FanPost

8/13 - 9 AM Practice Notes

First of all, a happy Friday the 13th to everyone!

The following is my attempt to surmise what occurred on the practice field for the morning practice. I'm not a scout and I don't pretend to be one (even on TV) so please pardon my lack of knowledge. Consider this a fan's perspective of what happened. The players were in their throw-back helmets again today, but no shells. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to see some hitting.

At about 9:25 AM players shuffled onto the field and stretched amongst themselves. The O-line stayed to themselves and even did some work before the official start of practice.

9:30 - Organized warmups/stretches began. Felt like high school again, clapping in rhythm to get it started.

9:35 - Whistle blows and offense/defense/O-line split up. The offense goes through a series of dry plays. The defense works on assignments, audibles and substitutions. The O-line works on assignment drills as well working with coaches to simulate d-linemen.

9:40 - Offense tip drill. Manning and Painter lob passes into the endzone and WR tip it up and back to each other. O-line and D-line still doing their thing

9:45 - Full team drills from the offense's 20. Sam Giguere taking 1st team snaps. That's when I noticed that Anthony Gonzalez was on the sidelines(where he would stay for the entire practice). Interesting note, Ramon Humber was on the sideline when the drill started until Gary Brackett yelled at him to get on the field. Johnson and Muir were on the D-line to start. Funny moment was when Reggie caught a pass underneath and Jamey Richard didn't follow through with his downfield blocking assignment. Reggie looked at him with a look on his face like, "WTF!!!". This drill ended with some end-of-game pitches.

9:50 - Full team drill from the defensive 20. Tip drill and spike drill. Collie and Reggie with nice catches in traffic. Jamey Richard snaps low to Manning out of the shotgun.

10:00 - 1st team defense on the field. QB Tim Hiller fumbles snap from C Adrian Martinez. Garcon, Giguere and Taj Smith throw in a triangle off to the side. On two consecutive plays, Bob Sanders blitzes from the outside absolutely uncovered. If there was tackling someone might have died.

10:05 - Manning takes Reggie, Collie, Garcon and Clark off to the side for passing tree drills. That's when it happens. On a deep out to Reggie, Manning throws and the ball actually falls for an incompletion! The only time the ball hit the field all day when 18 was throwing it. During the same drill, Clark gets pissed for someone reason. Visibly angry at what it appears was Collie.

10:15 - Manning takes Brown and Addai off to the side for draw drills with both of them in the backfield at the same time. Might see that some this year. Over where the 2nd teamers are practicing, Guice has makes some nice catches. One that is thrown behind him and he makes a nice adjustment in the air to grab it.

10:30 - Redzone drills for 1st team defense, but I promise you everyone on the east side of the stadium wasn't watching that. They were watching Dallas Clark have fun in a passing circle.

It starts with Gonzalez, Giguere, Collie and Garcon just throwing by themselves quite casually. Then wanders over Taj Smith, so they widen the circle. Then Clark decides that he wants in, but nobody else wants to throw him the ball so he starts getting quite animated, asking for the ball. Finally, he gets included but he changes the rules. Only left handed! It gets quite funny watching professional athletes trying to throw with their opposite hand. Dallas got the loudest boo when his left-handed duck was short to Giguere. Garcon has the nicest left-handed toss. Then Dallas decides that it should be rugby tosses, so they all start doing that. Then it was tipping the ball, until that got boring and then Clark instructed everyone that they only could use one hand. It was far and away the most entertaining part of the practice.

10:40 - Whistle blows and team huddles up. End of practice.

I tried to get an autograph or two, but unless someone walks right up to you where you are on the fence, it isn't happening. Also, the tent line looked like it would take 2 hours to get through. It was hot and humid but I had a great time. Everyone was nice and real easy-going so if you have time to get out before camp breaks next week I would recommend the drive.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.