One of the cool things aboutWednesday's North practice was the number of players who raised theirlevel of play. DT Brandon Williams (Missouri Southern) hadn't reallybeen on RamView radar all week, but may have been the dominant playerof Wednesday's practice. It looks like he picked up, or remembered, amove or two. In 1-on-1 drills, he beat Brian Winters once with a faketo the left, and another time faking to the right, showing nicequickness off the ball and nice handwork. Williams also blew up adraw play and a screen pass in 11-on-11. He blew up the screen aftersmoking Winters with a pull-through and beat Justin Pugh on the drawdespite getting a late start.The North quarterbacks looked betterthan they have all week, especially Ryan Nassib. In 11-on-11, hethrew a nice quick out to Marquise Goodwin and, with Datone Jonesbearing down on him, a perfect pass up the seam to Markus Wheaton,between two defenders. Haven't seen a lot of QBs getting nice passesoff under pressure so far. Everything was good about that throw. MikeGlennon threw one of the best long balls of the week in 11-on-11, adeep strike to Aaron Mellette.
North RBs did a fairly good job atblitz protection, especially Johnathan Franklin (UCLA), whoabsolutely blew up Travis Johnson (San Jose State) once at the pointof attack, and more than held his own against Jonathan Cyprien (Fla.International) and Kevin Reddick, who have been tough nuts all week.A positive surprise was Robbie Rouse, who fought off Khaseem Greenewell. Kept leverage and stayed in front of all his moves. Nicerebound for Rouse, who had struggled at blitz pickup till now. Healso burned Greene later in receiving drills. A negative surprise wasKyle Juszczyk, who got beaten twice by late arrival Sio Moore(UConn), one of the Shrine Game's standouts. Moore knocked Juszczykback on his pins on one rush. The Harvard FB has looked off everlanding that big hit Tuesday. Nick Kasa (Colorado) consistentlystruggled with hard inside moves.
Wheaton had probably his best day ofpractice, beating everyone he faced. He won on hitches, won oncomebacks, burned Jamar Taylor deep and turned Desmond Trufant insideout on a beautifully-run corner route. Goodwin likewise won on slantsand comebacks, and burned Duke Williams (Nevada) deep,double-catching a TD bomb. Denard Robinson looked better having beencleared for full practice participation. He turned Blidi Wreh-Wilsoninside-out on a double-move route and won a couple of slant routes,getting off a solid jam by Jordan Poyer on one. Mellette struggled toseparate on shorter routes, and probably should have been matched upon Wreh-Wilson more often, who never closed decently on one. Mellettedid beat Dwayne Gratz deep. He really leaves his feet at times on hisbreaks; it looks like he's jumping on a bicycle. That seems likely toget him knocked into next week, but I guess we'll see. Chris Harpersimilarly couldn't separate on short routes, but unlike Mellette, wona lot of physical battles to make catches anyway. Made a couple ofcatches despite being blatantly interfered with, and also beat agreat jam by Phillip Thomas (Fresno State) to beat him late on a deeproute. For better or worse, if the Rams draft Harper, his RamViewdraft profile will contain the line “Compares to: Brandon Gibson”.Trufant and Aaron Dobson had some good duels. Trufant jammed well andcan stay with just about anybody downfield. Dobson continues to showexcellent moves to free himself at the line.
Another good duel was Alex Okafor vs.Eric Fisher. Okafor actually won the first contest, getting Fisherhigh and off-balance with a strong punch and bull-rush, and botheredhim with it the second time. Ricky Wagner (Wisconsin) took care ofOkafor's bull-rush on the undercard, but Okafor smoked him right offthe snap another time. Fisher warmed up for the main event byswatting Datone Jones aside with little problem. Finally, it was theBig Deal in Mobile. Okafor-Fisher III. Okafor tried to bull-rushFisher again, and Fisher destroyed him. Okafor barely even got offthe LOS, and Fisher put him into the ground right behind the linewith an exclamation point. Silly big-fight imagery aside, you have tolove matchups like those – they make both players better. (Eventhough Margus Hunt pulled a Buster Douglas during 11-on-11 and beatFisher to blow up a screen.) Fisher's still the North's best player,and Okafor has lifted his stock.
Brian Winters continues to look greatwhen he gets his hands on his guy, but continues to have BIG troublewith any initial quickness. Like Winters, Wagner has the strength butthe question is his quickness. Justin Pugh shows better ability toadjust to speed rushers. Joe Madsen won his matchups against JordanHill. Braxston Cave does a LOT of holding. Michael Buchanan justlooked lost during 1-on-1 drills, looked like he was thinking way toomuch. He did bounce back to make one of the best plays of 11-on-11,beating a double-team, spinning off a chip from Franklin and steppingup right into Glennon's face for a sack. On another play, DatoneJones came in unblocked and chased Glennon BEHIND the rest of theplayers, who line up 10 yards or so behind the LOS. He continues toshow good edge speed and a good swim move. Dan Quessenberry had aninconsistent day. Buchanan did not challenge him in 1-on-1 but burnedhim with a spin move in 11-on-11. Sylvester Williams also beat himwith that, so there's something to work on. He had good run- andpass-blocking plays 11-on-11, but also got beaten by a club move fromDatone Jones. Just wasn't all quite there Wednesday, thoughQuessenberry has continued to look more comfortable at guard than attackle.
Takeaway: with apologies for repeatingmyself, Fisher is the best player on the North team and has madehimself a top-ten pick. The Rams could take almost any of the guardsoff this team and have themselves a good player, though. Okafor andDatone Jones were the most consistent d-linemen. The North LBs showedwell, but the best ones don't have the size to be high draft picks.I'll begrudge Trufant the title of best CB, at least for the North,but T.J. McDonald has looked a pretty complete package at safety. Notsure I saw any first-round skill players. The QBs aren't. Barnershould be able to slip in there with a good Combine. He has a goodall-around game. Franklin could surprise a little. Goodwin looks thebest WR, but I don't know about a first-round grade at 5'9”.Wheaton is bigger and looked almost as good, and I still like theMarshall receiver Dobson, who gets off the line well, runs goodroutes and competes well. Buchanan and Kyle Long, among others, willneed to rally a little between now and the Combine.
-$-
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder