Just got home from the game with CK. Cool meeting him, great guy btw. A lot of names stood out and some didn't. Rodger Saffold of Indiana looked very good except one play, really. John Estes did a nice job in run blocking; blowing up some lanes. Kam Chancellor looked fantastic. Cant' say that enough. Devin Ross looked pretty good, I expected a bit more from him though. Jamar Wall had a nice game. I thought Blair White was the best receiver there by a longshot. I thought Andrew Quarless had a really nice game. Blocked very well and had a couple nice grabs. Freddie Barnes really had some poor routes up until the final drive. Kyle Calloway did a nice job in run game and struggled a bit in pass pro. He gets high and I saw that on tape so it doesn't surprise me. He and Jefferey Fitzgerald had good games IMO. Mike Kafka I thought really did well executing the offense. Matt Nichols wasn't bad. Watching Keaton Kristick jam Ali Villanueva at the line was mind blowing. I thought Robert Johnson looked good. Sly Sylvester also made some nice plays. The duds were Willie Young once again. Daryll Clark didn't look good IMO. Mike Tepper was awful. He's a RG at the next level IMO. Naaman Roosevelt ran some craptastic routes. I thought that Justin Woodall was very stiff in coverage but looked pretty good in the box. Lindsey Witten was bad, not surprising though. Javarris James was useless. Kion Wilson wasn't a dud but he was rather quiet IMO. Alterraun Verner was OK.
Breathe man, breathe! A Hughes/Hardy or Lang would be a pretty nice deal in the draft. It'll be very interesting to see what happens. I know he's not ranked as highly yet, but my gut instinct says that Brandon Spikes will be a Miami Dolphin. At this point, the players I'd want at 12 would be, in order for now: 1. McClain 2. Bryant 3. Thomas 4. Spikes 5. Hughes
I didn't go to practices but I was talking to CK about him during the game and we both agreed that he looks like a much smoother athlete on tape than in person. He had one play where he dropped and looked OK. Wasn't asked to do much. I thought he looked OK today. Nothing outstanding.
He got his *** kicked by Rodger Saffold IMO. I wasn't impressed with Jorgenson. Dolphins have interviewed and heavily scouted Pemberton. He had a good game. There was one play where he didn't have the arm strength to bring down Todd Reesing but overall I thought he had a good game. Pitta had a very good game too, as you noted.
Yeah I saw a little. He didn't get enough PT from what I saw but he did OK. He had one play where he blew up the backfield IIRC and then he had another run stop up the middle. That's all I really recall from him but they were all rotating so he didn't get to show everything.
Hmm from what I watched Jorgenson played the Strongside and still managed to put some pressure on the passer. Not saying he is anything but a Day 3 late Day 2 pick, but he did alright for what he was asked to do. Blair White looked to be from the Welker/Bess mold, someone will get a value with him. BTW, I've watched every Calgary Game and don't be surprised if Dmitri Tsoumpas surprises everyone, he anchors like no one's business, he played G in the CFL but his game is more Tacklish.
I havent been impressed with Spikes enough to be comfortable spending a 1st rounder. A 2nd is different. In the right system he could shine however. I think our system might be good for him but there is a touch of doubt I still have about him My list at 12 is probably still 10 deep It would be real difficult for Ireland to screw this up. Even though its not a need I could see us drafting Spiller and I wouldnt say boo about it. A DT or NT isnt my first choice but if we went that way I wouldnt be upset. Sergio Kindle might bother me but there really arent that many players that we could draft that would annoy me. I'm in a very, very happy place right now
He had a couple short hoppers and a poorly thrown screen IIRC. He also relied on his feet quite a bit.
I saw two bad passes myself. He was late on the deep out to Barnes at the 1 yard line & the crappy toss on the screen. His other in-completion was to the TE in the flat that I thought looked catchable ... The two lasers on the out patterns were awesome IMO. On the money with plenty of arm. The other pass that sticks out in my mind was the touch pass to the TE where he floated over the LB.
Kindle or Dan Williams are probably the only players I'd cringe a little bit, unless they totally come out of left field and draft Tebow or something, the 12th pick should net us a fine player regardless of position.
I have to say, having watched practice all week, it was unique to watch just how consistently the players brought the same thing to the game, that they did to practice. If I were so inclined, I feel like I could grab a tape of the game, highlight a ton of plays, and point to direct quotes by me in my Shrine write-ups from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I think that's a good sign, you don't want a bunch of guys that practice one way and show up completely different. Heck, read my game Thursday Notes & Game Preview...tell me the game didn't end up playing out almost EXACTLY the way I said it would. I'm not tooting my horn, I'm saying that's how consistent the players were with bringing what they showed at practice, to the game. *Rodger Saffold was superb. But, he was superb all week and I highlighted him a bunch of times. *Keaton Kristick brought the same thing to the game that I saw in practice, which is his fantastic coverage, especially on the Tight End. He jammed the ever loving hell out of the 6'9" and 280 pound Ali Villanueva during the game, then painted him in coverage, and not surprisingly Ali couldn't come up with the ball. That is absolutely something that Kristick had started to show by the end of the week. I believe he also had a big hit during the game, which is something else he showed. *Dennis Pitta rocked the practices all week, and when you consider the limited playing time, he rocked the game too. *Blair White had solidly slid home as being the best performing WR in Shrine practices. He brought that to the game. *Freddie Barnes was a solid performer all week, he brought that to the game. *Andrew Quarless showed himself to have nice soft hands and a propensity to use his size and body to create opportunities for the QB, also an ability to execute chip blocks and still run his routes. He brought that to the game. *Kam Chancellor was KILLING people all week long, named by Andre Anderson as the hardest hitter and you could tell the whole East team thought that way. He brought that to the game. *Van Eskridge made an interception during practice that looked identical to the one he made during the game. Errant pass, he'd been reading the QB's eyes and flowing to the football, but he wasn't really challenged athletically. *John Estes was the best West offensive lineman all week, noted for his extremely quick hands and stout anchor ability. He brought that to the game. *Late in the Tuesday practice, Pat Paschall showed me a run during scrimmage, he showed vision and agility, speed cutting to the outside and gaining big yardage out there. Then Wednesday, he exchanged his non-descript gold helmet for a helmet from his team North Dakota State, and he built on that run by flashing all over the place. He did the same on Thursday and he was absolutely the best RB in the game today. *Jeff Fitzgerald looks like a monster to me all week, and yet so too did Kyle Callaway. These two behemoths collided in the game today and something had to give...and they fought one heck of a battle with blows dealt from both sides. It was quality. *Greg Hardy, to me, showed all kinds of ability during Shrine practices, but he showed an alarming lack of strength in his arms when he swipes and punches. Yet, he stood STOUT to the double teams and against the run during the week. Well, can you guess who just blew by an offensive tackle, got his arms all over the 5'10" and 188 lbs Todd Reesing, and fell harmlessly to the ground without even jarring Reesing that much? Can you guess who stood up to double teams against the run, and made plays sweeping to the interior? *I think only two real things surprised me. They were O'Brien Schofield's interception on a nice undercut in man coverage, and Devin Ross' so-so performance. The first surprises me just because O'Brien really hadn't shown that all week, and yet it doesn't totally surprise me because his Wisconsin film was strong and I expected to see something like that all week and I thought maybe it would just take him longer to get used to it than others. As for Devin Ross' performance, that was a bit surprising to me because he was by far the best cornerback on either squad all during the week, showing an ability to jam the heck out of anyone at the line, turn and run with them, or equally to play off coverage and break heavy on the ball, forcing incompletions.
He'll be back playing this year. He started practicing this past Tuesday IIRC. I know he's hit the weight room really hard so he can regain his leg strength. His upper body is still intact.
