07-31-2015, 02:15 PM
The Jaguars took the field in front of a good crowd of season ticket holders intent on getting a first glimpse at the new look team. The overall atmosphere was extremely laid back, and the Jaguars did a good job of welcoming the invested fans with drinks and baked goods courtesy of the official bakery for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shad Khan’s own Edgewood Bakery.
A couple of points of interest before getting to the action. The first guy on the field for the first practice of training camp was none other than Kasey Redfern. Those kickers like to get a jump on watching the team practice apparently.
Of the injured players not participating, it’s important to note that Sen’Derrick Marks was walking without a limp, sporting a gold plated knee brace.
As has been the case since Bradley took over, there was music being piped in during the practice session, although the play list appears to have been toned down a bit along with the volume.
Some notables on the sideline for the start of camp included guys we all know like Tony Boselli and the media masses. One interesting attendee, and someone I think it’s encouraging to see being involved with the team, is new mayor, Lenny Curry. He was glad handing anyone and everyone on the sideline. With all of the plans on the table, the mayor is showing great wisdom in playing nice with the billionaire.
Okay, now, about the drills.
The tempo for the practice was pretty laid back. It was a slow roll to get started, and the drills were even done at a very relaxed pace. When they were working with the receivers in front of us during one particular drill, Jaguars offensive coordinator Greg Olson actually slowed the tempo down when it looked like someone might be breaking a sweat on a dropped pass.
Individual (Part 1):
When the team broke into position groups to work, there were a couple of notable incidents that happened. During special team drills working on punt returns, Greg Jenkins and Corey Grant both muffed punts. They seemed to be having trouble hanging on to the ball at times. First practice, so we’ll chalk it up to butterflies or sun in their eyes or sweaty palms. It didn’t make for a good first impression.
The offensive line group was working in units. The first team as of this morning, during both the individual drills and team drills is as follows:
Joeckel, Beadles, Bowanko, Linder, Parnell
Cann and Wisniewski worked with the 2<sup>nd</sup> team.
When the QBs were working with the receivers, it became pretty clear that Lee has some rust to shake off. In watching the drill, he struggled to make catches coming out of his breaks when Bortles was out there throwing to him. He didn’t seem to struggle with the other guys, which after watching more closely, we determined it was probably because the other 3 QBs were waiting for him to get out of his break before throwing the ball. Bortles was throwing on time, so the ball was in the air before he broke his route, and on a couple of occasions, he didn’t pick the ball up when he made his turn. I think that has a lot to do with him missing practice time. The timing did seem to get better as practice progressed although there were a couple of drops just the same. Lee has some work to do.
Watching the QBs, you can see Bortles has improved his mechanics. It’s early, but he has clearly tightened up his delivery. The passes were coming out quickly, and I may have only seen a couple of balls that fluttered on him. Most were tight spirals and on target.
Henne continues to display a big arm. That’s all fine and good except when the receiver is 5 feet in front of him and he’s still trying to impale him.
Morris has a big arm, but there are barns out there who would feel very unthreatened by him throwing their way. His accuracy was at times pretty spotty.
Tuel was surprisingly good. He looks smaller than the reported 6’3”, but he’s got good ball control and looks pretty accurate. He might wind up winning that 3<sup>rd</sup> spot, although is that really a victory?
11 x 11 (Part 1):
The full team drill started off pretty inauspiciously. A couple of running plays to start the day. Denard got the first carry of the day, and in a practice with no tackling and no pads, he looked pretty decisive on the first play. His quickness is something we’re all aware of, but to see him running with a more aggressive tendency is nice to see. He had a few runs during this session, and at times he was getting small and finding seams in the traffic and bolting out the other side. He’ll make a strong case to be #2 in the rotation.
Bortles and Julius Thomas wasted no time connecting on the first pass play of the practice. It was a quick rollout to the right side for a short gain, but Thomas showed good hands going up to get the ball with coverage on top of him.
T.J. Yeldon had an up and down practice. Up because he actually looks like he’s got the ability to be the every down back. He’s got good size, decent speed, and he looks like he’s going to be a good downhill runner between the tackles. Didn’t see a lot of elusiveness today. If he made a cut, it was one cut and then hit the hole. It’ll be interesting to see how he does when the pads are on and there’s hitting. He looks like he will be fine banging around. The only downfall in his practice today was he fumbled the ball. Dwayne Gratz had an opportunity to strip the ball on the back end of a nice run, and he took advantage. Yeldon may have thought the play was over. He won’t make that mistake again.
Bernard Pierce had a couple of nice runs in traffic. He’s another solid back. He’s not going to blow anyone’s doors off, but he looks like a pounder.
Gerhart actually looked good today. He looks to be fully recovered from the injury bug that hampered his game last season, and he’s running with quite a bit of steam behind him. It’ll be interesting to see how they utilize him since there are guys on the roster who have similar capabilities.
Corey Grant had a couple of decent runs, including one nifty spin move he made rolling off a defender. Unfortunately, had they been allowed to tackle, that’s where the play would have ended, but fortunately for him, he was allowed to break loose.
Julius Thomas is the real deal. He didn’t have a great practice, but he did have a good one. If he and Bortles develop any kind of chemistry, that’s going to be a fun pairing to watch. He had a couple of dropped passes, but on the first one, Gratz knocked the ball out on a catch along the sideline. It was a good defensive play. The other was on a tough catch where he had to go up to get it, and he got hit when doing so. Still, overall, the guy looks like a legitimate threat, and not a product of Peyton Manning. Granted, it’s early, and the pads aren’t on, but when you see him in person and watch the way he runs his routes and how he goes up and gets the ball, it’s hard to miss the athleticism. If he stays healthy, he’s going to be a weapon.
Interestingly enough, Marcedes Lewis had a good practice. There was one frustrating drop, but then there were a few really solid catches in traffic, including one later in the session when he went up and made the play despite the fact that he and Cyprien had collided. Lewis went up and made the grab, landed and didn’t just fall down. In another instance, he took a pass over the middle from Bortles in traffic and snapped it away from the defender who had the angle on the play. It was something we haven’t seen from him recently where he actually contested the ball. Of course, he knew he wasn’t going to get hit, so maybe that is why?
Luke Joeckel looks like he’s bulked up a bit, but this is still a work in progress. There were a couple of blown blocks during this practice where he went one way and the defender went the other and had a free pass to the QB. In one instance, Andre Branch was in the backfield as quickly as the ball got to Bortles on the snap as Joeckel went outside and he went inside. There were a couple of times where he seemed to struggle, but he seemed to get his legs later in practice as he was stoning guys. There were still a couple of incidents where he slipped. He’ll need to clean that up.
Allen Robinson looked good out there, making a couple of just spectacular grabs. On one particular play, he actually went up and made a one handed grab on a comeback that was a little of target. However, during 11 on 11, he also had one play where he dropped a catchable pass on a short slant from Bortles. The pass was on his back hip, but he got hands on it. He just wasn’t able to haul it in. He came back and made a great catch on a sideline pass from Bortles that was thrown slightly behind him. Robinson is doing a good job of making body adjustments out there to get to those passes.
Bortles did attempt to go deep to Julius Thomas. Unfortunately, Thomas got locked up in coverage and never broke loose to get behind coverage, so the ball was overthrown by a couple of yards.
Henne and Marqise Lee connected on a play that seemed to take forever to develop. Henne was working through his progressions at least once when he spotted Lee coming open deep. Chad waited long enough for him to get open and hit him on a deep post. There wasn’t a lot of yards after the catch, but a nice first down play just the same.
Stephen Morris put his accuracy on display during the drill. He was trying to hit his receiver on a quick out pattern along the far sideline. Unfortunately, he didn’t see Nick Marshall breaking on the play, and Marshall took the pass for a pick six. Holy smokes, that guy is fast. He was in the end zone in a flash. That speed might actually make him a weapon out there.
Individuals (Part 2):
Tandon Doss seemed to be having some trouble hauling in passes during individual drills. He had a couple of drops on routine grabs from Henne. Maybe it’s rust? We’ll see.
Allen Robinson had the catch of the day on a deep seam pass from Chad Henne. The pass was thrown a bit high, but Robinson went up and made a leaping grab. We’ll see if it made the highlight reel for the local news crews.
Nic Jacobs has some work to do. He had a couple of drops, including one where he did a little curl route. Henne hit him on target, but Jacobs was turning to go before he’d secured the ball, and the end result was an incomplete pass.
Allen Hurns also had a pretty ugly drop during the drill. On a quick post route, Bortles hit him in stride, and it bounced right off his hands. This happened again on a pass from Stephen Morris.
7 x 7:
Bortles looked sharp during this drill. He started the drill with 4 completions, all to tight ends. The quick shots to Marcedes and Clay Harbor were in traffic. The pass to Julius Thomas was as well. Thomas made a catch on the sideline, made a move to turn it back inside, and turned it into a solid gain.
Bernard Pierce also had a reception, and it looked like a short gain. He must have thought the play was over once he broke into the secondary, and as a result, the ball got knocked out. Echo of the whistle, Pierce. You’re not a rookie.
Henne connected with Tandon Doss on a deep sideline pass in coverage. Doss went over the top to make the catch.
Arrelious Benn had one of the more entertaining grabs of the day. On a deep post, Henne hit him in stride. Jeremy Harris was in coverage, and appeared to have knocked the ball away. Benn never lost focus, and continued to track the ball all the way to the ground where he secured it in his belly for a reception. Harris tried to get the ref to call it an incomplete pass, but got waved off.
Bortles and Lewis connected over the middle in traffic. Khairi Fortt actually made a great play to knock the pass away, but Lewis held on and won the battle. Must be all that MMA training paying off.
Bortles tried to go deep to Robinson. Jeremy Harris was in coverage, and was matching the receiver stride for stride. He was able to disrupt the play enough to force an incomplete pass.
Bortles came right back and went at Rashaad Reynolds along the sideline. This time his target, Bryan Waters, ran a deep curl route and made a nice play with Reynolds on his back.
11 x 11 (Part 2):
Robinson, Lewis, and Bortles are quickly developing some good chemistry. On the first 3 plays of this drill, he went at both guys (Lewis once, Robinson twice) in traffic, and in each instance, the big tight ends delivered. In one particular instance, Aaron Colvin and Johnathan Cyprien had Lewis sandwiched on a deep seam route. Lewis went up and made a catch over the top of coverage, and Cyprien and Colvin were left on the ground.
Chad Henne went deep down the far sideline toward the south end zone to Marqise Lee. The receiver had a step on coverage, and was open. Henne put the ball out there perfectly. All Lee had to do was reach up and make the catch. Instead, he looked more like a defender reaching up and slapping the ball away. Please let it be rust. He did get some extra attention from Jerry Sullivan following that play.
Henne did have some trouble with a shotgun snap from Wisniewski. The snap looked like it came before Henne was ready, and went right over his shoulder. Not sure if there was a breakdown in communication, or if the center was just that errant.
Jeff Tuel connected with Bryan Walters on a curl route. Unfortunately, Walters fumbled it coming out of his break. That got him some alone time with Sullivan.
Morris had a nice connection with Rashad Greene on a deep crossing route in traffic. It was a sloppy spot, but Greene maintained focus and made the catch just the same.
Bortles tried to connect with Greene on the next play. Unfortunately, Demetrius McCray arrived with the ball, and managed to knock the ball out immediately.
Bortles responded by getting sacked on another miss by Joeckel. Dan Skuta was in the backfield pretty quickly. To be fair, it was more or less a jail break. As Bortles threw the ball Ryan Davis was there to bat the pass down behind the line.
Bortles showed his ability to throw on the run, rolling out to the right on a play and connecting with Tandon Doss on a deep out in front of Devon House.
After having a pretty good practice, Marcedes showed his vintage ability. On a deep seam off play action, Bortles dropped a beautiful pass into coverage with Matt Daniels in tow. Lewis went up for the high but catchable pass only to come down empty handed. Daniels actually limped off on the play and got aid from the training staff. I didn’t look serious.
Chad Henne hit Allen Robinson on a deep post play. It was a nice pitch and catch. However, the notable thing about the play was seeing Dwayne Gratz limping off the field not putting any weight on his left ankle. He was with the trainer on the sideline for a while, then moved to the training shed for the rest of practice. It didn’t look serious, and he walked off without aid or a limp. You just don’t like to see guys go down like that. The way they were working on him, it looked like it was probably just cramps. We’ll see.
On the final play, Jeff Tuel showed a decent arm and good accuracy hitting Robinson deep down the sideline over the top of Nick Marshall. The coverage was right there. The pass was dropped perfectly over the top for Robinson.
Final thoughts:
It’s a first practice. No pads. No tackling. But, there are some good signs coming from old and new players alike. Thomas shows a great deal of promise to be the answer at TE. Yeldon looks like he’s going to be a solid every down back. Bortles and his mechanics are improved. He’s showing a more compact delivery. The ball is coming out quickly, and with very little flutter. We’ll see if that lasts, or if he gets tired arm syndrome again at some point.
It was arguably the most laid back tempo I’ve ever seen for a training camp practice. Still, it’s good to see the boys back on the field doing what they do.
More later!
A couple of points of interest before getting to the action. The first guy on the field for the first practice of training camp was none other than Kasey Redfern. Those kickers like to get a jump on watching the team practice apparently.
Of the injured players not participating, it’s important to note that Sen’Derrick Marks was walking without a limp, sporting a gold plated knee brace.
As has been the case since Bradley took over, there was music being piped in during the practice session, although the play list appears to have been toned down a bit along with the volume.
Some notables on the sideline for the start of camp included guys we all know like Tony Boselli and the media masses. One interesting attendee, and someone I think it’s encouraging to see being involved with the team, is new mayor, Lenny Curry. He was glad handing anyone and everyone on the sideline. With all of the plans on the table, the mayor is showing great wisdom in playing nice with the billionaire.
Okay, now, about the drills.
The tempo for the practice was pretty laid back. It was a slow roll to get started, and the drills were even done at a very relaxed pace. When they were working with the receivers in front of us during one particular drill, Jaguars offensive coordinator Greg Olson actually slowed the tempo down when it looked like someone might be breaking a sweat on a dropped pass.
Individual (Part 1):
When the team broke into position groups to work, there were a couple of notable incidents that happened. During special team drills working on punt returns, Greg Jenkins and Corey Grant both muffed punts. They seemed to be having trouble hanging on to the ball at times. First practice, so we’ll chalk it up to butterflies or sun in their eyes or sweaty palms. It didn’t make for a good first impression.
The offensive line group was working in units. The first team as of this morning, during both the individual drills and team drills is as follows:
Joeckel, Beadles, Bowanko, Linder, Parnell
Cann and Wisniewski worked with the 2<sup>nd</sup> team.
When the QBs were working with the receivers, it became pretty clear that Lee has some rust to shake off. In watching the drill, he struggled to make catches coming out of his breaks when Bortles was out there throwing to him. He didn’t seem to struggle with the other guys, which after watching more closely, we determined it was probably because the other 3 QBs were waiting for him to get out of his break before throwing the ball. Bortles was throwing on time, so the ball was in the air before he broke his route, and on a couple of occasions, he didn’t pick the ball up when he made his turn. I think that has a lot to do with him missing practice time. The timing did seem to get better as practice progressed although there were a couple of drops just the same. Lee has some work to do.
Watching the QBs, you can see Bortles has improved his mechanics. It’s early, but he has clearly tightened up his delivery. The passes were coming out quickly, and I may have only seen a couple of balls that fluttered on him. Most were tight spirals and on target.
Henne continues to display a big arm. That’s all fine and good except when the receiver is 5 feet in front of him and he’s still trying to impale him.
Morris has a big arm, but there are barns out there who would feel very unthreatened by him throwing their way. His accuracy was at times pretty spotty.
Tuel was surprisingly good. He looks smaller than the reported 6’3”, but he’s got good ball control and looks pretty accurate. He might wind up winning that 3<sup>rd</sup> spot, although is that really a victory?
11 x 11 (Part 1):
The full team drill started off pretty inauspiciously. A couple of running plays to start the day. Denard got the first carry of the day, and in a practice with no tackling and no pads, he looked pretty decisive on the first play. His quickness is something we’re all aware of, but to see him running with a more aggressive tendency is nice to see. He had a few runs during this session, and at times he was getting small and finding seams in the traffic and bolting out the other side. He’ll make a strong case to be #2 in the rotation.
Bortles and Julius Thomas wasted no time connecting on the first pass play of the practice. It was a quick rollout to the right side for a short gain, but Thomas showed good hands going up to get the ball with coverage on top of him.
T.J. Yeldon had an up and down practice. Up because he actually looks like he’s got the ability to be the every down back. He’s got good size, decent speed, and he looks like he’s going to be a good downhill runner between the tackles. Didn’t see a lot of elusiveness today. If he made a cut, it was one cut and then hit the hole. It’ll be interesting to see how he does when the pads are on and there’s hitting. He looks like he will be fine banging around. The only downfall in his practice today was he fumbled the ball. Dwayne Gratz had an opportunity to strip the ball on the back end of a nice run, and he took advantage. Yeldon may have thought the play was over. He won’t make that mistake again.
Bernard Pierce had a couple of nice runs in traffic. He’s another solid back. He’s not going to blow anyone’s doors off, but he looks like a pounder.
Gerhart actually looked good today. He looks to be fully recovered from the injury bug that hampered his game last season, and he’s running with quite a bit of steam behind him. It’ll be interesting to see how they utilize him since there are guys on the roster who have similar capabilities.
Corey Grant had a couple of decent runs, including one nifty spin move he made rolling off a defender. Unfortunately, had they been allowed to tackle, that’s where the play would have ended, but fortunately for him, he was allowed to break loose.
Julius Thomas is the real deal. He didn’t have a great practice, but he did have a good one. If he and Bortles develop any kind of chemistry, that’s going to be a fun pairing to watch. He had a couple of dropped passes, but on the first one, Gratz knocked the ball out on a catch along the sideline. It was a good defensive play. The other was on a tough catch where he had to go up to get it, and he got hit when doing so. Still, overall, the guy looks like a legitimate threat, and not a product of Peyton Manning. Granted, it’s early, and the pads aren’t on, but when you see him in person and watch the way he runs his routes and how he goes up and gets the ball, it’s hard to miss the athleticism. If he stays healthy, he’s going to be a weapon.
Interestingly enough, Marcedes Lewis had a good practice. There was one frustrating drop, but then there were a few really solid catches in traffic, including one later in the session when he went up and made the play despite the fact that he and Cyprien had collided. Lewis went up and made the grab, landed and didn’t just fall down. In another instance, he took a pass over the middle from Bortles in traffic and snapped it away from the defender who had the angle on the play. It was something we haven’t seen from him recently where he actually contested the ball. Of course, he knew he wasn’t going to get hit, so maybe that is why?
Luke Joeckel looks like he’s bulked up a bit, but this is still a work in progress. There were a couple of blown blocks during this practice where he went one way and the defender went the other and had a free pass to the QB. In one instance, Andre Branch was in the backfield as quickly as the ball got to Bortles on the snap as Joeckel went outside and he went inside. There were a couple of times where he seemed to struggle, but he seemed to get his legs later in practice as he was stoning guys. There were still a couple of incidents where he slipped. He’ll need to clean that up.
Allen Robinson looked good out there, making a couple of just spectacular grabs. On one particular play, he actually went up and made a one handed grab on a comeback that was a little of target. However, during 11 on 11, he also had one play where he dropped a catchable pass on a short slant from Bortles. The pass was on his back hip, but he got hands on it. He just wasn’t able to haul it in. He came back and made a great catch on a sideline pass from Bortles that was thrown slightly behind him. Robinson is doing a good job of making body adjustments out there to get to those passes.
Bortles did attempt to go deep to Julius Thomas. Unfortunately, Thomas got locked up in coverage and never broke loose to get behind coverage, so the ball was overthrown by a couple of yards.
Henne and Marqise Lee connected on a play that seemed to take forever to develop. Henne was working through his progressions at least once when he spotted Lee coming open deep. Chad waited long enough for him to get open and hit him on a deep post. There wasn’t a lot of yards after the catch, but a nice first down play just the same.
Stephen Morris put his accuracy on display during the drill. He was trying to hit his receiver on a quick out pattern along the far sideline. Unfortunately, he didn’t see Nick Marshall breaking on the play, and Marshall took the pass for a pick six. Holy smokes, that guy is fast. He was in the end zone in a flash. That speed might actually make him a weapon out there.
Individuals (Part 2):
Tandon Doss seemed to be having some trouble hauling in passes during individual drills. He had a couple of drops on routine grabs from Henne. Maybe it’s rust? We’ll see.
Allen Robinson had the catch of the day on a deep seam pass from Chad Henne. The pass was thrown a bit high, but Robinson went up and made a leaping grab. We’ll see if it made the highlight reel for the local news crews.
Nic Jacobs has some work to do. He had a couple of drops, including one where he did a little curl route. Henne hit him on target, but Jacobs was turning to go before he’d secured the ball, and the end result was an incomplete pass.
Allen Hurns also had a pretty ugly drop during the drill. On a quick post route, Bortles hit him in stride, and it bounced right off his hands. This happened again on a pass from Stephen Morris.
7 x 7:
Bortles looked sharp during this drill. He started the drill with 4 completions, all to tight ends. The quick shots to Marcedes and Clay Harbor were in traffic. The pass to Julius Thomas was as well. Thomas made a catch on the sideline, made a move to turn it back inside, and turned it into a solid gain.
Bernard Pierce also had a reception, and it looked like a short gain. He must have thought the play was over once he broke into the secondary, and as a result, the ball got knocked out. Echo of the whistle, Pierce. You’re not a rookie.
Henne connected with Tandon Doss on a deep sideline pass in coverage. Doss went over the top to make the catch.
Arrelious Benn had one of the more entertaining grabs of the day. On a deep post, Henne hit him in stride. Jeremy Harris was in coverage, and appeared to have knocked the ball away. Benn never lost focus, and continued to track the ball all the way to the ground where he secured it in his belly for a reception. Harris tried to get the ref to call it an incomplete pass, but got waved off.
Bortles and Lewis connected over the middle in traffic. Khairi Fortt actually made a great play to knock the pass away, but Lewis held on and won the battle. Must be all that MMA training paying off.
Bortles tried to go deep to Robinson. Jeremy Harris was in coverage, and was matching the receiver stride for stride. He was able to disrupt the play enough to force an incomplete pass.
Bortles came right back and went at Rashaad Reynolds along the sideline. This time his target, Bryan Waters, ran a deep curl route and made a nice play with Reynolds on his back.
11 x 11 (Part 2):
Robinson, Lewis, and Bortles are quickly developing some good chemistry. On the first 3 plays of this drill, he went at both guys (Lewis once, Robinson twice) in traffic, and in each instance, the big tight ends delivered. In one particular instance, Aaron Colvin and Johnathan Cyprien had Lewis sandwiched on a deep seam route. Lewis went up and made a catch over the top of coverage, and Cyprien and Colvin were left on the ground.
Chad Henne went deep down the far sideline toward the south end zone to Marqise Lee. The receiver had a step on coverage, and was open. Henne put the ball out there perfectly. All Lee had to do was reach up and make the catch. Instead, he looked more like a defender reaching up and slapping the ball away. Please let it be rust. He did get some extra attention from Jerry Sullivan following that play.
Henne did have some trouble with a shotgun snap from Wisniewski. The snap looked like it came before Henne was ready, and went right over his shoulder. Not sure if there was a breakdown in communication, or if the center was just that errant.
Jeff Tuel connected with Bryan Walters on a curl route. Unfortunately, Walters fumbled it coming out of his break. That got him some alone time with Sullivan.
Morris had a nice connection with Rashad Greene on a deep crossing route in traffic. It was a sloppy spot, but Greene maintained focus and made the catch just the same.
Bortles tried to connect with Greene on the next play. Unfortunately, Demetrius McCray arrived with the ball, and managed to knock the ball out immediately.
Bortles responded by getting sacked on another miss by Joeckel. Dan Skuta was in the backfield pretty quickly. To be fair, it was more or less a jail break. As Bortles threw the ball Ryan Davis was there to bat the pass down behind the line.
Bortles showed his ability to throw on the run, rolling out to the right on a play and connecting with Tandon Doss on a deep out in front of Devon House.
After having a pretty good practice, Marcedes showed his vintage ability. On a deep seam off play action, Bortles dropped a beautiful pass into coverage with Matt Daniels in tow. Lewis went up for the high but catchable pass only to come down empty handed. Daniels actually limped off on the play and got aid from the training staff. I didn’t look serious.
Chad Henne hit Allen Robinson on a deep post play. It was a nice pitch and catch. However, the notable thing about the play was seeing Dwayne Gratz limping off the field not putting any weight on his left ankle. He was with the trainer on the sideline for a while, then moved to the training shed for the rest of practice. It didn’t look serious, and he walked off without aid or a limp. You just don’t like to see guys go down like that. The way they were working on him, it looked like it was probably just cramps. We’ll see.
On the final play, Jeff Tuel showed a decent arm and good accuracy hitting Robinson deep down the sideline over the top of Nick Marshall. The coverage was right there. The pass was dropped perfectly over the top for Robinson.
Final thoughts:
It’s a first practice. No pads. No tackling. But, there are some good signs coming from old and new players alike. Thomas shows a great deal of promise to be the answer at TE. Yeldon looks like he’s going to be a solid every down back. Bortles and his mechanics are improved. He’s showing a more compact delivery. The ball is coming out quickly, and with very little flutter. We’ll see if that lasts, or if he gets tired arm syndrome again at some point.
It was arguably the most laid back tempo I’ve ever seen for a training camp practice. Still, it’s good to see the boys back on the field doing what they do.
More later!