Camp Practice Update 8/5 A.M.
August 5, 2009 - Bob Gretz |
From River Falls, Wisconsin
Todd Haley spent a lot of time paying attention to the team’s wide receivers during the Wednesday morning session and based on his commentary throughout the practice, he didn’t like what he saw.
“Come on Jake (O’Connell) you’ve got to know the whole picture.”
“Stay off the ground. I don’t want to see us get an interception because you are laying on the ground.”
“I’m tired of the picks and dropped balls.”
That was the tone of what was a spirited full pads practice under brillant sunshine here at UW-River Falls.
On back-to-back plays in one drill, WR Mark Bradley dropped an easy catch against air, and WR Amani Toomer made a difficult catch. WR Dwayne Bowe fell down several times while making his cuts, so did Toomer and WR Bobby Engram. CB Ricardo Colclough had an interception of QB Tyler Thigpen when WR Jeff Webb fell down. Later, CB Londen Fryar picked off a QB Matt Cassel pass intended for Engram.
The offense and defense got after it in drills for the running game, with some good contact during the session. The passing game remains hit and miss, no matter who is throwing the ball.
Here are some observations and nuggets of information from the workout:
- Missing from the practice was ILB Monty Beisel. He was not part of the rehab session either. In Tuesday’s practice, Beisel took a blow when he went to tackle RB Jackie Battle, so that might be a lingering problem. As usual Haley would not address the situation.
- OLB Mike Vrabel did not take part in the practice, working with the bike patrol over in the area that Haley has dubbed “No Man’s Land.” Nothing serious, just a practice off for the veteran.
- Also on the rehab-bike team for this workout were: LBs Wes Dacus and Demorrio Williams, RB Kolby Smith, TE Brad Cottam, S DaJuan Morgan and OL Wade Smith.
- LG Brian Waters did all the practice work with the exception of one-on-one pass protection. When the lines went there, Waters snapped the ball for the quarterbacks in the seven-on-seven drill.
- In that seven-on-seven, CB Brandon Carr picked off a Cassel throw with very good coverage.
- Andy Studebaker replaced Vrabel with the first defense at OLB, opposite Tamba Hali.
- K Ryan Succop was three-for-three on his FGs. He made the first one as the Chiefs went to a hurry up situation to get the FG team on the field and set up.