AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Related Articles
After a lackluster showing by the offense in the first round of contact practices, Tom Cable remained his usual upbeat self accentuating the positives of his radical approach to camp in starting out with "teaching" practices before releasing the hounds and letting the guys strap it up and hit.
first thing obviously the first four days had the exact effect that we wanted. If you look at the adjustments, particularly on defense I am very pleased about it. Then offensively all the young receivers getting in all those formations, didn’t have to stop anything, do it over or anything like that. So very pleased with that, great retention so that part is good. In terms of the tempo, speed of play and all those things that will get better and better as we go.
The focus of today's practice was to take what was learned in first four days and add in the contact aspect to show that they have been trained.
That is the whole thing we talked about last night, now that we have invested all this in knowing what to do and how to line up, now it is the how part; how you go about, blocking people, tackling people, adjusting, lining up, getting into the right formations, getting to the right depths all those things. So now you have to get real detailed about that.
He will be riding Darrius Heyward-Bey as long as he continues to display issues with his hands. He is still having trouble holding on to the ball.
I don’t think it will knowing Darrius like I do, he understands his job is to catch footballs and for him it is just a process of gaining confidence and getting comfortable every day at this level, and he is doing that by leaps and bounds. I am really not worried about it.
Cable praised the work of running back Louis Rankin who is definitely on the bubble as to whether or not he will make the final 53 man roster.
Louis kind of showed us last year what a talented guy he is. He can carry the ball, catch the ball really well and then have some return ability as well. I would say to start with, in a very competitive backfield he knows he has to be sharp every day.
He also laid out his expectations for JaMarcus Russell, despite Russell having a less than stellar day throwing the ball.
Consistency. All that’s been written, all that’s been said, whatever that is, you want to see him consistently get better from day to day and not have steps back. Let his confident grow, which, in turn, then allows his team to grow around him that way. That’s the most important thing. Show it period in, period out, day in, day out, that’s really what the mark of a good quarterback is, a guy who can do it every day.
NOTES:
It has been reported that former Raider quarterback Andrew Walter was near a deal with the New England Patriots.
More to come from today's practice
You can also find Patrick Patterson on Thoughts from the Dark Side.
Thank you to Cal Bears Examiner, Rob Calonge, for his excellent team coverage of Training Camp.
Comments