Cornerbacks
I was asked to see if the Trufant hype was for real. He doesn’t get the ball thrown his way very much, so I assume that means his man is covered most of the time. I saw two passes thrown at Trufant, both on a safety blitz drill, where the SS was blitzing from Trufant’s side. On the first play, Bobby Engram cut in front of Trufant and shield him from the ball with his body to make a nice catch. It was the only completion I saw made on Trufant.
A few plays later, Hasselbeck lobbed the ball up for D.J. Hackett with Trufant playing man coverage. It was a jump ball, so Hackett should have had it with his three inch height advantage. They both battled for it, and Trufant came away with it, secured the ball, and then tapped both feet inbounds. It has widely been called the play of the day, and was pretty impressive.
Kelly Jennings didn’t do anything that stood out as especially positive or negative. They were running a lot of nickel vs. four-wide, so Josh Wilson played a lot. He got totally burned by Nate Burleson on a go route, but the ball was overthrown (an identical play to Burleson burning Jennings in the 7-on-7 drill during the scrimmage). Wilson is clearly a competitor, and is out there giving it everything he has on every play. He still needs to learn his assignments a little bit better, but once he is more comfortable, then he is going to be a force.
The starting corners looked pretty good in the nickel package. It is hard to tell because the receivers are playing really well, but the overall pass defense looks good. For the most part, the receivers are making tough catches in traffic with guys right on them. A few times Hasselbeck just threw it out of bounds or scrambled because everyone was covered.
Pete Hunter also played quite a bit with Jordan Babineax out. He was at left corner with the second unit, and also played with the reserves in the nickel. There is something about his legs or his socks that makes his movement look odd. Other than that, I didn’t notice him. Logan Payne and Chris Jones were wide open and caught a lot of passes against the reserves on defense, so that can’t be a good thing.
Safeties
I heard Brian Russell barking out orders before the snap to keep everyone on the same page. Something like, "if he rolls out then you go for it." On another play Deon Grant crept up to the line and got a "sack" on a safety blitz. He looked fast. Those two might be a big reason why the cornerbacks are always right on their guys.
Mike Green is playing FS with the second unit with Boulware at SS. The combination of Green and Boulware looks pretty good. Not as good as Russell and Grant, but those two seem like they could start if we need them to.
Green looks completely healthy to me. It makes me more comfortable having Grant and Russell on the field at the same time because we have another decent FS option on the bench (I now consider Babineaux a full-time corner).
Mike Kahn said the following the other day (in response to my question about Green), "Green is practicing with the second team and coming along fine. He still hasn’t gotten his full range of motion quickness back from the alarming Lisfranc foot surgery in the joint between the ankle and foot." I believe Mike, but the injury doesn't seem to be bothering Green too much at all.
I didn't see C.J. Wallace doing anything at all. If he was in there, it was with a makeshift defense with Cameron Jensen at MLB and Kevin Hobbs as the nickel corner.
- Offensive Line
- Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
- Quarterbacks and Running Backs
- Linebackers and Defensive Line
0 comments:
Post a Comment