Morning Practice: August 4, 2009

First off, I won't be able to make it to today's afternoon practice afterall.. got called into work. Nevertheless, here's some tidbits from earlier this morning:

Injury Updates

• DE Brian Robison was present, but did not practice
• QB Tavaris Jackson was not on the field initially, but later did some jogging and conditioning with a trainer along the sidelines and later tossed the ball around with Shiancoe. He did not practice
• CB Benny Sapp was present, but limited in practice
• Rookie RB Khalil Bell did not practice, showing up with out pads, just the jersey and shorts

Individual Drills: WR
WR's run routes and receiving passes from the Coach

• Jaymar, Bernard, and Sidney were catching pretty consistently
  
• Bobby Wade always seems to drop one of the first tosses, he's not a morning person and lets the crowd know it
• Vinny Perretta dropped an easy one, letting it bounce right out of his hands. He ran the route immediately again, making the catch
• Percy Harvin started off slow, missing 2 out of 3 catches
• Bobby Williams continues to struggle, I can hardly even tell if he's trying - he's the only WR that doesn't insist on rerunning a route after messing up

After the initial drills, the QB's came over and tossed the ball to the WR's, no defenders. Sage at times seemed to underestimate some players' speed, often causing the wideout to slow down to make the catch. Booty overthrew Harvin by about 5 yards, he claimed his palms were sweaty. (It was 65 degrees).

Full Offense Drills (No defenders)

Not too much exciting happens here, but there were a few notes I figured I'd share. On some plays, RB Eric Bieniemy would act like he was rushing the QB to help Adrian Peterson practice pass blocking. Bieniemy seemed to be giving him some praise after.

• Jaymar Johnson is quickly becoming a fan favorite, he makes at least one great catch per practice.
  
• Nick Moore let a pass from John David Booty fly between his hands, the pass was thrown high, but catchable.
  
• The QB's seem to be going to the check down man way too often.

One play in particular looked intriguing, which involved the QB signally Percy Harvin into motion, lining up in the backfield. The hand off was faked to Harvin, and Peterson took the rock.

Could be a fun one to see ran during preseason.

1-on-1 CB/WR Drills

• Vinny Perretta got the better of Marcus Walker
• Percy Harvin is clearly way too quick for Karl Paymah, every time he made a cut he'd be wide open
• Benny Sapp had a much better day than previously in camp. He was playing very well, and very psychical - especially vs Berrian

7-on-7's

• With Griffin limited, Winfield, Asher Allen, and Marcus McCauley were in during nickel packages
• Asher Allen isn't playing like a rookie. He was beat on one play be Berrian, but later made up for it - big time. Berrian appeared to catch a pass from Sage along the sideline, but Allen got his hands on the ball also. Allen wrestled the ball from his hands and toss Berrian to the ground and took it to the house.
  
• Marcus Walker nearly picked off a Rosenfels pass intended for Berrian, who somehow still made the catch
• Sidney Rice beat Benny Sapp on a 3rd and short situation, catching a Booty pass right next to the marker for a first down
• Ian Johnson made a very nice move to make Linebacker Kenny Onatolu miss for the last play of this drill

Full Team Drills (11-on-11's)

• Asher Allen played with the 1st team defense, making a great read on the first play, getting to Adrian Peterson right at the line of scrimmage on a swing pass
• With E.J. and Leber blitzing, Sage attempted to rush up the middle. If it were full contact and you were allowed to hit the QB, we would probably have two injured QB's right now
• Visanthe Shiancoe was slow to get up after running a play, but returned to practice
• Bobby Wade made a great catch on a horrible throw from Sage, the pass was low and behind him. Wade had to reach behind him and hauled it in with one hand
• With Robison out, the 2nd team DL consisted of Jayme Mitchell, Fred Evans, Letroy Guion, and Otis Grigsby
• David Herron saw time as 2nd team MLB, with Erin Henderson and Heath Farwell as OLB's. Lot of talent behind our starters
• Jeff Dugan had a very good morning practice, making a great grab over Erin Henderson and a pass from Booty.
  
• Booty quickly made us forget about the previous pass, making an awful throw over the head of Glenn Holt
• Bernard Berrian stumbled making a cut, but quickly recovered and beat his man. He made a great jumping catch, but paid for it as it was met in the air by Madieu Williams. He was slow to get up, but it was clear he just had the wind knocked out of him. Adrian Peterson came over and kicked him a couple times taunting him to get up, the training tried to shove him back
• Rosenfels once again threw the ball away while rolling out of the pocket. This time I don't blame him though, Erin Henderson was hot on his trail.
• Albert Young made some nice moves picking up some extra yardage today, as much as it pains me to say it.