OLE MISS PACKER TRAINING CAMP REPORT

IPBprez

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OLE MISS PACKER TRAINING CAMP REPORT

Just got home from Green Bay on Friday night after watching 2 practices. I have not read any media reports yet because i did not want them to consciously or subconciously affect my observations of training camp.

Will start with the morning session. No pads. Where do i begin.....

Bates Bates Bates Bates....the guy was all over the place. I could hear him at all times regardless of where he was on the field. I'll put it this way, if i knew nothin about the packers and i went to camp to learn, i would automatically assume he was the head coach. That's not a knock on Sherman, but the leadership and command i saw in Bates was something to be admired.

Onto the players though...I had great seats against the fence about 10 yards from the DB's. Just great seats. Here's what i saw from the guys.

Ammad Carrol vs Joey Thomas - Well to be blunt. Joey will start for Green bay this year. Al Harris looked twice as good as both of them though. But Joey looked much bulkier, has longer arms which help him play the ball better and just over all looked much better. In the after noon practice.

During Team in pads in the afternoon Carrol got burnt by Chatman when Chatman ran a fly and the QB intentially underthrew him so he could come back and make the play. Carrol could not adjust to the ball. And it wasnt even Favre makin the throw, it was Nall and Chatman who toasted Caroll.
cont... (as in - to be.....)

Thomas wasn't really challenged that much b/c in team. He was burnt in morning drills once really bad by Fergason but those were just one on one drills.

Thomas who looked bulkier than i remember and it showed during afternoon team sessin. When Nick Luchey caught a pass Thomas came up and delivered a nice blow to the 275 pound fella.

Safeties- Roman and Freeman were the first team. But its too early to count out either both Collins and Freeman as the starters, although they both definately wont, each of them looked promising. Again though w/out Favre in team Nall and O'Sullivan didn't challenge them much so it was hard to grasp. Well NAll did some what but O'Sullivan looked horrible. Little didnt work in a whole lot it seemed like.

D-Line - The first thing i have to mention is this move I saw from Cullen Jenkins. He lined up at DE in afternoon pad drills against Mark Tauchsher. IT was a pass rushing drill and Jenkins bull rushed him when the ball was snapped and completely pancaked TAUSCHER. It was great. Hunt was the only guy to jump off sides on this drill the whole afternoon...surprise surprise.

Grady didnt practice for some reason but he was there. I dont know if theres a hold out issue of somekind or what. Donnel Washington and Corey Williams got a lot of action with the first unit but i didnt pay a whole lot of intention to everybody with there being so many players.

KGB and Kampman looked up to par and Peterson and Jenkins subbed in a lot. This Jenkins DE experiment looks like it could work. I dont see Peterson being much of a pass rush threat. Montgomerey looked ok. He did something good in drills but i missed it, but Bates head butted him for it.

LBs - No big surprises here. As for the first Day Navies was in with the first group but subbed in a lot by Thompson....who by the way is at best only a slight upgrade over Navies from what i saw.

WRs- Terrance Murphy looks to be a great pick. He looked just like a veteran out there. In the afternoon I was in yet another great spot right directly in front of the WR's. Murphy will contribute this year and he will be a better pick than Troy Williamson and the Oklahoma guy the bears got both picked before him, i guarantee it now. There's really some interesting competition shaping up for that final spot. ITs between Chatman Thurmin Bragg and Butler.

Going into today you could easily see it was ranked Chatman Thurmin Butler then Bragg in that order.

Well in the afternoon Thurmin was catching punts before practice and one took a bit of a hop and nailed him in the balls. I think he jammed his finger on the play and sat out practice. The WR coach said to Vincent Butler "Now that he's not gonan go this is your chance people are going to be watching you."

Butler still didnt get any reps on team really, but by the way he is built i'd say he has the potential to be better than Thurmin Chatman and Bragg who are all very undersized by NFL standards.

However, Chatman and Thurmin are both way more polished than him in drills. I forsee Butler being a practice squad project similar to Bill Schroeder and Donald Driver, he won't make the team this year.

By the was Driver is the consumate leader of the group. Always cheering everybody on. He led every drill and is just a really good guy. People did cheer Javon whenever he made a catch as well.

Bragg didnt get a chance to do much but in the training camp guide he 1 of only 2 or 3 guys listed as a KR on the side of his position. So if he's gonna make the team it will be at that, but we cant judge that til preseason games begin.

Overall with Walker and Ferguson being a year Better and Driver being himself + with how superb Murphy looked. I forsee this being our best WR group since the SB years. I really mean that they looked great. They are the best group of WR's in the division with these 4. Favre will have no problem throwing for 30+ tds and 4000 yards again.

RB's - no surprises here, not a lot to talk about. the guys looked good as they should at this time of year.

O-line - cant really give an honest assessment, i dindt pay enough attention to the new guys. I was too enamored witht he Defense and the WRs. I can tell you that Whitaker sucks, but hes suppose to be a project. I remember him doing pretty bad in the drills.

All in all I was really impressed with Bates, but not impressed with the actual talent of our D. Again though, they are suppose to have a long way to go b/c it was only the first practice, but i dont know if Joey will be that good. I do know that he's better than Caroll.

And I still dont know what we got with safety, but the rookies both showed lots of potential but they both wont be ready this year, but i think one of them will be at some point htis season. I do forsee them both being starters one day though just from seeing their athletisism. Freeman will start for sure along with someone else to be seen.

I was also extremely impressed with Murphy. He's got a good WR body. Bulky enough, very mature and business like. Comes out of his break as good as our top 3 and looked good in team.

I will now be fielding any questions from anybody about Training Camp on this thread.

(He means back where I copied this report from..... IPBprez)
 

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