Saturday afternoon practice

[mesaSteeler]

NFL from the sidelines
http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/
After hobnobbing around the NFL in the press boxes and sidelines, sports reporter Dale Lolley will let you know the insider scoop.

Saturday afternoon practice


Sorry this one took so long to get up, but I had to go back to Washington to pull desk duty tonight, so I had other things to take care of.

Lawrence Timmons left the afternoon practice with what was descibed as cramps by Mike Tomlin. They happened during back-on-backers, though, so who really knows if it was a cramp or something else? Either, way, it didn't look serious.

Back-on-backers wasn't really too exciting, though rookie running back Issac Redman caught my eye as a blocker and drew praise from head coach Mike Tomlin, who had joked at dinner the previous night that he didn't know the kid's name and had been calling him Barlow.

"I like the way you block 33," Tomlin said, later praising Redman again.

Redman looked the best of the running backs in the drill, though rookie tight end David Johnson showed he's stout when he gets set.

Of the backers, other than the usual suspects - read James Harrison - Andre Frazier and Donovan Woods both showed good power/moves.

Bruce Davis was disappointing and looks more like a finesse player than a powerful linebacker. He still has a long way to go.

Davis' cohort last training camp, Tony Hills looked equally as bad in the one-on-one pass blocking drills with the defensive linemen. According to trained eye Craig Wolfley, Hills stops moving his feet when he punches and also likes to lunge. Both are apparently no-nos for offensive linemen.

Things were getting so bad for Hills - who admittedly was matched with Harrison several times - that I felt they needed to bring Davis over for a morale boost. Not sure which one of them would have gotten the morale boost, but one would have.

Rookie guard Kriag Urbik also got schooled a number of times with head coach Mike Tomlin finally yelling at him to show a little self-respect. The rookie's not going to unseat Darnell Stapleton at right guard.

From what I've seen already of Trai Essex, though, he might. He looks leaner this year and he also appears more powerful.

Board favorite Doug Legursky - yes I finally watched him - isn't all that bad. With Justin Hartwig out with a toe injury, Legursky got plenty of work with the second unit and more than held his own. He might actually have a shot if he can prove he can play guard as well.

Legursky, though, like Timmons and running back Frank Summers, had to leave practice with cramps.

Charlie Batch has not started this camp very well, throwing some horrific passes. The No. 2 job could be there for the taking by Dennis Dixon.
Posted by Dale Lolley at 9:35 PM 1 comments Links to this post

[Galax Steeler]

Here comes Dennis Dixon I can see Batch taking the back seat this year.

[mesaSteeler]

Looks like Urbik is getting a rude welcome to the NFL. I wouldn't want Tomlin yelling at me like that on the first day of practice. Coach T must have been really honked off by Urbik's attitude.

[tony hipchest]

jim wexell is also saying that urbick became tomlins whipping boy and that t. hills has pretty much sucked.

[devilsdancefloor]

Maybe coach is trying to push urbik cause he knows he is better than he was performing. But Davis still has me thinking WHY did we drafted him at this point? Could he end up in the middle at some point?