Thursday, August 13, 2009

Fang's Day 10 Observations with Photographs

Updated with Photos:
1) The Wildcat is seen in the, um, wild.
2) Camarillo, Ginn and Turner playing hackeysack. (Seriously)
3) Pennington mid-cadence. Is it just me or does it look like Carey has regained the weight he lost pre-OTAs?



Fang attended the practice last night under the lights and here is his report:

"This is my last report for the Dolphins this training camp. So lets get started.


Most of tonight's practice was for 11 on 11 drills and to be honest I couldn't tell you which unit came out on top. Both had a moment here and there. They show cased the Wildcat again for about 5 or 6 plays. Those plays were the same they ran last year with RB running the cat. PW ran more of a spread formation, that I wouldn't really call the wildcat.

White, in a short stretch of about 3 passes in a row that were, well they were awful to be honest. The first was picked off on a throw he should have never made. I will say it was right on target though. I missed who made the pick. His next pass was short armed by about 3 yards to an open receiver. Then his 3rd pass of the run was thrown away. He seemed to settle down after that, and made better throws. I will say this he can run with the ball for sure, to me that is when he is most dangerous. If he enters a game defenses are going have to account for him with a spy, and if he can see who that player is, that will leave a man open for him to pass to.

All 3 RBs Brown, Williams, and Cobbs had a moment here and there. I like Cobbs for some reason I don't know why. He reminds me of Keven Faulk of the Cheaters, If he is in the game Miami is trying to get him the ball, everyone knows it but there is nothing they can do to stop it.

They worked on the red Zone offense and had some success and failures. Over all I thought the red zone offense did a little better than the defense did. In the middle of the field it was the other way around. Also the offense was a bit sloppy with penalties, (motion and holding calls.) Crowder and the Safeties looked good, as I think back on it. CBs were fair but they did have that pick. J. Allen tried to undress one of the wide outs, he covered the WR so close it was hard to tell who had what color jersey. :) Yet he was playing with the 3rd team players. I can't figure that situation out he looks good to me, but he plays on the 3rd team. Maybe that's why he looks good, he plays against the 3rd teams offenses.

I'm not sure but I think Roth was feeling better today, he didn't dress and he is not riding a bike. He is able to the stretching stuff, and I saw him run, well kinda run really. Actually he trotted off the field, "hey that's running".

There was no clear unit that stood out over the other. Judging by the way Coach S was yelling, I don't think he liked what he saw tonight. That's the first time I heard him barking at a few players, and he seemed agitated over all. I don't think it's a good idea to get on his wrong side, if your a player.

That's it folks I hope this helps all of you in some way."

38 comments:

  1. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 6:24 AM

    Fang, I don't think there is any reason to question why you like Cobbs. He's an undersized guy who is quicker and tougher than people think. He also has decent running skills, he's a good receiver and blocker and he's excellent on special teams. Hmm... why do so many of us like him?  :-D

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  2. I also attended last nights practice, and while Fang had a good summary I'll chime in on what I noticed

    I beleive the pick off of Pat White was Clemons. It was definetely #33, who looked good all night. While it did seem the White was struggling, (the crowd threw out some moddest heckling at one point) the third team O-line was moving backwards quickly and he had much less time to throw the ball then the Chad's did.

    All the running backs looked good and each had a long run. Interestingly the RB that stood out the most to me was Hilliard, and the new fullback #40 also had a couple nice plays. He's much bigger than Polite who I didn't see too much of

    On one Wildcat play Ronnie ran left and was trying to throw it, but the defense was aware and had everybody covered so he tucked it in and ran it for a couple of yards. On another he went left and threw it across the field to Penne who tried to fit it in, but again the defense had everyone covered

    In our regular conflicting stories from training camp, to me the defense looked much better than the offense during the redzone drills. There were some interesting blitz packages with the ILB's and safteys blitzing at the same time. Gibril Wilson had a couple of nice plays coming up and stoping the RB at the LOS

    Long had a good night going against Porter. On one play he went against Starks who backed him up right up to Penne's blindside, but Penne just barely got it out

    Starks impressed me the most out of the D-line

    Murphy looked good, I didn't see any glaring mistakes

    Thomas seemed healthy and had a good push, but all the hole's on the running plays came inbetween Grove and Smiley, and at some points you could have drove a freightlinner through the hole's

    Smith played decent going against Ginn, but one play he tried to get too physical, Ginn hit the brakes as Smith ran right past him and Ginn was wide open for a modest 5 yards

    The longest pass was from Penne to Fasano for atleast 20 yards. I tried watching Armstrong and London, but I didn't see too much from them other than during the WR blocking drills it was obvious that London is the best run blocking receiver on our team

    I also noticed Sparano yelling alot, but he did congratulate some players on nice plays

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  3. Phinatic up there, I can't log in, not sure why

    One more thing about the TE's. I noticed Wilford was at practice, but never saw him do anything on the field, I'm thinking and hoping he's a goner. Nalbone looked good to me, he had a nice catch and looks a good size for a TE about the same size as Fasano. Haynos was there too, but I didn't see him do anything either. As of right now I'm changing my pick for the third TE to Nalbone

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  4. I wonder if they will move Pat up to the second team or first team to see how he plays with a better O Line. It is great to hear that we can run between Smiley and Groves. I am sure that when Thomas gets through some more practices we will see holes  opening up there also. I have not heard Carey's name once this off season. Not sure if that is good or not.

    ESPN had a good article on TS liking Cobbs. Even though Cobbs is not one of "their guys", I think that Cobbs could be grandfathered in as one of their guys. For some reason I can not get to the article now that I am at work. It is under the AFC East blog.

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  5. it's because of his super-shiny gigantic chrome-dome!

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  6. #33 is Nate Jones. Clemons is #30.

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  7. I'm sure Pat will get plenty of reps with the starters in the 4th pre-season
    game.
    And this has been said before, if you're not hearing an offensive lineman's
    name being called out, it means he's doing his job. They only mention them
    when they're injured or gave up a sack.

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  8. There's no way London is a better blocker than Bess. I've been watching a
    lot of 2008 replays and Bess seems like the only one who can sustain a block
    and drive a DB back. Of course, London didn't get many opportunities so I
    shouldn't say 'no way' until he gets more snaps. But I did anyway. I
    haven't had my coffee yet...

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  9. Thanks for the report, Phinatic.

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  10. Speaking of injury do we know anything else on Will Allen?

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  11. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 7:30 AM

    I was just going to chime in and say how would you know that about London. LOL

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  12. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 7:32 AM

    Nalbone seems to be on the rise. He needs to take that to the preseason games. Besides Haynos being 6-8 270 lbs., is there anything else about him that stands out?

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  13. Reports were he had a groin strain, but he practiced most of yesterday
    including last night. He probably just took a knee to the groin and needed
    to walk it off.

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  14. I thought he ran good routes and showed good hands. They threw to him twice
    and he caught both passes and scored a TD. IF he was a QB he'd have a
    rating of 175!
    Seriously though, I am going to reserve my judgment till the 2nd pre-season
    game. Nalbone may be looking good now but he was looking awful before the
    last 4 days, just like Wilford was looking impressive in OTAs but has been
    AWOL lately. As Coach would say, I'm looking for consistency.

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  15. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 7:47 AM

    Sparano said Will is fine. Guys get banged up playing this game and sometimes the injuries get blown out of proportion. Except if you're the Eagles, who appear to be losing someone every day.

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  16. Like I said before, I've never noticed this many injuries this early
    before. And most of them have been 'freak things'. Like it was a freak
    helmet to the knee thing....

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  17. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 8:15 AM

    I agree with seeing the consistency.

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  18. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 8:15 AM

    Yeah it's crazy.

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  19. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 8:22 AM

    Merling is getting a lot of reps at LDE behind Langford and he has a great attitude about it. The way I look at the DL, the more guys you have that can do more things, the better off you are.

    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/other/sfl-dolphins-connor-barth-s08110sbaug13,0,5922648.story

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  20. Just been watching a piece on the Iggles camp on NFL Network and Andy Reid has them banging each other to the ground in full tackle drills. The ones left standing should be pretty tough, but the Fins tried this in the past and I seem to remember as well as losing players, we lost all our December games too. The Trifecta seems to really get the team in optimum condition for the season like Armstrong for the Tour de France or a racehorse trainer preparing a horse for a big race. They're also pretty damn strong too! Another pleasant improvement over the past.

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  21. The Knight who says Ni!August 13, 2009 at 8:58 AM

    Good point uk. Jimmy Johnson ran a very physical camp his first few years to the point where some players and the union complained, and we ended up with plenty of players banged up. The trifecta wants to see physical contact, but no tangled legs and guys falling on the back of guys' legs. That's how most of the injuries happen.

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  22. I even being a  little guy Bess throw down a mean block. I guess what I meant was last night London was the best blocking WR

    #33 Jones that's right. He had some nice plays, I would say the ball came at Jones and Smith alot, might have been who Sparano was testing

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  23. To Guest thank you for your comments and its funny how I thought the offense looked better than the defense in the red zone.  Omar said the same as you.  I either have select memory of I'm blind as a bat. :)  

    If anyone is heading down today can you report back on #14 I think Robinson is his name, he was just picked up.  He looked pretty good to me with the amount of playing time he had.  WRs and CBs are going to be in a real dog fight for jobs this year.  Some of them had better get the hambuger flippers ready, :'(

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  24. the beat guys have been reporting Robinson dropping the ball and not being
    very physical...He seems like a nice guy, humble, good talent, but
    definitely a project if anyone wanted to pick him up. I think at this
    point, especially on this team, it's a bit of a waste of energy to keep an
    eye on him. I don't think we'd keep more than one WR on the practice squad,
    and he's beneath Armstrong and Chris Williams on THAT depth chart.

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  25. I haven't heard anything about the dropped balls, I've been driving back and forth to Davie for the past few days.� That's a 2 hour drive for me one way.� So if I go my day is shot.�� I didn't get home last night until 1:15 this morning, but it was worth every minute down there.�
    Some one on your site asked if anyone played fantasy football and I didn't see anyone respond.� I'm in 2 leagues, and I know 13kv is in 5 leagues.� He keeps in touch with old friends that way.� Are you in any ?� I maybe interested in a free league through your site but I'm not going to run it.� Anyone else interested ?

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  26. I just do the nfl.com one for fun. I had my live draft yesterday actually.
    It was set for 7pm EST, which is 4pm my time, so I actually stayed at work
    for extra time doing the draft. Talk about being football-obsessed...I did
    get stuck in traffic on the way home as a result.
    Had a pretty good draft though, better than last year.

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  27. yeah, I'm not professional enough to run my own league, lol.

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  28. When you get the chance give me a run down on who got. :)� Gotta see it.

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  29. You'll laugh when you see the order but here goes.
    1. Drew Brees
    2. Tom Brady
    3. Steelers DST
    4. Kevin Smith
    5. Ravens DST
    6. Ted Ginn Jr (breakout year coming)
    7. Laverneus Coles (he takes over for housh, should have a career year)
    8. Johnathan Stewart
    9. Nate Washington (my sleeper)
    10. Visanthe Shiancoe
    11. John Kasay (this guys a kicker, so I've never heard of him, supposed to
    be pretty good though)
    12. Vernon Davis (I can't name any WRs on the 49ers other than the guy who's
    going to holdout til 2013, so the TE should be productive)
    13. Chris Chambers (mr touchdown....sometimes)
    14. Josh Brown (another kicker I've never heard of).
    The last three rounds were basically just me covering the bye weeks. I
    managed to get it so that I don't have any bye week issues in the forecast.
    Honestly I planned to go with a QB in the 1st, but get my big name RB in the
    2nd, but when Brady was still on the board it felt a bit silly NOT to take
    him AND I was looking to take Slaton but he got swiped in the 1st round
    along with every other RB including Ronnie Brown. Then I remembered last
    year I would've won several matchup had my defense held so I figured I'd go
    get the defenses up front.

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  30. When every pro athletes worst nightmare is to get boo'ed by a home crowd, how incredibly helpful it is of dolphin fans to aid this rookie QBs development by heckling him at practice.

    Sometimes we DO affect the product on the field fans, that's why they often refer to the crowd as the "12th man". When you heckle a hometeam guy you're basically a team cancer. Same goes for those of you who were booing J. Allen last night...I'm glad to hear he blew up a reciever right in front of y'all.

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  31. HERE,HERE!!! That's the JD wayyy!! CHEERS!!
    I felt the same,wish the WR was knocked into their laps breaking ALL(those particular cock-sukers)necks...

    BOOOOOO, to ALL home team/player antagonist!!!    GO MIAMI DOLPHINS!!!

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  32. I have 4 team's,but would enjoy a 5th IF a league were offered here!!

    TIN,your in BIGGG trouble,w'out BIGG TIME RB's or WR's!!
    Hope your in an active 2 QB league,cuz the rest are all FF 3rd stringers,(cept the D's)...
    I think you have a championship in hand,IF you own ALL the other teams in the league..(JUSPLAY'N)!!

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  33. You're right, that was an interesting draft.� Our leagues have changed the points totals for defense every year.� Last year the scoring was out of whack for defenses.� with� to much negative points given to poor performing team defense.� The difference in a single game could be as much as 10 points on some days.� Our teams don't score that much they only average about 24 - 27 points a game.� So when you get negative points for your defense you are finished, so this year no defense can go into negative territory. So the need to look for a defense early will have less importance.
    You passed on Slaton ?� Man� 3 of my first 5 picks are RBs.� Who were the first 5 picks, and where did Penny go.� We have a lot of Dolphin fans in our leagues, so I imagine Brown, Penny, Bess, Ginn, and the defense will go early and often.� My Daughter I know is going to jump on them if she can, and she has the #1 pick.� She should go for Peterson of the vikes, but I don't know.� She won't tell me so I don't ask, no use. :)� Reminds me of the Dolphins. :(
    Also one of our leagues are kinda strange.� It allows for any moves up to 5 minutes before the first game, and then no more moves unless your team loses a game for the rest of the year, and that move must be made before the next weeks games or you lose the move.� Plus you have to field all positions or it's an automatic loss for the week.� So you have to draft like you have no more moves for the year and cover the bye weeks with 16 picks.� We are hoping that keeps all the teams in the hunt until the end of the season, by keeping the FA pool with better quality players for a longer time.� So if you want to change your team you have to do it through a trade or trades.� It should be interesting.
    Both of the leagues draft on the same day, the Sunday before the regular season.

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  34. Hey I called you the other day where were you ?� Vick signed with Philly.

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  35. i didn't pass on slaton, i was going to use my second pick on him but he was
    gone by then. the way the scoring works in my league is 1 point for every
    ten yards and 6 for TDs. obviously, QBs score on average 25 to 35 points
    whereas a RB only scores 12 to 20 if you're lucky. It makes more sense to
    get the best QB first. Plus, I have an expendable Brady now that I can
    trade for almost any RB/WR especially if he has a big game in week 1. Plus
    what are the odds that Peterson will have a repeat year this year? RBs like
    that only have a 3 or 4 year shelf life. The RBs to watch this year are the
    2nd yr guys like Slaton, Forte, Kevin Smith and Johnathan Stewart.

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  36. NO MISSED calls from u to my cell phn,I don't check my hm phn regularly..

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  37. Yea you did say Slaton was gone.� What are the scores in that league, something like 87 to 75 ? :).� You can never tell who may be a stud from year to year in fantasy.� But in our league you need to have at least one, and I'm sure yours is like that also.
    What is causing problems now is teams are using the 2 running back system.� Picking a RB is much more tricky then just a few years ago.�

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  38. yeah, I usually have to break 100 to win.

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