My observations from Falcons scrimmage today

[gsuteke]

copied and pasted from my falcons site - many of those folks I know personally so skip past the names

I'll try to type this out in chronological order - I"m sure I'll forget something and post it later.

Dimitroff looks like a kid. Seriously. He's tiny too. He's a head shorter than Matt Ryan. Dimi acts like a kid too. Before the game he was playing catch with another staffer. They were throwing the ball from 5 feet and proceeded to maybe 10 yards at the most after 10 to 15 throws. Robiskie (lights skinned black guy) ? was standing next to him catching some balls. Anyway - get the drift. Dimitroff is tiny. Dimi then proceeds to start throwing the balls kind of underhanded behind his back in a half moon fashion. Picture playing horse with a football. Back to the point of him acting like a kid - dude can pick players though.

Mattt Ryan was talking to him in the 2nd half on the sideline. They were critiquing the previous play back and forth. I thought their relationship must be a peculiar one. Matt is the star of the team - yet the little nerd ultimately will be the one offering him the contract.

Artie was on the sideline before the game eating. Rich McKay was next to him wearing shorts and a long sleeved T-shirt. 2007 took it's tool on McKay. He's balding as he has been for years but now he's completely white headed.

Smitty came out right before the scrimmage was supposed to start. He's lost alot of weight. I damn near may say he looked svelte (sp?) for an old man.

He walked over to the rich pervert Frenchie and Frenchie shook his hand. GROSS - Artie you are still eating. EYYCK

The scrimmage started off on a bad note. They were cheap - they didn't do any fireworks or introduce the players individually as they had advertised. Then they do a real coin flip - and follow it up with 20 minutes worth of punt practice.

WTF???? they had chosen who would receive and which side of the field to defend and then they did punt ST drills.

BTW look for alot of holding penalties on the punt team. They had laundry littering the field. The couldn't seem to stop holding.

Norwood doesn't have a 6 pack from row 15. He's out there wearing his jersey up to his chest and I'm not sayin' - I'm jsut sayin'

I forgot my camera - sorry guys.

The starting D-line was 55, 92, 93, 95. Is Jackson 93?

on 3rd and 9 on the 1st posession Chevis Jackson came in. I asked him in the autograph session if he was playing nickel this year and he said "I'm not sure yet." I follwed up and he said "It's still not decided."

Abe had a sack on the 1st posession.

Watching a game that's "touch" makes me realize how people tear their knees up in practice. It's unnatural to play touch football at that level. You chance the way you approach a person, shift differently to avoid head on contact, etc.

Weems and Norwood fielded punts. Finn fielded some fair catch punts inside the 20 like he did last year.

I was suprised at the QBs. The Falcons brought in John Parker Wilson and I said to myself "This guy didn't do much at Alabama throwing the ball - jsut another camp arm."

JPW had the most velocity of the 4 Qbs warming up. He had some zip on his ball and threw it on a rope. Ryan and Redman both throw pretty balls. DJ gets the job done - he's just got some wobble on his ball.

First posession Abe had the sack. They held on 3rd and 9 1st team D vs 2nd Team O with Shockley throwing a prayer that went incomplete.

Ryan threw some nice balls on his 1st posession. Michael Jenkins is a stud WR. Finneran was the 3rd WR. Norwood caught a nice screen out of the BF that could have went for 6 if not for the touch football rules. In fact Smitty overruled the Refs quite a few times and gave the offense a 1st down after they'd ruled a guy down. Thomas Brown and Norwood both had runs that likely would have broke for big gainers to the House if they had been live.

Red was 1st team - white was 2nd team.

Red's 1st drive ended with a touchdown.

White got the ball back and JPW was i the game. they drove down to the 10 or so and Smitty gave them a FG after they stalled. There were no FGs kicked, 3 points were automatically awarded each time in FG position.

Let's talk abotu Red's 2nd drive. OMG. ANyone there can tell you this was Gonzo's drive. I had no idea how great this guy is.

Red has it on the 50 or so. Gonzo drops a one handed catch that could have went for 30 - maybe more. He walks over to Ryan saying "My bad" Ryan doesn't hesitate to motion to him in a fashion saying "We'll get them next play." Well Ryan did get Gonzo on the next play, literally and figuratively.

Ryan threw a sideline route to Gonzo with a LB or Safety trailing - completion - right into a CB. If they were playing live Gonzo would have taken one to the chest center mass. Tony Gonzalez is a large man though so I think he could have taken the shot - more on large men later.

On the very next play Ryan throws a ball up for grabs under pressure and Gonzo makes a ridiculous jumping catch in traffic. It was absurd. BTW on that very play if they were going live Ryan would have had a 1st down and also possibly a cart in his future. The blitzer was left untouched and although Ryan got the ball off in time he had a clean shot on him.

On the very next play Ryan threw a beautiful ball to the corner of the endzone to Gonzo with a defender on his back. He made another ridiculous catch for a TD. I looked at a complete stranger as the dome was pretty loud at the time and yelled "we didn't have a receiver last year that would have caught that ball."

I was right. Gonzalez is a special player. Special indeed.

On the next drive Shockley missed a guy that had Chris Houston beat by 7 or 8 yards for a Touchdown. He underthrew the hell out of the ball and as day follows the night in the NFL the beaten CB bailed Shockley out by interfering with the receiver as he caught up to him. There was a holding penalty on the play but that's not the point. When they watch the film they'll see Shockley missed a TD throw.

Redman led the Reds in the 2nd half. He looked good. He made good throws, completing more than not. My problem with judging him was Jenkins and Gonzo were on the sidelines (Finn too in fact) with no shoulder pads on in the 2nd half. YOu can't get an honest assessment on Redman from that scrimmage comparing him to Ryan straight up. It's Ryan's team though so whatever.

JPW drove the whites down to the goal line to end the game but Grimes picked him for the only turnover of the game.

Boys - I'll be stunned if the Falcons don't average 24 to 28 points a game. I understand that's top 5 in the NFL material. They're that good - without Roddy White. The offense is explosive.

Typical Roost reaction will be "well the defense probably sucked." The D couldn't turn the lights out on anyone so they were obviously at a disadvantage. Havins said that though the Offense is just ridiculously talented. Ryan didn't miss anything.

After the game we got in the autograph lines. Thanks to Byron and Meg for the tickets. Sam Baker so didn't want to be there. He wouldn't make eye contact with people. He would stare into space as he signed. My kids didn't have anythign to sign, they're pretty friendly and very aggressive. They just wanted to say "Hi." ELam was super friendly. High 5'ing the kids - very open. He's an older guy too so I think he "gets it." Chevis Jackson I spoke with asking him about playing the nickel.

Sam Baker - he was next. He does have an absurd beard. He was trying his best like I said not to pay attention to anybody. My goodness he looks like a big baby. HOw old is he? He literally looks like a kid. ANyhow Blake walks up to him and asks can he touch his beard - Blake's 4 it happens. That got Sam's attention for the 1st time I'd saw since I'd been in that line for 15 minutes. He was a little surpised - Sam. he's trying his best to be stand offish (he didn't want to be there and it showed) and some little kid called him out. I broke the ice by saying "He's not as mean as he looks Blake - he's just frightened by little boys - they ask lots of questions." Sam smiled - looked at Blake in the eye and leaned forward. Sam Baker has anew friend now.

I had specific instructions from Meg via Byron if I got Matt RYan's line to save her and autograph. (You had specific tickets to lines and few people actually had them they were given out certain season ticket holders) Well when I was in Bakers line in section 108 I looked over at Section 103 (my next ticket) and said to myself "Jackpot." THat's him. I called Byron with the good news. Well 10 minutes later I had to make a concession call. It was actually Redman. Ooops.

Bad for Meg, good for me. I've been wanting to ask him something for 2 years.

We get to the front of that line and the kids are taking to the players. 25 and 28 were at that table with Redman. They were super nice dudes - not 1st rounders is my take. Anyhow I walk right up to Redman and say "You know I've been hoping to run into you in the grocery store." That got his attention. I said "I live in Augusta though so that hasn't happen. Tell me this - is Petrino as big of a jerk as we all think he is?" Redman smiled and kind of shrugged his shouldes. He said quote "Well kinda but after you get to know him" and then shrugged again. I then proceeded to tell him 2007 was my 1st year with season tickets and we all remember that. He smiled and said "No doubt." I then told him "you were selling insurance though right - worked out for you though" He grinned and said "absolutely."

Butterworth - he was down on the field doing the obstacle course with the kids as the lower end players were. Very personable guy. My 4 year old son Blake was all over him and he didn't run from it.

I saw some large men today. I'd like to differentiate between large and big. I see what we call steroid freaks on occasion at the gym 5 days a week. THey're big.

Butterworth is a large man. I'm 6'3" without shoes, 200 lbs. I was wearing Pumas with very thin soles, he was wearing cleats with wrapped feet. I'll give him 1.5 to 2 inches due to the difference in shoes, wrap. I was eye level with the guy's chin it seemed. A large man.

Zinger was big too - not as big. I told him he had the perfect name for an NFL TE. Funny when the clock ran down to 0:00 Zinger hauled *ss. He was throwing the ball to kids as they left the obstacle couse. When that clock hit triple 0's for his time to be over he flipped the switch. In fact someone had thrown him the ball back and that ball wound up on the turf. He didn't acknowledge it - "Get my *ss to the showers I'm done" LOL

Edited August 9, 2009 by gsuteke

[DrReality]

You should be a beat writer.

[gsuteke]

You should be a beat writer.

what I could do with true access. I've thought about parylaying HS into a media credential. I may get serious about that in due time.

[bird_dirt]

what I could do with true access. I've thought about parylaying HS into a media credential. I may get serious about that in due time.

move over peter king.

[DrReality]

It's a lot better than some of the crap they print.

[ShooterMcGavin]

I agree with everything except:

JPW looked like crap. His first trip to the goal line he looked over open receivers like it was his job. In one throw-away, he hit a kid immediately to my right in the head. Granted, the kid should have had better hands, but if he WOULD have, Blank likely would have thrown an #84 jersey on him.

His second trip to the RZ, he locked on to the receiver from the snap (the play that Grimes picked). If I could read JPW's eyes from 3 rows up in the end-zone, it was pretty obvious an NFL DB picked up on it.

In sum, if this guy makes the team, it should be as a janitor. If he ever sees the field, I think we should punt on first down. And given the dire state of our defense, that's saying a lot.

Edited August 10, 2009 by ShooterMcGavin

[coachx]

Thanks for the recap with great details. Wish I could have been there.

[HawkItus]

Great recap. Did any of the new comers @ corner look good?

[gsuteke]

Outside of Grimes' INT at the end of the game nobody really stopped the other team from passing with the exception of the very 1st series in which Abe got the sack.

Especially on the 1st team O vs 2nd team D - receivers were open. Gonzo is impossible to cover.

[DrReality]

Teke . . . . what do you think of F

these moves?

lowery Branch -- Erik Coleman, the Falcons’ top returning tackler, has been moved over to Lawyer Milloy’s old strong safety spot on the defensive unit.

.Thomas DeCoud, the second-year safety, is being groomed to assume Coleman’s old free safety spot.

This is a major shift for Coleman, who will now call most signals and play closer to the line of scrimmage in running situations.

“In the past, I’ve always been interchangeable,” Coleman said. “I’ve been able to play free and strong. Playing strong safety, you have to be in tune to all of the run fits.”

DeCoud has shown good range and will have over-the-top responsibility in some deep zone coverages.

Coleman was third on the team in tackles last season behind Milloy and former linebacker Keith Brooking. He will have an enforcer’s role and must also be “in the same communication chain” with the linebackers.

“I feel like its more responsibility and I’m excited about it,” Coleman said.

DeCoud, a third round pick from California in 2008, played mostly on special teams last season and was inactive for five games.

“He’s got all of the physical skills, the speed and ball skills,” Coleman said. “He’s been playing well.”

[gsuteke]

Dr R - I know very little on the X's and O's of football. Somebody asked me to see who was starting on the DL - my response was "I see black helmets and black jerseys."

Defensively I feel like since they've gotten rid of Brooking who hadn't made an impact player in years and Milloy who just couldn't cover anyone any longer they're going to be in better shape.

I was concerned about Moore (a rookie) winning a starting job. I'm happy to hear Decoud was outplaying Moore even before he got injured. Also I'm concerned at Corner. I'm not saying Chris Houston is a bad player, however he doesn't inspire confidence in me as our #1 CB. Maybe that's just a me problem because he isn't a big name yet. If you would have told me Grimes would be our starting QB before the season began I'd say "dear lord, god help us" however he looked like he could hold his own on Saturday.

I don't think it really matters as much as we all make it out - the Falcons will probably score 4 TDs a game on offense alone. Seriously, they're that good.

[DrReality]

The piece in the paper made that point pretty clear that we will put up some points. But it seems to me that the new guys offer hope because after they play together a while we should get better. Or at least that is the hope. Also like the fact that Smith is looking to put his stamp on the defense. Sooner or later it will get better.