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QB- Landry Jones
I think we all can see this experiment has horribly failed. At leas the Raiders were smart enough to cut their losses with Tyler Wilson the same year the drafted him in the 4th as we did with Jones. He was late on throws, made poor reads, was inaccurate. We have soon this all before so no surprises and I truthfully want to see Murphy and Boyd more these last two games to see what they can do.
RB- Dri Archer showed some nice speed, moves, and hands and converted some nice long third down plays. I liked how they used him as a dump off and that he looked more comfortable in the offense. He was a couple of turf monster tackles away from a very nice gainer.
Was a little concerned we didn't see Josh Harris? Has he locked up the third spot already or what?
WR- Shakim Phillips had the grab of the night but a better pass makes it a TD. I like that he understood to keep moving (rolling) downfield until touched. But the play was really a result of poor coverage by Trae Waynes who was abused all night long. I did not want Waynes and after watching this game he re-affirmed my evaluation on him.
Sammy Coates looked big, quick, and ran some nice routes but his hands are ability to track the ball in the air are very poor at this point. I saw several times he slowed up while the ball was in the air only to try to catch back up to it. One luckily Waynes held him on but if he would have tracked the ball Waynes wouldn't have mattered it was 6 points. So I liked what I saw in terms of speed and route running but his lack of field awareness and hands worry me a little.
CJ Goodwin at least caught the two sent his way but a very small sample size.
TE- Jesse James is as I expected this early. He had stone hands at Penn State and still does. He still has good size, looks in better shape, and is smart and understands the offense. But he needs to take about 10,000 passes from the ball machine and learn to bring them in. Two huge drops and as spoiled Steelers fans having Heath miller for so long that will not be tolerated. Still think he makes the team because of talent and lack of depth but will probably not suite up unless injury or unless he can prove his worth on special teams.
Clear looked like a decent blocker from what I could see but not much in terms of pass production. A likely candidate for PS.
OL- Alejandro Villanueva was a very pleasant surprise. He had a nice kick out and his slide was very smooth. Didn't extend too far or bend at the hips too much. Definitely had power since a little punch from him seemed to stop the defender in his tracks and he seemed very natural at OL which was a huge shock considered he has only played in practice for the one year. I hope he makes the team.
As a unit they seemed to play very balanced and had better understanding of blocking assignments. I couldn't really talent evaluate anyone but Villanueva since they only seemed to focus on him but look at the time Jones typically had, and the fact Stingily was the back I would say a decent job up front.
DL- Truthfully, I was disappointed in the push. I saw Tuitt still out there with second and third stringers and he was being stopped. I thought he'd dominate against the practice squad guys. Cam Thomas might have had the best play of the night but again not against the cream of the crop. Didn't even see McCullers out there.
LB- Shazier had a few missed tackles early but I think he was running out of control and tampered down his enthusiasm quickly and played much more disciplined football after and made some nice plays. Timmons seemed to be the solid ILB he always is. Made a nice hit also. OLB was just pathetic. Still cannot win the one-on-ones and seemingly has no pass rush moves. This is what annoyed me about the Butler promotion is he has not been able to take all these high draft picks and do squat with them.
CB- Gay played decent and solid. Blake had a few good plays. Boykin made a nice leaping tip on a blitz. But the best CB on the night is Fogg in my opinion. Between making the pick, knocking away some passes, and even making a TD saving tackle on a return from across the field he seemed to be playing with urgency.
S- Darby seemed to be the only guy who flashed and he had a couple nice tackles and I think one for a loss. I was hoping to see something from Shamarko or Mitchell but...
I guess I will take the first preseason game where we had guys who won't be on the team playing with guys who will start with a grain of salt. I think if you have Ben, Bell, and Brown in the offense is totally different and I think the defense is still a great big work in motion so lets see preseason game 3 or 4 before I make any hard line predictions.
I think we all can see this experiment has horribly failed. At leas the Raiders were smart enough to cut their losses with Tyler Wilson the same year the drafted him in the 4th as we did with Jones. He was late on throws, made poor reads, was inaccurate. We have soon this all before so no surprises and I truthfully want to see Murphy and Boyd more these last two games to see what they can do.
RB- Dri Archer showed some nice speed, moves, and hands and converted some nice long third down plays. I liked how they used him as a dump off and that he looked more comfortable in the offense. He was a couple of turf monster tackles away from a very nice gainer.
Was a little concerned we didn't see Josh Harris? Has he locked up the third spot already or what?
WR- Shakim Phillips had the grab of the night but a better pass makes it a TD. I like that he understood to keep moving (rolling) downfield until touched. But the play was really a result of poor coverage by Trae Waynes who was abused all night long. I did not want Waynes and after watching this game he re-affirmed my evaluation on him.
Sammy Coates looked big, quick, and ran some nice routes but his hands are ability to track the ball in the air are very poor at this point. I saw several times he slowed up while the ball was in the air only to try to catch back up to it. One luckily Waynes held him on but if he would have tracked the ball Waynes wouldn't have mattered it was 6 points. So I liked what I saw in terms of speed and route running but his lack of field awareness and hands worry me a little.
CJ Goodwin at least caught the two sent his way but a very small sample size.
TE- Jesse James is as I expected this early. He had stone hands at Penn State and still does. He still has good size, looks in better shape, and is smart and understands the offense. But he needs to take about 10,000 passes from the ball machine and learn to bring them in. Two huge drops and as spoiled Steelers fans having Heath miller for so long that will not be tolerated. Still think he makes the team because of talent and lack of depth but will probably not suite up unless injury or unless he can prove his worth on special teams.
Clear looked like a decent blocker from what I could see but not much in terms of pass production. A likely candidate for PS.
OL- Alejandro Villanueva was a very pleasant surprise. He had a nice kick out and his slide was very smooth. Didn't extend too far or bend at the hips too much. Definitely had power since a little punch from him seemed to stop the defender in his tracks and he seemed very natural at OL which was a huge shock considered he has only played in practice for the one year. I hope he makes the team.
As a unit they seemed to play very balanced and had better understanding of blocking assignments. I couldn't really talent evaluate anyone but Villanueva since they only seemed to focus on him but look at the time Jones typically had, and the fact Stingily was the back I would say a decent job up front.
DL- Truthfully, I was disappointed in the push. I saw Tuitt still out there with second and third stringers and he was being stopped. I thought he'd dominate against the practice squad guys. Cam Thomas might have had the best play of the night but again not against the cream of the crop. Didn't even see McCullers out there.
LB- Shazier had a few missed tackles early but I think he was running out of control and tampered down his enthusiasm quickly and played much more disciplined football after and made some nice plays. Timmons seemed to be the solid ILB he always is. Made a nice hit also. OLB was just pathetic. Still cannot win the one-on-ones and seemingly has no pass rush moves. This is what annoyed me about the Butler promotion is he has not been able to take all these high draft picks and do squat with them.
CB- Gay played decent and solid. Blake had a few good plays. Boykin made a nice leaping tip on a blitz. But the best CB on the night is Fogg in my opinion. Between making the pick, knocking away some passes, and even making a TD saving tackle on a return from across the field he seemed to be playing with urgency.
S- Darby seemed to be the only guy who flashed and he had a couple nice tackles and I think one for a loss. I was hoping to see something from Shamarko or Mitchell but...
I guess I will take the first preseason game where we had guys who won't be on the team playing with guys who will start with a grain of salt. I think if you have Ben, Bell, and Brown in the offense is totally different and I think the defense is still a great big work in motion so lets see preseason game 3 or 4 before I make any hard line predictions.
