will tell the tale.
Also on the rookie offense front, Armanti Edwards and Brandon LaFell worked in the third set of receivers (second was Kenny Moore and Charley Martin). Both guys looked decent. For all the talk about LaFell being not as fast as others, his game speed looks pretty good (even for just camp). He’s very long, lean and lanky. Saw him catch a pass from Hunter Cantwell on an outside route. Didn’t notice him as much after that, but my attention was spread around a lot.
As to Edwards, his dreads are so long that you can only make out “Ed” on the back of his jersey. Running routes, he’s fast, and seems to have taken up Steve Smith’s habit of always going full speed no matter what. Saw a few passes thrown his way, and watched him catching punts from Baker. For the record, I didn’t see a football that came his direction hit the ground. If he dropped anything, I missed it.
What to make of Dwayne Jarrett? Saw him make a good catch early in 7 on 7, then later on not even look back for the ball in a passing drill. Once or twice, I remember looking at him and wondering if he really wanted to be there. If he wants to start (or for that matter, stick on the roster) he’ll need to show something that, to this point, he’s not yet known for: that being consistent effort. Not sure I saw that today, but in fairness I didn’t make a special effort to watch him.
General offensive notes: More short passing than long today. Jeff King had a lot of catches and looked good. I saw him pull down passes from Moore, Cantwell and Claussen. He looks a little faster than before. Tyrell Sutton is very elusive when he runs. Mike Goodson less so, despite his reputation (sometimes I wonder how hard he’s trying). New rookie David Gettis also had some nice moves after catching a pass today. Undrafted guy Andrew George runs some nice routes, as he should wearing # 85.
First sight I saw when I walked up to the entrance was Claussen running up the sidewalk to the field. Also saw LaFell and others of our new draftees, but Claussen was the only one booking it.
Initial observations: Ed Johnson is round, really round. Similarly, but better, Tank Tyler lives up to his name. Pike is tall, and has a buzz cut. As Kenny Moore was walking up, one of the fans said “Go Independence” and elicited a smile. Also noticed John Kasay walking up talking with trainer Ryan Vermillion. Don’t know that I’d read much into that, but it was noteworthy. The rest of the special teams crew rolled up later. Next to the other players, they look like members of Best Buy’s “Geek Squad”.
Marty Hurney was out early. A little after I got there, new team president Danny Morrison came out and made a real effort to engage the fans who were outside the fences (never recall the prior team pres. even so much as acknowledging the fans). I got the chance to say hello and he made sure I had a copy of the roster sheet (I already had one printed from online, but his was better). He seems to be taking his job seriously and really wants to spark some excitement in the team. Lots of credit to him.
Fair number of people out to watch, and oddly a lot of non-player people were inside the fence today. Someone mentioned they were people who had paid to be part of some special media thing. I don’t know the full deal there.
At the last camp, I remember noting how odd it was to not see Nick Goings out there. That feeling was multiplied this season. No Delhomme, no Peppers, no Hoover, and no Muhammad. Kemo, Lewis and of course, Harris, all gone too, but none of them were as longstanding as those four.
It really hit me just how different things are now the first time I heard Matt Moore call out “52 is the Mike”. That first call was always Delhomme’s voice before. No longer.
It’s worth noting too that I’ve heard Moore calling out the Mike LB before, but he sounded different doing it this year; louder, more authoritative. Perhaps he’s really taken it to heart that this is his team, now. If so, that’s a good thing. He’ll need that mindset if he’s going to succeed as a signal caller.
Speaking of voices, Jeff Davidson sounded gruff today too. Jerry Simmons was loud too, but that’s nothing new.
Last year, one of the first things I heard was Ron Meeks yelling out “Where’s Richard Marshall? Where’s Richard Marshall? Is he running?” Meeks didn’t bother asking where Marshall was today.
From departures to returns. Early on caught sight of Thomas Davis running around with the defense. Just drills, mind you, but he didn’t look like someone who’d suffered a major injury. Gross, Otah, Williams and Stewart were all on the field but not taking part. Stewart didn’t even stretch. Corvey Irvin was taking part in DL drills but had to stop at one point and get stretched out by a trainer.
One new pickup: A receiver named Trent Guy out of Louisville. He wasn’t on the roster I had printed so I had to look him up later. Smallish type, possibly another return option though I didn’t see him get work there. Apparently, he’s a Charlotte kid.
Number reassignments: Sentimentality over Na’il Diggs didn’t last so long. Recent acquisition Jamar Williams got his old #53. Armanti Edwards has Ryne Robinson’s #10. Undrafted guard Noah Franklin is sporting Kris Jenkins’ old 77 (someone had that last year, but I forget who). Newly signed RB Daniel Porter gets Goings’ old #37. Still no 17, 45, 87 or 90.
Speaking of numbers, I heard someone say today that Jerry Richardson won’t allow any player to wear the number “1”. I vaguely remember hearing something like that before. Given that there’s never been a “1” on roster that I can recall, sounds like it’s probably true.
Other changes from last year: Everette Brown’s previously written about increase in size is indeed noticeable. I could swear Tony Fiammetta actually looks thinner. I remember thinking for a second that Hilee Taylor looked really different. Then I remembered Taylor had changed numbers and it was actually Eric Moore I was seeing.
First group on offensive drills: Moore at QB, Sutton at runningback, Smith and Jarrett at receiver. O-Line consisted, right to left, of Garry Williams, Travelle Wharton, Ryan Kalil, Geoff Schwartz and Rob Petitti. Interesting that they’re trying Schwartz at guard, and ahead of Bernadeau. Still, it’s just minicamp. Barnidge was also the first TE in, same as last year, but it didn’t mean anything.
Noted that more than a few times today, the offense practiced an end around to Smitty. Not a new play in the arsenal, mind you, but they seemed to like using it today.
Watching the Quarterbacks: Moore’s first pass of the day was completed to Steve Smith. The throw was just a hair behind, but Smith adjusted well. After that though, I can really only recall seeing one pass I thought was a little off. Overall, Moore looked pretty good. He was clearly in charge, even stopping one drill before it started because he saw the outside guys were lined up wrong. His play action fakes looked good. And when he passes, the football comes out of his hands fast, very fast. Scherer has clearly preached “quick release” to Moore a lot. I noticed it last year, and Moore hasn’t forgotten.
Cantwell ran the second offensive group and was the only QB I saw tossing passes back and forth when others were running drills. Moore spent his spare time helmet off, gabbing with coach Rip Scherer. Claussen was third, Pike fourth. Don’t know how long that rotation order will last. Gantt believes Cantwell has a better chance of sticking than most. He could be right, but with that said, you could probably get away with stashing a Hunter Cantwell on the practice squad. I’m not so sure that’s true of Tony Pike.
Speaking of Pike, it’s really weird to see a #16 out there quarterbacking again. Hope he has better luck than the last guy who wore it. He had an up and down day. Some good moments, some bad. One pass to new receiver Trent Guy was waaaaayyyy off target.
Claussen’s first pass of the day was a perfect throw…right to defensive back Marcus Walker. Could have been a clean pick but I’m not sure Walker saw it coming. The ball hit him right in the bread basket and he dropped it. Welcome to the NFL, young fella.
Does that mean Claussen looked bad? No. It’s been said that he has near-perfect mechanics as a passer, and watching him throw, you’d believe it. He had his fair share of completions, including a pretty nice one to Jeff King later on. Likewise, Pike had his moments. Both, however, were clearly having to adjust to the speed of the NFL. Claussen held the ball too long more than once, as did Pike (one time noticeably so). It’ll take reps to get better, but camp is still a ways away.
Barking out signals, Claussen actually sounded a little quiet at first. Someone likely mentioned it to him, as by the end of practice he was a lot louder and sounded more commanding. Good sign, as it points to his being receptive to suggestion and capable of adjustment. Pike was fairly even from start to finish. Cantwell sounded decent, but not as good as Moore.
Summing it all up: Of the quarterbacks today, Matt Moore easily looked the best. It wasn’t even a contest. Realistically speaking though, anyone who expected it to be one on the first day of minicamp probably wasn’t thinking it through. Moore may be a new starter, but this is his fourth NFL season. Claussen and Pike are rookies at their first minicamp, and when you watched them, they looked like rookies at their first minicamp. Neither Claussen nor Pike can rightly be judged solely by what they did today. Time will tell the tale.
Also on the rookie offense front, Armanti Edwards and Brandon LaFell worked in the third set of receivers (second was Kenny Moore and Charley Martin). Both guys looked decent. For all the talk about LaFell being not as fast as others, his game speed looks pretty good (even for just camp). He’s very long, lean and lanky. Saw him catch a pass from Hunter Cantwell on an outside route. Didn’t notice him as much after that, but my attention was spread around a lot.
As to Edwards, his dreads are so long that you can only make out “Ed” on the back of his jersey. Running routes, he’s fast, and seems to have taken up Steve Smith’s habit of always going full speed no matter what. Saw a few passes thrown his way, and watched him catching punts from Baker. For the record, I didn’t see a football that came his direction hit the ground. If he dropped anything, I missed it.
What to make of Dwayne Jarrett? Saw him make a good catch early in 7 on 7, then later on not even look back for the ball in a passing drill. Once or twice, I remember looking at him and wondering if he really wanted to be there. If he wants to start (or for that matter, stick on the roster) he’ll need to show something that, to this point, he’s not yet known for: that being consistent effort. Not sure I saw that today, but in fairness I didn’t make a special effort to watch him.
General offensive notes: More short passing than long today. Jeff King had a lot of catches and looked good. I saw him pull down passes from Moore, Cantwell and Claussen. He looks a little faster than before. Tyrell Sutton is very elusive when he runs. Mike Goodson less so, despite his reputation (sometimes I wonder how hard he’s trying). New rookie David Gettis also had some nice moves after catching a pass today. Undrafted guy Andrew George runs some nice routes, as he should wearing # 85.
