I was there today. While everyone waits for the reporters to post their stories, here's a few things. Trying to get something down here before my son wakes up any minute:
Newsome absolutely crushed a punt. Holy crap. When he kicked it, you just knew he outkicked his coverage, which is what happened. However, the tackling on Sanders was so comically bad that I thought they weren't live. But the way they chased Sanders you could see that it was live. That kid is lightning quick. A couple moves and then in the open field he was gone. It was pretty sick.
On on play he juked like 4-5 guys...it was one of those fly sweeps from the slot, and he should have been tackled several times. He's so little, and he's so elusive, it was almost like a video game. And I repeat, the dude is tiiiiiiny. But he's got much better vision than Amir, and his cutting ability is legit.
And Newsome has a ridiculous leg. The last punt, he 'shanked' but still went 44 yards and you could tell he was trying to angle it towards the sideline and out of bounds, which it did.
Yoon missed his first kick of the summer...well, actually, it was blocked. He then went ahead and kicked a decently deep one from the far right hash (beautiful kick), and then he kicked one straight away, up and easily in from about 44 or so. And like Mike said, he drilled one to end practice. I liked how he bounced back from his first kick being blocked like it was no big thing. Showed me something.
Freshmen receivers all did some good things. Gayton is bigger than I thought he'd be. He caught a beautiful bomb, but then the DB never gave up and eventually wrestled it to the ground. We all thought he caught it but the refs ruled no catch. St. Brown had a bad drop but came back and made quality grabs, as did Boykin. Too bad ALize was rarely in. Luatua had a couple bad drops. Hounshell is a big boy, and he even had a nice catch on a poorly thrown ball to his knees. I'd pit him ahead of Luatua based on today. Weishar had some great moments, and was also reamed by the coaches a few times for not finishing blocks or not concentrating. But I agree with the reporters in that he is much improved and will probably play a lot this year if SMythe doesn't raise his game (or even if he does, actually).
The 2 freshmen corners were in there A LOT and made great plays the entire practice. Neither are very big, but they stick their noses in their and aren't afraid of anything. Shumate seemed like he was with the 2's a lot today. Not sure if that was just to see what Avery had. Pass rush scares me. Bonner did some good things, as did Trumbetti a few times, and Rochelle is such a beast, but nothing that screams consistent pass rush. They're going to have to get exotic with stunts and blitzes IMHO. Hopefully a reporter much smarter than me will contradict what I saw, because I admittedly didn't look at them much as they were on the other field a lot of the day.
Russell is just disgustingly good. Oh my word. Cole looked great today at times as well. Zaire is going to be up and down IMHO. He's a much better thrower than people give him credit for, but he's not Golson either. Thing is, he was much more accurate today that he has been. He'll let some sail on him, and we'll go 3 and out bc of it, but he will also extend soooo many drives, that the inconsistency won't be as detrimental as other offenses with less mobile QB's. He had one ridiculous play where he rolled out across his body...and ketp rolling....and kept rolling...and finally threw a laser. Fuller goes down the sideline about 20 yds, stops on a dime for a comeback route (with pretty great coverage by Russell, and right when he turns the ball was in his grill, where he caught it and toe-tapped near the sideline for a wonderful completion. The timing and the symmetry of that play can only be done bc of intense practice outside of practice.
They threw a ton of fades today. Chris Brown had a fantastic catch on one of them...didn't look so good on another. Will Fuller had a couple bad drops, but then he showed why he could be an AA on a couple of different catches, including taking a tunnel screen to the house for 65+ yds. Corey Holmes had 2 awful drops, including one slnt that he literally let hit him in the stomach and fall to the ground. He also flashed on a couple of plays later in practice. But he needs better consistency. Folston hardly played...it's obvious they are resting him. Prosise was there rocking the eyeglasses but not in pads. Freshmen RB's got a lot of work in...hard to tell how good they are when they aren't being brought to the ground. But both looked really good in some spots, not so good in others. Brent has some really nice speed; he needs to get his pad level down or he will get lit up.
It looked to me like Cage took all the 1st team reps in place of Jones. BK says Tillery did as well, but I missed that. O-line could be dominant, hopefully.
All this from fan's persective...not an expert by any means!
