CatMan's 8/1 camp observations...

[CatMan72]

- Obviously the biggest news of the day was Goodson going down with some sort of lower-leg injury. He was running the ball during an O-line, QB, HB vs. D-line, MLB drill, there was a pile up and when it cleared he was lying on the ground rolling around in pain. He tried three times to get to his feet and he could not. They brought him over to the sideline and they were examing his lower leg below the knee. He was pointing to the inside of his left ankle. He slammed his helmet down on the ground and they brought a cart out to take him away...

- On the play before that Hayden went down and was down for a few minutes holding his right kidney area, but he was up and walking around a few mins later.

- Armanti was looking good catching punts and then he muffed another one, hit him right in the hands and bounced off. He left the ball where it was and began to run, the ST coach told him to go back and get the ball as if it was a game situation. Witherspoon looked really good catching punts, if they had to make a decision right now I'd imagine they would go with Witherspoon.

- Armanti did make a couple of nice catches during 11 on 11 drills including a diving catch on a post route that got the crowd cheering. For a good portion of the 11 on 11 drills they were lining up Edwards and Moore out wide with Jarrett in the slot. Armanti did have another pass bounce right off his finger-tips in the end zone.

- Jarrett also made a few nice catches and I didn't see him run the wrong route once. He was chastized at one point for not blocking on a running play, but that was the only time I heard anyone yell anything at him. They were not going full contact, but he made 2 nice catches over the middle in traffic, looks like being a short yardage posession receiver may be his niche.

- LaFell participated in warms ups but was not wearing pads and did not participate in any other drills, not sure what's going on there?

- Clausen is becoming the king of the check-down. In just about every 11 on 11 drill I saw he ended up going through his progression and dumping it off to a guy on a short route. Seems as though he's being very conservative. Clausen was knocked down on one play when Charles Johnson (who was participating fully today) shoved an offensive lineman into him (not sure who the offensive lineman was?).

- They were lining # 38 (Rashawn Jackson) up at fullback with the 1st team during 11 on 11 drills. With the 2nd team, they lined up Jackson at FB and Fiametta at HB. This was probably in response to Goodson's injury.

- Saw them run several 4 receiver sets with Rosario in the slot. Also saw them line Rosario up at FB and run a FB dive.

- Like others have been saying, Hardy looked good. He and Charles Johnson ran a stunt drill and if it had been the real thing the QB would have been in a world of hurt.

- Saw Mackenzy Bernardeau absolutely blow-up Tank Tyler during the 1st team O-line, QB, HB vs. D-line, MLB drill. He didn't pancake Tyler but he blew him about a foot back off the line and when Tyler came back over to the sideline one of his sleeves was ripped apart.

[SorthNarolina]

Thanks, hopefully Goodson's injury isn't season ending.

[OnlyPantherFaninMaine]

Enjoyable read, thanks CatMan. Any observations on Godfrey and Martin? Haven't heard too much from anyone about how our young ballhawks are coming along.

[C-A-T-S]

Thanks CatMan72!

[coxc63]

Anything positive come from the TEs, LBs, and Safeties?

[CatMan72]

Enjoyable read, thanks CatMan. Any observations on Godfrey and Martin? Haven't heard too much from anyone about how our young ballhawks are coming along.

Haven't noticed anything good or bad about Godfrey/Martin, other than Godfrey seems to have bulked up quite a bit.

[Jaxel]

Would you say the Clausen thing is good or bad? Has he looked overall pretty good?

[CatMan72]

Anything positive come from the TEs, LBs, and Safeties?

Not much worth commenting on either way. Was watching Connor today and he looks good, he never seemed to be out of position and he always ended up near the ball.

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

General question for the board: I'm thinking Clausen checking down might be because in the first few days of camp it was noted that he had a nice deep throw but couldn't his anything under ten yards. Now he's being worked to hit the short route because they've seen that he can hit the long shot. Whaddya think?

[C47]

General question for the board: I'm thinking Clausen checking down might be because in the first few days of camp it was noted that he had a nice deep throw but couldn't his anything under ten yards. Now he's being worked to hit the short route because they've seen that he can hit the long shot. Whaddya think?

Or like he did against real defenses Notre Dame played, he is tentative to pull the trigger on the long ball resulting in a ton of check downs....

[CatMan72]

Would you say the Clausen thing is good or bad? Has he looked overall pretty good?

I think it's too early to say it's good or bad, but he's definatley playing it safe. At this point, I would much rather see Clausen making good decisions and throwing check-downs then making bad decisions and throwing picks. I think it's also good in the sense that he knows the plays well enough to know where his check-down guy is. He doesn't seem to hang on to the ball for very long or get happy feet.

[woody]

Sounds like Goodson might have a high anle sprain like the god Dez Bryant. Hopefully thats all it is.

[DOUBLETROUBLE33]

I really wish they would give Barnidge more of a chance to catch some balls with the 1st team. One of our problems is receiver but yet we keep one of our best pass catchers on the bench all the time. He needs to be lined up in the slot more often.

[CatMan72]

General question for the board: I'm thinking Clausen checking down might be because in the first few days of camp it was noted that he had a nice deep throw but couldn't his anything under ten yards. Now he's being worked to hit the short route because they've seen that he can hit the long shot. Whaddya think?

That or he's just playing it safe to make a good impression on the coaching staff. He probably understands Fox well enough to know that Fox would rather see a QB play it safe.