Well you get more coverage in training camp that's for sure and there are more drills and stuff with pads on. OTAs are just great for us because we've gone 4 months without football lol.
Originally Posted by: steveishere
That's really it steve. All it really is is a first look at our new players, and all we can really do is guess what will happen.
The encouraging aspects I found apparent were the size increase of important players who really needed to get up to the Pro level, namely Bahktiari, Datone Jones, JC Tretter and Josh Boyd. You can add Derrick Sherrod and Andy Mulumba to the list. These players have clearly worked pretty hard this offseason.
Add to that the new additions via draft and FA and we look to be a much larger team overall with some decent depth at key positions. Again, have to wait and see how they play with pads on, but this first look really is encouraging.
Another item worth noting is speed and catching ability of our WRs, TEs and RBs. I was impressed as hell with James Starks. Man, does he look good, and ready. Lacy looks like a 5 year veteran, again, ready. DuJuan Harris also looked very good. I did keep my eye on LaDarius Perkins for a while. He really is small, but he looks like he could do some things for us. Very shifty, with some good speed, good hands. Might be interesting to see a player like that back there, but this is going to be a very difficult RB group to crack. I was hugely disappointed at not getting a chance to see Lyerla out there, but as was mentioned, we still seem to have a pretty solid group of TEs.
There was one play I recall where Ryan Taylor made a phenomenal catch down the far sideline, and was completely hammered mid air by CB Antonio Dennard (as best as I could tell from so far away). I'm sure Dennard got a word on that from the staff, because he put one hell of a hit on him, but to Taylor's credit, he hung on after hitting the ground.
I had to think long and hard about the negatives that I witnessed out there, and this hit on Taylor was one of them. The others were some uninspiring PR drills (though Masthay seemed to be booming his kicks, and tough to say if he was nailing them into the corners or whether they reached the end zone as that was on the opposite end of the field), no real FFs in the turnover gauntlet (which can be seen as either good or bad), and some lackluster showings by Flynn and Chase Reddig at QB. Ha Ha did drop a ball in a catching drill that he allowed to get into his chest, but, hell, it is an OTA drill and it was one ball. Add to that a few offsides penalties on both sides of the ball and I would have to say that was pretty much it.
I am looking forward to TC, and I will let you know if I head up there and will pass along any info that I see worthwhile. I lived in Arizona for a number of years, and do remember how great it was to get some reports from other railbird fans who were able to attend this stuff. Sometimes for fans living far away, that info was like gold during these slow periods.