8/6 Practice (and Fan Fest)

[MadHatter]

I can tell you that I was pretty impressed with Cam today. Yes, he made some mistakes and will continue to do so as a rookie. However, he made some beautiful throws out there.

Jimmy is definitely scared to make a mistake and does not trust his reads/arm.

Still think Cam has a ways to go, but if I had to chose.....I would start Cam over Jimmy any day of the week.

Anderson on threw in 1 on 1 today. However, his throws were great. Hitting guys as they made their breaks. Cam and Jimmy did hold the ball a little too long in the pocket and were late on some throws....will come with experience.

I am still hoping that Anderson steps up and is the Game #1 starter... get Cam some situational experience in every game. Let him get used to the speed of the NFL game. Then (unless the team is clicking), turn the team over to him 6-8 games into the season.

I am very anxious as seeing each QB in the pre-season. Every game is going to be interesting.

[Camelot]

Pickles looked terrible tonight IMO. dude threw like 4 picks and has no pace on his throws. Cam was worlds better. I will be f*cking shocked if Claus is the starter much longer.

[MadHatter]

I am now in the camp that I do not want to see Clausen on the field this season. Guy just does not have "IT"

[MadHatter]

My Observations from fan fest today:

-I was impressed with Cam Newton. He has a great arm (you can definitely see the difference in velocity when he is throwing versus when Jimmy is throwing it). I also loved the fact that he is able to move his feet in the pocket. On the play to Pilares, in which he completed about a 25 yard strike, he kept his head up the entire time, two stepped to the left, and fired a strike to Pilares who had found a hole in the zone (that was a great NFL throw). Granted he is doing it against players who likely won't make the team, however he definitely has the skill set. I can't see anyway he is not ahead of Jimmy on the depth chart come 9/11.

-As for Jimmy, I really didn't think he was all that bad. I didn't think he deserved the boos as some of his throws were decent. Jimmy just doesn't have any pocket presence. Not once in the 2 minute offense did he attempt to go down the field (in comparison, Cam looked down the field on the first three plays). Jimmy would scan the receivers and then dump it off to the back and let the back gain 10+ yards (useful play, only the defense was giving up anything they wanted underneath. I don't see Jimmy being anything more than a backup QB on this team and I honestly wouldn't be suprised if he found himself below Derrick Anderson.

-Not much of note from the other two QB's.

-RB's: We have so much talent at this position it isn't even funny. One thing that caught my eye was D-Will's quickness seems to be back. He was bouncing in and out of holes and his cuts were strong. Stewart looked good, nothing great. Goody still has the speed, and T. Sutton maybe the toughest of them all (in a drill where they were working on red zone offense vs red zone defense they were primarilly running the ball. Most players were just two hand tagging or wrapping up the rb's and letting them go into the endzone. Dwill, Stew, and Goody were juking the defenders. Sutton was attempting to run them over and pop thier pads....good stuff).

-Smitty and Olsen form a pretty nice 1-2 punch. Really nice to know we have a tight end on the field that can make a play. Olsen is going to do big things for us. May not be this year with our QB's growth, but he is going to be a huge pickup.

-Defense was pretty weak, but we are missing so many starters that it was really hard to tell. Charles Johnson is huge and E. Brown continues to spin himself into the ground on nearly every play.

-Armanti looked good fielding punts. I didn't see him drop any.

-Gettis and Lafell did not practice. Nanaee was in there and he looks like he could be pretty decent. I think he is going to help us in the running game as well.

-From what I could tell either Jeff Otah or Duke Robinson left practice early with the trainers. I could not see the second number. All i know was it was a big black dude with dreadlocks that wore a number in the 70's.

All in all a pretty good day. It is definitely weird not seeing number 4 out there though.

It was Duke that left. Otah was out there at the end in one on ones.

Guy that caught my eye on defense was McClain. He is fast and disruptive on the line. Think he will be very good.

[Tarheels23]

I was really impressed with Eric Norwood, and Kendric Burney today, as well as Gary Barnidge.

[chknwing]

is waiting for Mr Scots 12 volume report on Fan Fest.

[Carl Spackler]

Pickles looked terrible tonight IMO. dude threw like 4 picks and has no pace on his throws. Cam was worlds better. I will be f*cking shocked if Claus is the starter much longer.

I don't think he threw any...he threw one or two that should have been picked. Newton wasn't worlds better, either. He made a few God-awful throws that people want to conveniently forget.

That said Newton also was the best QB out there today, though Clausen performed admirably enough to be a good backup.

[MadHatter]

I don't think he threw any...he threw one or two that should have been picked. Newton wasn't worlds better, either. He made a few God-awful throws that people want to conveniently forget.

That said Newton also was the best QB out there today, though Clausen performed admirably enough to be a good backup.

Issue with Clausen is that he absolutely refuses to look and throw downfield. Every...and I mean every...throw was a check down to the RB or to the TE. The offense will die with him under center this season.

[Guest Bwood15]

Are there any videos or ANYTHING from Fan fest? It feels like we aren't having nearly the amount of coverage for training camp as we usually do.

[Carl Spackler]

Issue with Clausen is that he absolutely refuses to look and throw downfield. Every...and I mean every...throw was a check down to the RB or to the TE. The offense will die with him under center this season.

No, every throw wasn't.

Some were checkdowns to Smith. He did throw one deep to Shockey but it was terribly incomplete. If you want consistency and fewer turnovers Clausen's the guy. You want yards, TDs, and picks sometimes, go with Cam.

I was thoroughly impressed with Cam's ability to throw fades today.

[MadHatter]

No, every throw wasn't.

Some were checkdowns to Smith. He did throw one deep to Shockey but it was terribly incomplete. If you want consistency and fewer turnovers Clausen's the guy. You want yards, TDs, and picks sometimes, go with Cam.

I was thoroughly impressed with Cam's ability to throw fades today.

I stand corrected....all of his checkdowns were not to RB/TE.....he also threw a few "check downs" to WR's.

Issue is.....every damn throw was a check down. Guy can't/won't go downfield.

[mav1234]

LFP, did he look improved from last year at least?

edit: check downs are not the same as short passes - were they check downs or was it that everything he was throwing was short?

his biggest area of terribleness last year was actually 11-20 yards, and that's critical for a vertical offense, so I'm curious if he has improved there- many early reports were saying he had, so.

[MadHatter]

LFP, did he look improved from last year at least?

Yes, he definitely looked better than last year. But, he is still gun shy and refuses to make plays down the field.

He should be on a WCO team. I actually think he could be successful in that type of offense.

[Proudiddy]

That's what makes Jimmy so hard to watch here... When you leave so many plays out there on the field that could be scores or leading to scores, it's hard to for us to feel like he's doing an adequate job. That's what was so frustrating last year and that apparently hasn't changed, although he has improved.

With our run game, the QB has to be able to throw deep, and do it well.