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Despite making the Wednesday practice and the game on Friday, I ended up back on Airline today for a 3rd trip to the city in 5 days and I'm certainly beat. However, I'm glad I did because after looking at the usual updates thread, I see the beat writers and local reporters really stiffed y'all on the Twitter updates today. Thankfully the first two-thirds of practice weren't as soulcrushing as Wednesday's practice was and those in attendance and the team were able to enjoy the cloud cover from the overcast skies and even yes, a slight breeze (Brees?) for a little while until it started cooking for the last two 11v11 sessions. Anyways, here's my recap from my notes.
Blocking 1 vs 1 - a new drill to breakup the monotony of training camp. This drill pitted the TE's vs LB's / S's to start practice today and was very back and forth. TE/AHC Dan Campbell was simulating being the QB and dropping back with the ball to give the rusher an actual moving target to aim towards...
11 vs 11 - a full period of live 11v11's
I wonder if he likes ping pong...
11 vs 11 - 2-minute drill simulation and final 11v11 period of the day, just Brees and Bridgewater this time though
Hope y'all enjoyed reading. I'm likely going to be able to make one more practice this year (either on the 21st or 22nd, currently undecided at the moment) so y'all can expect one more of these this year at least. ?
Blocking 1 vs 1 - a new drill to breakup the monotony of training camp. This drill pitted the TE's vs LB's / S's to start practice today and was very back and forth. TE/AHC Dan Campbell was simulating being the QB and dropping back with the ball to give the rusher an actual moving target to aim towards...
- 87 vs 53 - Cook contains Klein. who tries a bull rush
- 89 vs 59 - Biegel whoops Hill BADLY
- 85 vs 24 - Bell beats Arnold with a very nice swim move inside
- 81 vs 22 - Derby technically won the rep, but he had a handful and a half of Gardner-Johnson's jersey so very likely it would be called
- 87 vs 54 - I believe Josh Martin jumped early on this rep and Cook didn't really give it much effort after so we'll say Cook by DQ victory
- 85 vs 48 - Gray beats Arnold and actually is able to strip the ball from Campbell simulating the throw as a QB
- 81 vs 53 - Derby has the upper hand initially, by Klein works his way inside and is able to drive Derby back hard
- 87 vs 59 - Biegel tries beating Cook around the edge but Cook wins the rep and puts Biegel down behind Campbell
- 85 vs 48 - Gray beats Arnold with a Freeney-esque spin move, sells hard to the outside and the spins back inside for the win
- 81 vs 54 - Derby beats Martin
- 87 vs 43 - Williams uses his speed and gets the inside on Cook who is partially able to recover but the win goes to Williams
- 85 vs 55 - Elliss hits Arnold with an inside move for the win
- 81 vs 59 - Biegel drives Derby back considerably hard, Biegel with the win
- 87 vs 31 - Cook wins the rep but as the exchange started he popped Banjo in the face one good time so it could've been illegal hands to the face
- 85 vs 54 - Arnold was winning the start of the rep, but the tide turned and Martin was able to get around him to which Arnold grabbed a handful of Martin's collar, Martin wins
- 81 vs 38 - Terrell Williams starts to beat Derby initially, but Derby recovers to win the rep
- 87 vs 55 - Elliss gets inside of Cook, but Cook is able to use his leverage and maintain his positioning, Cook with the win
- Brees to Thomas on a deep in-route for ~25 yards, beat Robinson
- Murray run-left inside for ~3 yards
- Washington run-right outside for 10-12 yards
- Murray run-middle for no gain; Brees' last rep, Bridgewater rotates in...
- Washington run-middle for 2-3 yards
- Bridgewater to Cobbs on an out-route for ~15 yards, defense appeared to be in zone, Elliss was the nearest defender
- Rodgers run-right inside, hits a nifty little cutback inside in the hole to avoid a tackler before picking up ~5 or so yards
- Ozigbo run-left outside for 2 yards, if that; Bridgewater's last rep, Hill rotates in...
- Kerwynn Williams run-middle, no-gain (I believe this was Kerwynn Williams as the #30 RB we had before was Dayes who was waived when Williams was signed and he's the only RB signing since)
- Ozigbo run-left outside for a BIG gain, he broke an arm tackle at the LOS and was off to the races
- Williams run-middle for ~17-20 yards, hit a nice move at the LOS as well
- Hill play action to Williams, goes through his progressions before coming back to Williams in the flat for 5 yards before being banged out of bounds
- I missed who was gunning down because I was watching Harris try to find the ball in the sun and he instead decides to let it hit instead of fielding it
- 22 vs 20/31 - Crawley drives Gardner-Johnson out of bounds not far off the line, CGJ then works his way back in 10 yards down after outrunning Banjo
- this rep was the protector unit running down but it was hard to tell who was on the kicking team/returning team because nearly all of them were wearing white offensive jerseys, but no one had on the little orange caps one unit usually put over their helmets, however Line looked like he was mauled by 3-4 people at once and he was pushed down like they were kids on the schoolyard
- another rep of the punt protect unit, Elliss does a great job getting down there right as Williams fields the punt
- 34 vs 38/39 - Williams and Webster get the best of Hardee on this rep
- 10 vs 21/26 - Robinson pushes Smith out off the line but Smith is able to recover and get down the field in time to make the "tackle" on Harris
- I missed who was gunning and protecting on this rep, but it didn't matter anyway because Kerwynn Williams muffs the punt and it bounces forward about 10-15 yards
- 48 vs 36/83 - Green and Grayson are able to team up for the rep victory over Gray
- Brees to Smith on an in-route for ~10 or so yards, Robinson slipped trying to pick him up because I think they were in zone, but it wasn't his responsibility, he just saw no one was there
- Brees to Ginn on an out-route for ~12-14 yards
- Brees incomplete to Ginn on a crosser, Apple was in coverage, it was a bit of a bad pass because Bell came on a blitz (even though they're playing 7v7 )
- Brees incomplete to Thomas on a curl in the middle of the field, PBU by Williams who came screaming in from his safety spot; Brees' last rep, Hill rotates in...
- Hill incomplete to Cobbs on a slant, PBU by Crawley; Bridgewater arrives so Hill rotates back out...
- Bridgewater to K. Williams in the flat for ~4 yards, the pass was kinda short and he essentially had to lay out for it
- Bridgewater incomplete to Butler on a corner down the right sideline, Crawley actually jumped the route and had the INT but dropped it on his way down
- Brees to Hill in the left flat for ~5 yards
- Brees to Murray in the right flat for 4 yards
- Brees to Smith on a fade for the TD in the back-right corner of the endzone, beat Crawley
- Brees to Thomas on another fade in the back-left corner of the endzone but couldn't see from my spot if he was in or not, Thomas is certain he was in but Marcus Williams and the defense asserts he was not; ruling is inconclusive, but Thomas did catch the ball with no one within 3-4 yards of him so if the feet were in it's a TD; Brees' last rep, Bridgewater rotates in...
- I missed Bridgewater's first snap trying to figure out if that was a TD by Thomas and writing everything from the previous snap
- Bridgewater to Cobbs on an in-route in the endzone, PBU by Apple; Bridgewater's last rep, Hill rotates in...
- Hill to Washington in the flat and runs in for the TD
- Hill to Arnold on a fade to the sideline but don't believe he got into the endzone, beat Apple
11 vs 11 - a full period of live 11v11's
- Murray run-left inside, makes a nice cut but is limited to only a 2-3 yard gain
- Brees to Butler on an in-route that I believe the defense was in zone for and Butler sat on and curled between zones for ~15 yards, VERY Colston-esque how he'd find those holes to sit in and Brees would drop an easy one in the bucket for a fresh set of downs
- wild shotgun snap by McCoy (to Brees' right), Robinson or Davis would've recovered if not blown dead; rather have these mishaps now to get them ironed out
- Brees incomplete to Ginn on a deep in-route, goes right through his hands and right into Marcus Williams' hands for the INT, Bell had great coverage for having to pick up Ginn
- Brees to K. Williams in flat after rolling out, however it took forever and Hendrickson would've likely had a sack (he could've knocked the ball out Brees' hand if he wanted but didn't) coming off Brees' left side, I think he beat Newhouse; Brees' last rep, Bridgewater rotates in...
- Ozigbo stuffed up the middle, but it looked as though the LG left early anyway but they didn't blow it dead
- Bridgewater to Ozigbo on a swing for ~5 yards
- Bridgewater incomplete to K. Williams in flat, sailed it over his head; DE Geneo Grissom appeared to have jumped offsides
- Rodgers run-middle for ~3-4 yards; Bridgewater's last rep, Hill rotates in...
- Washington run-left outside for 4-5 yards
- K. Williams run-middle for ~8 yards, tripped over his own feet
- Hill to Ozigbo on a short-out, but Porter Gustin likely would've had a sack coming off the blindside
- Hill to Butler on another deep-in and curl between zones, Butler may be the one...
- Group 1: one player would be carrying the ball and the other had to get under their pads and wrap up him; after wrapping them up, they'd go into the ball carrier line and the ball carrier would go into the wrap up line, I believe everyone got to do two sets of both before station changing
- Group 2: players would run forward and wrap up a tackling pad being held by an assistant and roll with it (I guess to practice using their weight to bring down a ball carrier), everyone did this ~4 times since there were 2 lines
- Group 3: similar to Group 2, but they were starting on their knees and swiping at the bottom of the tackling pad being held up, I assume they all got to do this ~4 times as well since there were 2 lines but I'm not 100% since they were more towards the far sideline
I wonder if he likes ping pong...
11 vs 11 - 2-minute drill simulation and final 11v11 period of the day, just Brees and Bridgewater this time though
- Brees to Ginn on a curl for ~15 yards in bounds
- Brees incomplete to Cook on a seam up between the numbers and the left hash; Cook slightly slowed down right as Brees threw it and it was nearly an INT by Robinson before Cook sped back up and was able to get a PBU to prevent the INT
- Brees to Thomas on a short-out for 7-8 yards, Robinson in coverage
- Brees to Murray on a WR screen (Murray was out wide) for ~10 yards
- Brees to Murray in the flat for another ~7-8 yards, Davis escorts him out of bounds
- Brees scrambles for about 10-15 yards after everything was covered; the defense stacked the box and showed a zero blitz (where all 5 eligible receivers are manned up and the remaining 6 defenders are blitzing, for those unfamiliar with the term) but Marcus Williams bailed out at the snap and assisted in doubling Thomas who ran an out-and-up (which seemed to be where Brees wanted to go)
- Brees to Hill on an in-route for ~10 yards
- Brees incomplete to Thomas, didn't see the route but the ball was batted at the line
- Brees to Thomas on a slant for the TD, beating Bell who had good coverage but Brees rifled a pass in front of Thomas who stretched out those Gumby arms and snagged the TD which was out of Bell's reach; great coverage, greater throw and catch; Brees' last rep, Bridgewater rotates in...
- Bridgewater incomplete to Arnold; a bit too high, Gray in coverage
- Bridgewater to Cobbs on a curl for ~5 yards, Webster in coverage and attempted to strip it out, no dice
- Bridgewater to Dural on a short-out, nearly a PBU by someone coming from the safety spot (maybe Banjo?), but Dural is able to scoop it out the dirt and turn up field for a few additional yards; really great catch
- Didn't see this rep as it was over relatively quick, I believe it was a sack by Elliss but don't quote me on that for sure
- Bridgewater to Dural on a corner for about 12-15 yards, Crawley in coverage
- Bridgewater to Derby in the flat for ~ 5 yards, Banjo on the stop
- Bridgewater to Cobbs on an out-route, Webster in coverage
- Bridgewater to Dural on a deep in-route, like Brees' TD to Thomas to end the last series, Bridgewater anticipated Dural clearing a defender sitting in a zone and roped it to him in a tight window, great timing and play
- Bridgewater incomplete to ? - pass was batted by Banjo on a safety blitz, as first reported by @rob22278 and the period was then blown dead
Hope y'all enjoyed reading. I'm likely going to be able to make one more practice this year (either on the 21st or 22nd, currently undecided at the moment) so y'all can expect one more of these this year at least. ?
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