Week of June 1st OTA News

[pbmax]

Mike Flanagan, Center-Tackle extraordinaire, is interning as an O line coach. If the O line falters, it will not be for a lack of coaching bodies.

EDIT: Holy cow, he has slimmed way down.

http://tweetphoto.com/25225481

http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c54102/x2_180e909.jpeg

[pbmax]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

[get louder at lambeau]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.

[pbmax]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

[Tony Oday]

Our Defense should be damn amazing this year since it practicing against our offense!

[get louder at lambeau]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

I don't remember any TEs really having great days against GB last year. What am I forgetting?

[Tony Oday]

Oh and damn isnt it fun to have real football news :) CAN I GET A WITNESS!!!

[Freak Out]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

I don't remember any TEs really having great days against GB last year. What am I forgetting?

Didn't Shiancoe have a good game against us?

[get louder at lambeau]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

I don't remember any TEs really having great days against GB last year. What am I forgetting?

Didn't Shiancoe have a good game against us?

Looked it up-

First game, 3 targets, 3 receptions for 18 yards and a TD. Second game 3 targets, 1 reception for 12 yards and a TD. I guess he did alright because of a TD in each game, but he averaged 2 catches and 15 yards per game, so nothing amazing.

[hoosier]

Mike Flanagan is interning as an O line coach. If the O line falters, it will not be for a lack of coaching bodies.

EDIT: Holy cow, he has slimmed way down.

If I remember correctly Flanagan was always a pretty skinny guy. :lol:

http://images.camdenchat.com/images/admin/40_mflanagan.jpg[/img]

[Fred's Slacks]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

I don't remember any TEs really having great days against GB last year. What am I forgetting?

Didn't Shiancoe have a good game against us?

Looked it up-

First game, 3 targets, 3 receptions for 18 yards and a TD. Second game 3 targets, 1 reception for 12 yards and a TD. I guess he did alright because of a TD in each game, but he averaged 2 catches and 15 yards per game, so nothing amazing.

I distinctly remember being pissed because St Louis had a TE I'd never heard of burn Chillar for 2 TDs. Don't remember his name or if he did anything else.

[get louder at lambeau]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

I don't remember any TEs really having great days against GB last year. What am I forgetting?

Didn't Shiancoe have a good game against us?

Looked it up-

First game, 3 targets, 3 receptions for 18 yards and a TD. Second game 3 targets, 1 reception for 12 yards and a TD. I guess he did alright because of a TD in each game, but he averaged 2 catches and 15 yards per game, so nothing amazing.

I distinctly remember being pissed because St Louis had a TE I'd never heard of burn Chillar for 2 TDs. Don't remember his name or if he did anything else.

That would be Daniel Fells. 5 targets, 2 catches, 35 yards, 2 TDs.

[Fritz]

Mike Flanagan is interning as an O line coach. If the O line falters, it will not be for a lack of coaching bodies.

EDIT: Holy cow, he has slimmed way down.

If I remember correctly Flanagan was always a pretty skinny guy. :lol:

http://images.camdenchat.com/images/admin/40_mflanagan.jpg[/img]


Not in his later days. He had a pot belly at the end.

As for the ota's, there was a fluff article on Giacomini, too. Basically "yes he's still on the team and he will fight for a spot."

And he think's he's getting better.

[vince]

I took the trek up to the hallowed grounds to take in OTA practice yesterday (I highly recommend the beer cheese and bacon burger at Curly's Pub ;-) and here are some random musings about what I saw...

- I didn't see any accuracy issues from Shepard, although both he and Harrell got very limited reps in general. What I did see was a cannon of an arm. He appeared to me to be a tad short (like 6'0 1/2" or so, although I didn't look up his listed height). He's an athlete and solidly built.

- I didn't see enough of Harrell to make a determination of his arm strength. He didn't ahve the zip that Shepard and Rodgers have, but neither did Flynn.

- There was a good breeze blowing and Flynn's ball floated at times. I was a bit disappointed in his arm frankly.

- Andrew Quarless didn't appear as fluid as I hoped, although I'm not sure how much you can read into that as he wasn't always real sure of himself in terms of where to be, when to motion, etc. yet.

- There's a non-drafted o-lineman - Campbell - who's a specimin-and-a-half. Hardly an ounce of fat and athletic. I'm sure he's a project, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't on the practice squad this year.

- I read about the Giacomini praise, but I didn't see anything t o get excited about. He seems like a lumbering oaf (relatively speaking) to me out there.

- Brad Jones looks fantastic, bigger than I expected.

- Pat Lee also looks very good physically and very fluid in coverage - a notch above Underwood in my opinion.

- Burnett has good closing speed on the ball and a knack for making plays - at least he did in yesterday's practice.

- Both punters looked pretty good I though. I give Bryan the slight advantage because he gets the ball off quicker and is left-footed. He's more of a natural kicker and less mechanical to me.

- Slocum runs around the field like a maniac and is mic'd up, so he can talk to both kick and kick return teams from a distance when they are on the field. I thought it was cool to be able to hear him coaching the players on the field.

- McCarthy took a more hands-off approach to practice than I remember in the past. His coordinators are running the show for their respective teams and McCarthy sat in the middle watching both offense and defense. In the past, he's been heavily involved in the offense and talking with the QB's. Maybe he'll revert to that when training camp rolls around.

- Not news, but I was struck by Crosby's field goals into a stiff wind from 45 yards out or so. Both were dead center with plenty of distance.

- I tried to gauge some of the new OLB's but couldn't get a feel for whether any of them are players or pretenders.

- Finley was huge in the 2-minute drill. He looks very much like Rodgers' go-to guy. He had a nice catch on a fourth-down play and also a very nice touchdown reception down the middle.

- Jennings had a very nice touchdown catch where he was stretched out.

- Bush had a patented play where he turned and saw the ball coming right at him, got his hands up and watched the ball bounce right off them, only to have Burnett intercept the tip-drill. Bush clearly should have caught the ball though and didn't.

- It's easy to see that Brady Poppinga lives for football. He is all over the place on defense and special teams both, energetic and keeps everyone going. While I don't relish seeing him in the game on Sundays, he's good for the young guys to see going about his business on a daily basis.

I took some low-quality video with my PDA and I'll compile it and post a link to it in the next couple days.

[Freak Out]

Awesome post Vince....thanks.

[mission]

Yes thank you Vince!

Between your post and a blog report somewhere else, I'm excited to hear that Burnett has been around a lot of footballs and communicating better than you'd expect from a rookie.

[Joemailman]

If I were Bigby, I'd sign that tender and catch the first plane to Green Bay. Burnett is definitely getting his foot in the door. There is going to be a full blown battle for that Safety position.

[vince]

Burnett gave himself shots at about three other balls, one of which he probably should have had. On another, he dove after a ball that I thought he caught, but it must have hit the ground on his roll because he went back and did some push-ups after the play. It would have been a great play, but he must have thought he should have caught it. He, the ball and the ground all met at the same time.

A little more on Lee and Underwood a bit. First off, Lee is bigger than Underwood physically, so that may have a lot to do with my opinion. I'm not sure about either's 40 yd. dash or explosion drill times, but my guess just observing the two is that Lee's a tad faster too. So along with being bigger, that makes him look better and I think he'll be more stout in run support too. Both seem to be able to play the ball at least reasonably well.

[bobblehead]

Your weekly inscrutable Greg Bedard Tweet that signifies nothing since its all insidery fluffiness with no actual reference to a fact. Greg should report for E!

Greg_A_Bedard:
Finley TD came on same type of play that has given Packers fits since Capers got here

I think the term for the kind of play Bedard was referring to is a "pass play". That's about as specific as it gets without him being wrong, because the Packers didn't give up many TDs to TEs last year.
They did have some trouble with Chillar and Hawk on them, but they went away from that coverage later in the season. And that was on both routes run to the boundaries AND deep down the middle. I love the notion that there is a hole in Caper D the entire time he has been here. One year.

In fairness to bedard, the hole was that we had no safeties for awhile there. Remember lining chillar up at safety? It is dishonest to say that it has been plaguing "capers defense" though....capers never designed the D to play a LB at safety.

[Fritz]

I learned more in Vince's one post than I have in all the crap that's been floated in the JSO. Thanks Vince.

Glad to hear about Brad Jones. Though as I read your comment on him it struck me that if Brad Jones had a date and she'd made the same comment, it would mean something entirely different...

And the cockles of my heart (I have big cockles. Really. No, seriously.) were warmed by your comment about Crosby's kicks being right down the center - and not just tucked inside the right upright.

[vince]

Here's some video that'll only be up for a day from Bedard showing the OLB's in a drill from yesterday's practice.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/95548569.html

Unfortunately, Bedard can't help himself and has to offer his "analysis." He suggests that Matthews needs to improve his coverage skills. Matthews is an elite coverage OLB, one of the best in the league. I'll have to find the list, but I think he was rated top 5 as a cover guy by Football Outsiders. Brad Jones is also a very good coverage OLB in my opinion. It's run stopping and pass rushing where he needs to improve.

For my money, Knicky had quicker feet than the other new guys in this video, including Zombo, who Bedard seems to like.

EDIT: Matthews is the number 3 cover OLB in the league according to ProFootballFocus.com. Jones is 22, so he has some improving to do to be top 10 where he should be...

EDIT 2: Zombo and Knicky had almost identical combine numbers across the board, so in reality they're both pretty similar when it comes to agility, quickness, speed, and explosion.