2009 Colts Training Camp: Notes (and Tweets) from 8/7/09 Morning Practice

Not much really went on at today’s practice, but I’ll share what I wrote down.

- McAfee and Masthay were working on their holding during the beginning of practice. It’s a little difficult to accurately critique holding placement, but it looked like Masthay was just a hair better in terms of control and speed. But really, that shouldn’t matter too much. McAfee looked fine doing it as well and I’m sure he’ll be ready come the start of the regular season.

- Nothing seemed very definite in terms of who was on first team and who was on second in this practice-everybody just seemed to keep switching in and out. However, it did look like Collie was getting a lot more reps with Peyton than Garcon or Hall.

- Yes, Eric Foster was playing fullback, and yes, he caught a Dan Klecko pass. He actually looked pretty natural doing it too.

-There was a few packages where Donald Brown was split out wide right, Dallas was in the right slot, Collie was in the left slot, and Addai was split wide left. Petyon passed it to Brown the few times they ran it.

And that’s pretty much it. I did see Chris Mortensen walking around, and I even took a picture next to his bus. Look for ESPN to air an interview with Peyton tonight.

Morning was pretty uneventful.

Foster actually caught 2 TD passes as fullback.

That set Aerostar mentioned, it seemed they always audibled into it. Peyton would have the RBs lined up behind him, then he’d bark something and they’dsplit to opposite sides like WRs. Brown and Addai, that is.

Saw a lot of no WR, 3 TE, 2 RB sets today. Or 1 WR, 2 TE, 2 RB as well.

And I love the goal line defense. Lockdown pass coverage and good penetration on the blitzes. I liked Muir at the Klecko/Reid position. The offensive line was good in run blocking. The goal line defense is going to be really, really good.

Has anyone seen any studs on the kickoff squad yet? I really want to know who is going to replace / fill-in for D. Reid?

Is there any rookies on the kickoff team?

There goes Tom Moore… stealing my ideas again : )

No, but seriously, I think its great the Colts are using the I-formation some. I think some teams use it too much (and have a lame offense as a result) and the Colts have used it far too little. Like I said; its time to get back to basics when it comes to running the ball.

Hart left the field during a blocking drill….it looked like he sprained his ankle or something. He walked off under his own power and was later wearing an ice pack around his ankle for the remainder of practice.

Good news is, it wasn’t his knee.

I can’t remember all that I saw, and I went there with the intention of taking some notes but never did…so here is what I remember.

 - at the start of practice there McAfee and Masthay were punting and it is clear that McAfee has a stronger leg, kicks the ball much higher and is much more consistent. they later had to punt against a “rush” of about 5 guys but it was pretty casual and mostly uneventful

- Foster continued to work with the offense on goal line formations and did well as a lead blocker for Addai on a couple plays

- Muir looked really good out there and he and Ed Johnson took most plays on the first team DL along with Dawson and Brock

- some O line vs. D front 7 drills which seemed to mostly go the the way of the offense. these were running plays and I think Coyer was getting a little aggravated because the defense (both 1st and 2nd group) was having issues with maintaining gaps correctly. There was some overpursuing which led to open backside holes. In some cases there was no one to help seal the backside and the RB had an open side of the field.

 - my zest for Terrance Taylor has diminished slightly. I didn’t see much out of him today other than just being there. Of course I was watching from the sidelines so I probably missed a bit of the action

 - during scrimmage action later in practice, the D seemed very similar to last year in that there was not as much movement or any blitzing that I thought I would see. It was probably just part of the drill that they wanted to line up and play with no extra action, but just an observation.

 - First time seeing Mort in person. He is a geniune nerd and I wish I had his job. He just stood there talking to Chappell for a while and then some of the coaches. I wanted to jump over the line and give him a noogie for some reason….

 - Vinatieri was helping McAfee with holding drills, throwing the ball underhand with spin to simulate a snap. McAfee seemed to do fine.

 - McAfee was bombing some long FGs too. I know it’s just practice, but he was making it from 50+ with ease.

 - Donald Brown sat out afternoon practice which was a bummer because I wanted to see him vs. Addai. Addai looked good though.

That’s all I got. I’m sure I’m leaving out something important but what can I say.

Leon can’t do everything.

I’ve found its really hard to evaluate offensive players in training camp. A few years ago I thought DeDe Dorsey and Aramashadu looked good in training camp and those guys got cut. Its just difficult to evaluate any player based on drills alone.

What I think training camp observation is great for is formation changes and defensive alignments. Its pretty clear that this Colts team is going to do things a little differently from years past.