The Sam Mills Fan Report: Live from Spartanburg, 7/31

[Sam Mills Fan]

My report from this morning's practice in no particular order:

- Without 89 out there, the receivers are a mess. The only one that can consistently get open is Kenny Moore. He actually looked fantastic. He beat Richard Marshall for not 1, but 2 deep TD passes today. But the quarterbacks were doing a TON of checking down to tight ends and backs throughout the practice because the receivers just weren't open. LaFell did have a nice catch in traffic, but that was the only memorable catch by someone not Kenny Moore that I can remember this morning. LaFell had some drops in there though as did Dwayne Jarrett (Jarrett had the ugliest drop of the morning that I saw). Edwards didn't do much one way or the other.

- A problem with all 4 quarterbacks so far is that their passes are fluttering on them making it very easy for the defender to come up and bat the ball away. Pike was especially bad at that.

- Clausen looked okay. He had a woefully underthrown deep ball that I think ended up being picked off. He looked *extremely* relaxed though when his helmet was off, more relaxed than any other quarterback.

- DeAngelo was looking fantastic out there and put some nasty moves on some guys. Goodson was looking extremely fast. Fiammetta had a nice catch.

- Tight ends looked great. They continued to have solid hands.

- Louis Leonard must not be too hurt because they lined him up at receiver in a pre-practice drill with mostly linebackers. Speaking of linebackers, Jon Beason looks better than ever. He was easily the most vocal guy out there on both sides of the ball today. He was lining guys up when they were out of position and was talking to Senn about a whole lot of things. With all of the vets being cut and 89 and Stewart being sidelined, he and DeAngelo were the only guys that seemed to have a "presence" out on the field.

- Norwood and Hardy continued to be active. They didn't make a lot of plays from what I saw, but they looked like they knew what they were doing. They were playing at the highest level of the rookies.

- On punt returns, all of the guys looked okay except for Goodson who had a bad bobble. Armanti was fielding punts very cleanly, looked great unlike the reports of him muffing everything on Thursday.

- Biggest autograph crowds were for Jimmy Clausen and 89 and then everyone else. I thought it was a little telling that there were maybe 5 people huddled by Clausen to get an autograph for every 1 by Matt Moore.

- Weather was about as cool as you can hope for in Spartanburg this time of year, but there was rain on and off all morning.

Any questions just ask.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Oh yeah, the first guy to start signing autographs was Armanti and the last to leave was 89. 89 was out there forever and was willing to sign anything people wanted.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Last thing: There was a scary moment when someone was blocked into Clausen's legs below the knee and Clausen was pushed backwards, but he was fine.

[Jpjr]

My report from this morning's practice in no particular order:

- Biggest autograph crowds were for Jimmy Clausen and 89 and then everyone else. I thought it was a little telling that there were maybe 5 people huddled by Clausen to get an autograph for every 1 by Matt Moore.

Any questions just ask.

In this case the mob will be proven right over time. Just sayin'...

[Jpjr]

PS Thanks for the great update.

[Kurb]

WR situation gets more disturbing by the day.

[firstdayfan]

I do have a question and a comment...anybody heard anything out of David gettis? I have heard anything out of him all camp.

Here's the comment, I really think we should relax a little about the wide receiver situation. I hate to quote fox but it is what t is...there isn't a guy practicing that's started more than maybe 5 games at this level among them. Of course they are going to look shaky. And also remember the QB's as well...what 8 starts among all four and those are all matt Moore.

I think we expect them to look like Jake, moose, and smitty have for years and that's just not the case. I'll be upset if it still looks this way as we approach the third preseason game. In that case it may be time to say goodbye to jarrett and trade for someone.

[Sam Mills Fan]

I can only remember Gettis getting the ball thrown his way once when I was paying attention and it was a nice sliding catch near the sidelines.

[DaCityKats]

good job smf,nice write up.

[rayzor]

i'm not happy about the WR situation but i'm also not worried.

we have some good receiving options at TE and RB along with smith. if even one of the million choices we have at WR pans out then we have a solid receiving corps.

we just need to have a QB smart enough to use all of his available weapons. i think we have that in moore and eventually in clausen.

between lafell, edwards, charly martin, wallace wright, and maybe kenny moore we might have that.

[Troy17289TD]

I too, was at this practice and I pretty much agree with SMF assessment. Beason is the consummate leader, and Kenneth Moore performed the best of all receivers today.

[Snake]

Good report and I feel sure the Rookie WRs will catch up soon. Lots to learn right now and learning a NFL playbook is not easy. I think Moore is the underdog even though he is the starting QB. Most people want him to fail so the Golden Boy Clausen can take over.

[ncbobcat]

I was there earlier and noticed they blocked off the the far side this year, which sucks. I left just as it started raining steadily. The funniest thing was Norwood busted someone's chops on a dumpoff pass in 5 on 5s up ending the dude, but didn't see who got rocked. You know it's a good hit when the crowd goes ewwwwwwwww. Outside of that, nothing really jumped out at me today. QBs looked good, Pike a couple steps behind the others. Clasuen looks for the dump off a bit to often. Kenneth Moore juked a DB out of their shoes and also caught a nice deep ball from Matt prior to that.

I don't think Kasay missed a FG attempt and hit all of his 50 yarders (no rush). I was wondering if he'd try a 55+ yarder, but didn't. A LOT of postion drills today. If there was 11 on 11 it was in the last 30 minutes when I scooted. That's where things really stand out, but I've been to enough camps now getting totally soaked isn't quite worth it.

[Sam Mills Fan]

There weren't any 11 on 11s that I remember. Just 7 on 7.