AllWorldTE
07-30-2009, 12:57 PM
The wife and I took in the first practice along with a decent, but not overwhelming, sized crowd. Unfortunately, it was an abbreviated practice due to heavy rain and lightening.
I'll post a few things that went on. Hopefully others who were there can join in and give a nice picture of the day. As always, I take no notes and do this from memory so there may be some errors and/or omissions.
Brady's wearing a brace as expected. He walks a little funny but I bet I would too with a big brace on. He took part in agiles and all the QB footwork drills and didn't appear hampered in any way.
No Moss, Galloway or Springs today. Mayo & Merriweather (who had a good day) were healthy and fully participating. Tank Williams was fully participating as well.
Maroney is not wearing a red shirt meaning he can participate fully. He was first on the base offense RB depth chart to start the day off.
There was no heavy hitting this morning, lots of half speed work, combo drills, and thud work.
It was odd seeing unfamiliar people wearing numbers 80 & 50 (as expected, Vinny C saw lots of SP Teams work today).
During pre-practice, the QB's each took snaps from different Centers while working on their run and play-action footwork. Brady worked with Koppen who is sporting a Matt Light style viking do.
At the same time, The O-Line worked on pass pro footwork in tandems. Vollmer worked with Matt Light on his drop step and punch from the left OT spot. Vollmer towers over Light BTW.
Pierre Woods was on the other field getting individual attention on his speed rush technique.
The long snappers worked on an overhead spiral drill as well. Most everyone else were either stretching or getting verbal instruction from coaches. D. Butler and a coach spent some time together talking technique before the practice started.
After this, most of the offense got together to run half speed plays against a look defense made up of other offensive plays. The offense worked on inside/outside zone and play action passes off those run plays. The script alternated run plays with matched-up PA Passes. The first play was an Inside Zone to Maroney and the second a PA Mesh to Welker sitting in a zone off the Mesh. The RBs worked in this order, Maroney, Taylor, Morris & Faulk. Welk had a reception on a comeback off boot action in this period as well. Julian Endelman was a favorite target during this period running deep crossing routes. (Endelman, later on during a team defense session on the look O, made a nice move and burned Parris Lennon who was in man coverage. After the reception, Endelman showed some quick feet & moves to break free down the middle of the field earning a nice cheer from the crowd). Welker & Lewis worked together on stacked releases, Welker running crossing routes while Lewis worked against man coverage on the back-side getting open rather easily a few times. He made a catch outside when the ball came his way off one stacked release. Welk was motioning to the Stack from the wide number one spot to setting up a nice 2 on 2 situation.
While this was going on, there was work being done elsewhere. The front 7 worked on fits. BB was with this group. At one point he got on Myron Pryor and demonstrated a nice two hand strike on him.
The rest of the defense worked on run game fits as well. It looked like they were working some specialty defenses.
Rookie Patrick Chung was way out in front during the team warm-up lap.
After stretch, most of the team took part in Indy drills while some took part in special teams drills.
Special Teams Coach Scott O'Brian worked with the Punt protection and cover unit while a young coaching assistant worked with the gunners on covering the returner on a fair catch and on their releases against single and double teams. The four guys getting work as gunners were Wheatley, Slater, Richardson & IIRC Terrance Nunn.
During Indy, a lot of work got done as players moved from group to group. I was scanning around and took a little of everything in.
The QB's threw their route tree as always and worked on avoiding pressure in the pocket . The QB's ball boy doesn't have the best hands I've seen. He fights the ball, dropped a few and doesn't have a good arm to get the ball back in. A few passes were dropped or went through his hands. At one point, someone in the crowd yelled out "look the ball in" to the kid. He later caught a Fade in the corner of the EZ that drew a sarcastic cheer from the crowd. He caught a few more and the crowd was on his side. I noticed that Coach Bill O'Brien has settled in nicely with the QBs and the offense in general. He is not only very vocal but also not afraid to tear into people having brain cramps. He yelled at the offense as a whole to "wake up" early in the practice and tore into some unfortunate soul who forgot his route during team offense later. I saw this coming as Gut looked to throw the ball to an area where there was no receiver. Gut found the offender and started explaining the route to the offender (couldn't see who for sure but Taylor was in the area) when Coach O'Brian blasted him.
The QBs rotated through some footwork drills acting as receiver and then rotating to the Q spot. They worked on hitting deep crossing routes off a short PA drop and were throwing 18 yard comebacks off naked boot action. Brady let a Comeback go through his hands in the front corner of the EZ which led to a loud OHHH from the crowd.
WRs worked on releases, route cuts, North-South cuts off the catch, and distraction catches. The QBs moved around working in different groups.
A four level throwing station was set up with each QB working different throws with a different group of receivers. Welker was in Brady’s group. The stations were working several different routes each. Brady worked some deep comebacks, Fades into the corner of the EZ and a nice route from the Slot that Welk ran very well. He was working a 14 yard Dig off a Seam release. After breaking flat across the field at the top of the Dig for a couple steps, Welk returns into the open void behind the Dig coverage. It's a pretty nice route. They used it during the Play-Action session in pre-practice as well.
The ILBs worked on Man covering RBs on check releases (ILBs simulating RBS here) while the OLBs and TEs worked together. Here, the OLBs worked on squeezing base blocks as run force and the TE's worked on single blocks from the LOS and from the H-Back spot. AD and Woods are first on the Depth chart. Vince Redd is a big dude.
The DBs worked on their reads and breaks and later the Safeties worked on coming up on crossing routes while the CBs worked single man coverage techniques. Bodden looked good here. Wheatley did not.
Later, the DBs worked on run force from specialty defenses. Tank Williams saw a lot of reps working as run force from just off the LOS while the Front seven worked on the other side of the field. Vince Redd stayed with the DBs to simulate the TE during this run force work.
The Pat's offense worked against a look defense running their heavy packages with no WR. They worked their three TE sets and their two TE, two Back sets as well. Morris was atop the depth chart during this period. Maroney and Taylor saw work as well. Watson and David Thomas lined up as the blocking Fullback during this period which was a thud period. One interesting wrinkle the Pats showed was in their three TE Set. They would line up both Watson and Baker in the Off-Set Fullback position on either side of the formation at the same time. Baker would then motion to the H-Back Spot and Watson would be in the Off-Set spot to lead black. This makes it tough on the defense trying to set to strength pre-snap. Thomas was the lead blocker in the two TE/ two Back set. One his first rep, he took a bad angle (he was not inside out) on a kick-out attempt against AD and got Taylor dumped on his ass when he ran into AD. Thomas took a better angle and got a good fit on his other efforts.
During team defense work, the Pats showed a lot of Man Free. They rolled into the coverage a lot as well. Merriweather and Sanders were the first Safeties up. Merriweather spent some time on the LOS. Merriweather had a pick in Man Free from centerfield off a pass deflected by Wilhite who was in man coverage against a deep crossing route. Merriweather and Wilhite had some fun on the return lateralling the ball back and forth. Merriweather almost had another pick off a second Wilhite deflection on another crossing route. Lewis was getting open easily during this period (but not having the ball thrown his way) which featured a couple of drops including one by Ventrone on a Comeback route. Endelman burned Lennin in a tight hole during this period as mentioned earlier.
The crowd went wild early in this period when Welker broke a reverse for a big gain. Unfortunately, the reverse was against the Pats' defense as run by a look offense.
Mixed in with all this work, were two Kick-off Cover periods. Two units worked half field coverage against a look KO team using shields. The response to the new rule regarding no more than a two man wedge was obvious during these periods. The look team was setting up deep with 2 two man units stacked atop each other about ten yards apart. It was tough to tell how it was supposed to work as their blocks pretty much turned into kick-outs for the returners, one of whom was Maroney. It'll be interesting to see how this works once the games start and they're doing this live on film.
The practice was cut short by the heavy rain and lighting. They did get a few Ghost kicks into the crowd before exiting the field. Ghost had spent the early part of practice simulating the long snap for the gunners and other such mundane tasks.
Other than the rain and the lack of real contact, it was a pretty good practice.
I'll post a few things that went on. Hopefully others who were there can join in and give a nice picture of the day. As always, I take no notes and do this from memory so there may be some errors and/or omissions.
Brady's wearing a brace as expected. He walks a little funny but I bet I would too with a big brace on. He took part in agiles and all the QB footwork drills and didn't appear hampered in any way.
No Moss, Galloway or Springs today. Mayo & Merriweather (who had a good day) were healthy and fully participating. Tank Williams was fully participating as well.
Maroney is not wearing a red shirt meaning he can participate fully. He was first on the base offense RB depth chart to start the day off.
There was no heavy hitting this morning, lots of half speed work, combo drills, and thud work.
It was odd seeing unfamiliar people wearing numbers 80 & 50 (as expected, Vinny C saw lots of SP Teams work today).
During pre-practice, the QB's each took snaps from different Centers while working on their run and play-action footwork. Brady worked with Koppen who is sporting a Matt Light style viking do.
At the same time, The O-Line worked on pass pro footwork in tandems. Vollmer worked with Matt Light on his drop step and punch from the left OT spot. Vollmer towers over Light BTW.
Pierre Woods was on the other field getting individual attention on his speed rush technique.
The long snappers worked on an overhead spiral drill as well. Most everyone else were either stretching or getting verbal instruction from coaches. D. Butler and a coach spent some time together talking technique before the practice started.
After this, most of the offense got together to run half speed plays against a look defense made up of other offensive plays. The offense worked on inside/outside zone and play action passes off those run plays. The script alternated run plays with matched-up PA Passes. The first play was an Inside Zone to Maroney and the second a PA Mesh to Welker sitting in a zone off the Mesh. The RBs worked in this order, Maroney, Taylor, Morris & Faulk. Welk had a reception on a comeback off boot action in this period as well. Julian Endelman was a favorite target during this period running deep crossing routes. (Endelman, later on during a team defense session on the look O, made a nice move and burned Parris Lennon who was in man coverage. After the reception, Endelman showed some quick feet & moves to break free down the middle of the field earning a nice cheer from the crowd). Welker & Lewis worked together on stacked releases, Welker running crossing routes while Lewis worked against man coverage on the back-side getting open rather easily a few times. He made a catch outside when the ball came his way off one stacked release. Welk was motioning to the Stack from the wide number one spot to setting up a nice 2 on 2 situation.
While this was going on, there was work being done elsewhere. The front 7 worked on fits. BB was with this group. At one point he got on Myron Pryor and demonstrated a nice two hand strike on him.
The rest of the defense worked on run game fits as well. It looked like they were working some specialty defenses.
Rookie Patrick Chung was way out in front during the team warm-up lap.
After stretch, most of the team took part in Indy drills while some took part in special teams drills.
Special Teams Coach Scott O'Brian worked with the Punt protection and cover unit while a young coaching assistant worked with the gunners on covering the returner on a fair catch and on their releases against single and double teams. The four guys getting work as gunners were Wheatley, Slater, Richardson & IIRC Terrance Nunn.
During Indy, a lot of work got done as players moved from group to group. I was scanning around and took a little of everything in.
The QB's threw their route tree as always and worked on avoiding pressure in the pocket . The QB's ball boy doesn't have the best hands I've seen. He fights the ball, dropped a few and doesn't have a good arm to get the ball back in. A few passes were dropped or went through his hands. At one point, someone in the crowd yelled out "look the ball in" to the kid. He later caught a Fade in the corner of the EZ that drew a sarcastic cheer from the crowd. He caught a few more and the crowd was on his side. I noticed that Coach Bill O'Brien has settled in nicely with the QBs and the offense in general. He is not only very vocal but also not afraid to tear into people having brain cramps. He yelled at the offense as a whole to "wake up" early in the practice and tore into some unfortunate soul who forgot his route during team offense later. I saw this coming as Gut looked to throw the ball to an area where there was no receiver. Gut found the offender and started explaining the route to the offender (couldn't see who for sure but Taylor was in the area) when Coach O'Brian blasted him.
The QBs rotated through some footwork drills acting as receiver and then rotating to the Q spot. They worked on hitting deep crossing routes off a short PA drop and were throwing 18 yard comebacks off naked boot action. Brady let a Comeback go through his hands in the front corner of the EZ which led to a loud OHHH from the crowd.
WRs worked on releases, route cuts, North-South cuts off the catch, and distraction catches. The QBs moved around working in different groups.
A four level throwing station was set up with each QB working different throws with a different group of receivers. Welker was in Brady’s group. The stations were working several different routes each. Brady worked some deep comebacks, Fades into the corner of the EZ and a nice route from the Slot that Welk ran very well. He was working a 14 yard Dig off a Seam release. After breaking flat across the field at the top of the Dig for a couple steps, Welk returns into the open void behind the Dig coverage. It's a pretty nice route. They used it during the Play-Action session in pre-practice as well.
The ILBs worked on Man covering RBs on check releases (ILBs simulating RBS here) while the OLBs and TEs worked together. Here, the OLBs worked on squeezing base blocks as run force and the TE's worked on single blocks from the LOS and from the H-Back spot. AD and Woods are first on the Depth chart. Vince Redd is a big dude.
The DBs worked on their reads and breaks and later the Safeties worked on coming up on crossing routes while the CBs worked single man coverage techniques. Bodden looked good here. Wheatley did not.
Later, the DBs worked on run force from specialty defenses. Tank Williams saw a lot of reps working as run force from just off the LOS while the Front seven worked on the other side of the field. Vince Redd stayed with the DBs to simulate the TE during this run force work.
The Pat's offense worked against a look defense running their heavy packages with no WR. They worked their three TE sets and their two TE, two Back sets as well. Morris was atop the depth chart during this period. Maroney and Taylor saw work as well. Watson and David Thomas lined up as the blocking Fullback during this period which was a thud period. One interesting wrinkle the Pats showed was in their three TE Set. They would line up both Watson and Baker in the Off-Set Fullback position on either side of the formation at the same time. Baker would then motion to the H-Back Spot and Watson would be in the Off-Set spot to lead black. This makes it tough on the defense trying to set to strength pre-snap. Thomas was the lead blocker in the two TE/ two Back set. One his first rep, he took a bad angle (he was not inside out) on a kick-out attempt against AD and got Taylor dumped on his ass when he ran into AD. Thomas took a better angle and got a good fit on his other efforts.
During team defense work, the Pats showed a lot of Man Free. They rolled into the coverage a lot as well. Merriweather and Sanders were the first Safeties up. Merriweather spent some time on the LOS. Merriweather had a pick in Man Free from centerfield off a pass deflected by Wilhite who was in man coverage against a deep crossing route. Merriweather and Wilhite had some fun on the return lateralling the ball back and forth. Merriweather almost had another pick off a second Wilhite deflection on another crossing route. Lewis was getting open easily during this period (but not having the ball thrown his way) which featured a couple of drops including one by Ventrone on a Comeback route. Endelman burned Lennin in a tight hole during this period as mentioned earlier.
The crowd went wild early in this period when Welker broke a reverse for a big gain. Unfortunately, the reverse was against the Pats' defense as run by a look offense.
Mixed in with all this work, were two Kick-off Cover periods. Two units worked half field coverage against a look KO team using shields. The response to the new rule regarding no more than a two man wedge was obvious during these periods. The look team was setting up deep with 2 two man units stacked atop each other about ten yards apart. It was tough to tell how it was supposed to work as their blocks pretty much turned into kick-outs for the returners, one of whom was Maroney. It'll be interesting to see how this works once the games start and they're doing this live on film.
The practice was cut short by the heavy rain and lighting. They did get a few Ghost kicks into the crowd before exiting the field. Ghost had spent the early part of practice simulating the long snap for the gunners and other such mundane tasks.
Other than the rain and the lack of real contact, it was a pretty good practice.