Best rookies in camp
Top three rookies in training camp so far have been running back Ray Rice, linebacker Tavares Gooden and safety Haruki Nakamura.
Rice finds holes and has good acceleration. He might be small, but he runs with both authority and power. Gooden is physical and plays with a lot of energy. He definitely has a passion for football.
Nakamura just makes plays. He is always around the football. He needs to be more physical, but that will come with time as he adds more confidence.
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Lost among the injury stories about offensive linemen is the play of center Jason Brown. He has played well, and tried to rally the troops this morning when left offensive tackle Adam Terry went down. Brown pitched a shutout in the pass rushing drill.
Comments
It's good to hear some postive news coming from camp but it looks to me like there are some obvious signs that this could be a typical rebuilding process and a painful couple of years could be in store. There are so many unknowns at this point it's hard to point to any one position and say - yeah, they're solid there - except for linebacker / DE and that’s only because they are probably restocking for a possible exit of Scott, Lewis, Suggs, and Price. Everything else is either bad, weak, without depth, or inexperienced. OL, QB, CB, WR, RBs - all of these fall under one of those categories. Their biggest strength is probably going to be special teams. In 2 years (maybe sooner) this team will look nothing like it does now. My bet is that Lewis, Suggs, Scott, Price, McAlister, Rolle, Reed, Mason, Stover, MacGahee, Terry - will all be replaced by new picks or current roster players.
Posted by: Bryan Lemley | July 29, 2008 4:56 PM
I'm actually glad to see Brown move over to center, some forget that was his position in college. It seems to me that our interior line will be ok, but those tackles.....man...why didn't we sign Sims? Why?!
Posted by: jj | July 29, 2008 5:32 PM
Thats great to hear about, Rice, Gooden and Nakamura.
It wasnt mentioned about Cousins but he could turn out to be a steal with some time under his belt.
Its funny to listen to the nay sayers about Oz and DeCosta.
Last year we got Grubbs, Yanda, Smith and Barnes looks to be coming into his own. Le'Ron McClain should be better and more apt to deliever some great blocks for our RB's
Figures did well returning and should do even better this year.
The year before we got Ngata, Landry , Coch and Sypniewski who IMO is an awesome TE.
2005 wast that great of a year, but we did get Brown out of it and if he can stay healthy for once , Dan Cody could wreck shop this year.
I ask you people....whats wrong with those picks??
Posted by: Mike | July 30, 2008 9:30 AM
So um... how are those tight ends looking? With all the help needed at tackle, looks like we'll need the extra blocking help on the line. Not that'll help open up the passing game...
Posted by: Pete | July 30, 2008 10:29 AM
how about zbikowski....or even a guy like prescott burgess, how are they doin
Posted by: g dubbs | July 30, 2008 1:54 PM