I was able to attend about an hour of Monday morning’s full-pads practice. Here’s what stood out to me the most from the bleachers:
-LT Duane Brown impressed from the start. He pushed his opponent back on the line of scrimmage constantly, and in the first full scrimmage he opened up two mammoth holes that led to big runs by Steve Slaton and Arian Foster. Perhaps this is the year that Brown takes the next step towards becoming a renowned starter in the AFC.
-RB Chris Henry caught me off-guard in a good way. Dreads were flying around the interior line throughout the morning and it took me a while to figure out from my seat that Henry was the one initiating (and later breaking through) the contact. He’s an animal of a runner and has already received praise from most who have seen him at camp thus far. Though Ben Tate should easily grab the third running back slot on the roster, wouldn’t it be nice to have a proven bruiser in Henry to use in goal-line situations? He has certainly done plenty to earn consideration.
-Backup QB Dan Orlovsky seemed lost throughout most of the morning. In the early scrimmage, he came in with the second team in a goal-line situation, only to take a quick drop, miss an open receiver and then gently/inexplicably toss the ball to a covered receiver, which resulted in an interception. He never looked comfortable in the pocket and even ran the ball once, which you’d rather not see in these types of drills. I even heard some “we want Sage back” chatter in the stands – that should indicate plenty.
-Defensive line coach Bill Kollar is a very intense man. I’ll leave you with that.