August 5th - Afternoon Practice

Today's practice was scheduled from 2:45 to 3:45, and lasted around 10 minutes extra this afternoon. Garrett Mills was still M.I.A. from camp, and no new word on Robison.
When the players came out one of the first drills was running drills with the QBs, Centers, RBs, and FBs. They seemed to emphasize draw plays during a portion of this drill, otherwise just all up the middle runs. All four teams were lined up on the same yard line, in order of (current) depth chart position. Only the first and second teams have FBs participate (Tapeh and Tahi, respectively), Jeff Dugan participated in Tight End drills exclusively. Heres how the rest looked:

• QBs: Jackson, Frerotte, Bollinger, Booty. Pretty much all expected
• RBs: Peterson, Taylor, Hicks, Young
• Centers: Birk, Sullivan, Brian Daniels, and Dan Mozes and Tim Mattran shared time in the fourth team.

Next up, there was a small 11 on 11 drill. Jackson looked decent in this drill, hitting 3 different receivers and going 4 of 5. Before Bollinger Stepped in.

• Jackson hit Bernard Berrian over the middle, picking up about 15.
• Jackson to Wade down the left side, gain of about 20
• Pass incomplete. Jackson under threw the intended receiver, didn't catch the game
• Jackson goes back to Wade for another completion
• Finally, he his Tapeh on a screen going to the right, picking up about 6.
• Bollinger had one great play, hitting Jaymar Johnson about 35+ yards down the field, who had to slow down and go up between two CBs

Special Teams took the field at this portion of practice. It got difficult to see what was going on in the middle field, but I'm pretty sure the bulk of it was blocking assignments/positioning. On the near field, place kicker Ryan Longer was showing rookie Kicker Steven Hauschka the tricks of the trade on how to do Onside Kicks. Lets just say for the most part he wasn't turning any heads, with a few balls only going a couple yards.
Sidney Rice, Bobby Wade, and Martin Nance saw the bulk of the time as the "hands team", which the majority being in favor of Rice. Visanthe Shiance and Maurice Hicks saw time as well.

As I thought training camp was coming to an end, the came together one more time for some 11-on 11 drills, and Tavaris was on target, hittin 7 or 8 in a row. Here's how that looked:

• Very large amount of passes hitting the Tightends and Running Backs
• Jackson hit Kleinsausser with Heath Farwell closing in on him fast on a blitz
• Next play, Jackson hit Branden Jones perfect for about 20+ yards, who had to go up over Tyrell Johnson for the catch
• Chester Taylor hauled in the next catch along the left sideline, for 10+ yards
• The next pass went to Robert Ferguson on a slant route
• Jeff Dugan got in on the mix next, putting up around 12 yards
• Jackson again went back back to Taylor on this play, for a pick up of around 6
• Tavaris found free agent acquisition Bernard Berrian over the middle for around 10
• And finally, Jackson hit Maurice Hicks, who made a great one handed grab
• Next up, Booty took center
• Jimmy K got back in the mix, hauling in the first pass from John David
• On a play-action pass, Booty rolled out to his left and hit 6th round draft pick Jaymar Johnson for about 10 yards
• Booty went back to Johnson for his final throw, who had to slow down and leap up, stealing the ball from the air in double coverage

Thats all for now. One last observation was that after going to the locker room, WR Bobby Wade was seen making his way back to the dorms on foot, with a large ice pack around his left leg.

Will post some pictures soon if any are worth while (most of the practice took place on the middle field). Also, I will be posting another Q&A within a day or so, this time from Vikings Alumni Running Back Oscar Reed.

Thanks for reading.