Shane

Practice venue: The new crowds that are present due to being a winner are miserable to deal with IMO. However I will take it if it means we continue winning. There is literally quadruple the amount of bleachers at camp compared to before. They have installed a chain link fence on the hill above the practice fields that now impedes your view depending on where you sit.

The players Im sure appreciate the larger crowds and the electricity that they bring. The crowd literally was crazy during the opening warm up sprints as the players ran toward them. It was fun to hear. At one point during practice both Warner and Leinart were leading the crowd into getting a wave going. Good stuff!

Practice itself:I noticed immediately that Breaston was not practicing or wearing pads. He worked out on the side so he must have some kind of injury. Didnt look serious though. Started with punt return practice. Garvin, Rolle, Adams, and DRC were the players handling most of the PR duties. Garvin muffed another one today and the most sure handed was Rolle and DRC. At one point Fitz was jumping in front of them as the balls were coming in trying to distract them. He was having fun with it.

During the QB drills where they have to hit appropriate colored flag that the coach calls out the most accurate passer BY FAR was GASP Tyler Palco. The rook from Pitt. he was regularly hitting the proper flag from about 20 yards with velocity. He schooled the other QB's in that drill today. I was actually pretty shocked.

During WR vs. CB drills Fitz completely burned Mcfadden on a double move for a long TD. It was a thing of beauty. Fitz jogged back to the huddle and on the way stopped and gave a big hug to Mcfadden. Was pretty funny actually.

Q schooled the little guy Adams and Toler also on double moves. Making both CB's trip over there own feet trying to keep up.

Whomever it was who already said they were inpressed with the WR Gant was onto something. This rook looks good. Has good hands, good size and is really fluid.

During the DL vs OL drills the following people IMO really impressed:

1. Cody Brown: WOW this kid is fast agile and nifty. He blew up on Gandy twice and Wells once getting to the QB all three times.

2. Calais Campbell: Looked decent beating Wells twice and getting held in check by Wells twice as well.

3. Deuce Lutui: Totally stoned Dockett on two occasions locked him up and he couldnt go anywhere. On the thrid try Dockett got the best of him but he really had to work for it.

4. Both Gabe Watson and Alan Branch looked fantastic. Both were VERY strong and quicker than I have ever seen them. They look to be in fantastic shape. On at least two occasions they illicited WOW's from me and jw7.

Honorable mention: Brandon Keith, Levi and Elton Brown all looked solid.

I do however try and take these drills with a grain of salt. I used to watch Calvin Pace abuse BIG Leonard Davis during this drill regularly.

During that drill the 7 on 7 drill was going on. I saw Doucet and LL both have a case of the butter fingers on perfectly thrown balls right in their hands. Didnt see much else due to intently watching the OL vs DL drills.

The O vs D session 11 on 11 was a treat. DRC TOTALLY got the best of Fitz today. On all three passes Fitz's way DRC broke them all up. He had perfect position. On the third he was behind on a deep sideline pattern he got that burst of speed and literally moved in front of Fitz and put himself in better position than Fitz to catch the INT. How often can you say that? It was a pretty play.

Leinart fumbled an exchange to Chris Wells during this scrimmage. The fumble was all Leinart. The defender picked it up and ran back for 6.

On the very next play Chris Wells muffed his pass protection assignement badly. He let Iwebema come right through. If full speed there is no doubt that Leinart would have been at the hospital with another shoulder injury. Hopefully he will get better. He seemed a little stiff out there today. Which to me is to be expected being his first true/real NFL practice.

I think he was also hurt because he wasnt on the field at the end of practice going through the final drills. That wont help him any if true the way Hightower looks.

Hightower is running hard and decisively. He looks and carrys himself like he belongs there and is not going to give it up easily. He really looks crisp and more cut than last year.

Lance Long had a beautiful sideline catch and a nifty move completely juking the DB out of his jock and then going down the sideline for a TD. It was VERY NICE.

Practices overall do seem more crisp and fluid thanin the past. Thsi team looks like it is confident in what it is doing and why they are doing it. There is an aura about them that I havent seen in past camps. I truly mean that. I hope it translates to double digit wins and a hefty seed for the playoffs.


On a side not when I came into town today I met jw7 at Romas pizza for lunch prior to practice. We had the pleasure of being there as the Warner clan was having luch themsleves. It was pleasant surprise and nice to see Kurt out in public. Not just in a practice setting. Will have another one tomorrow.

Hope you all enjoy!

the_future23

Looks like Garvin is gonna get cut

Shane

Forgot to add in there that I was also impressed with Jason Wright. That kid looks like he has some skills. But still skepticle based on his history so far in the league.

Carddan

Thanks Shane, I miss being there. On the O-Line/D-Line drills it always seemed to me like they didn't go 100%. If one side goes faster, yep, they win, but that doesn't necessarily translate into game speed. As far as Jason Wright goes, he has a reputation of being an incredibly hardworker, great in the locker room and smart. He also is known for giving 100% on Special Teams.
Thanks for the report.

Buckybird

Thx from us out of staters Shane.

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SuperSpck

Love the updates Shane, keep it up, and keep the rose-colored glasses to a minimum, it's good for us in the long term.

lauraw

PoolBoy

good stuff. With Gant impressing, maybe losing Long to the Chiefs won't hurt as bad.

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slanidrac16

Nice job , Shane!

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"The system works. Players are just not making plays."
Ken Whisenhunt

Dayman

Well done. Thanks a lot.

BullheadCardFan

Thanks for the report. Always nice to get input from someone on the board.

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"The Cardinals will not cause the Cardinals to lose" - Arians 1-18-13

red desert

Great job, Shane.

You know who that db was that long juked for his long td catch? None other that drc. Long is bringing it.

Couldn't agree more with you about Cody Brown. The real deal.

jw7

Shane covered pretty much everything football-related. The only thing I would add is that I was a little disappointed not to see Rackers practice field goals as there were some winds in an outdoor setting.

So I'll comment on some of the non football-related aspects of the training camp.

1) This town is Cards crazy right now. It is hard to go to a restaurant or a store or anywhere without seeing at least 1 or 2 people sporting Cards gear.

2) The Target close to the university had about 4 racks of Cards t-shirts yesterday. I went today to go pick one up but the guy said they sold them all out in one day. So I drove about 4 miles and JC Penney had T-shirts for $14 which was nice. It was 90 today so a little more comfortable to wear a T-shirt than a Jersey. Still got a bit sunburned on the face.

3) I would say there were about 5000 people there or so. Yet, there were no lines for the porta-johns. Hmm, they also don't allow beer sales on the campus. Coincidence?

4) I was expecting it to take forever to get out of parking after practice, but there was no wait at all. Cool.

5) The Cards promotions team lost out on so much revenue. They could have made a fortune selling adult T-shirts or any kind of food besides snacks.


Yup, and Roma's is a tiny little place. It was cool that the people there did not bug them at all, and let his young kids play the arcade machine in peace.

Sorry the cook had to read a manual on how to make a freaking sandwich (and a salad for that matter). And where the heck did they get that ketchup that looked like motor oil? And they don't have PEPPER? What?

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thirty-two

thanks for the write up, Shane!! (and Jw!)

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Rest in peace, Skkorp. We'll never forget you.

red desert

Funny