Astro Notes – Thurs July 24

The Short Report: Josh Allen is great, the WRs are better and deeper than you think, Keon has 2 Catches of the Day, and Hoecht is gonna be trouble.

It’s 9:18 and we are sitting on the far side of the field at the 35-yard line. A merciful breeze is keeping us cool for now, with “Why So Serious” cirrus clouds keeping UV down. Boras and Kromer are walking around the asphalt sidewalk outside of the field rather than on the rust-colored Polisseni track. There’s method to their madness; there are more trees in the back behind the bleachers where we sit. It’s 81 right now, 88 when we leave. However, a very big maple is helping to shade us. Early entrants are Maxwell Hairston, Ja’Marcus Ingram, Laviska Shenault, Keontae Jenkins, and Daequan Hardy. Khalil Shakir got a big round of applause coming over to our side of the field to join Stephen Gosnell, the back up-back up-back up tight end. I cheered, “Boise State! Boise State! Boise, Boise, Boise State!” for him as I have done many times when visiting my son. We’ve watched a few Potato Bowls on Albertsson’s Field in Boise.

NFL films has arrived. One of them is sporting a Sean McDermottesque wide-brim hat. Another has the longest boom microphone in the world, and he’s dangling it over the guy that Khalil Shakir is playing catch with. Do these guys even know what they’re doing?

Zach Carpenter looks bigger than last year. I think he knows his ticket to this roster involves blocking as the third tight end. I’d have him fifth right now, behind Kincaid, Knox, Hawes, Sokol and Keleki Latu. The zebras didn’t get as large a round of applause coming out of the tunnel as Kincaid did. Remember–Zebras are people, too (except the ones on Animal Planet being downed by a cheetah).

Offensive linemen are already informally stretching. Kendrick Green and Alec Anderson are notably widebodied, with Alec Anderson a half head taller than Green. Kromer is always there, looking on, and I have always admired his differential instruction. He changes up what he says to the various physical styles of each lineman.

Most noticeable player on the field right now is Elijah Moore, with his neon chartreuse shoes. He proceeds to shake hands with every single wide receiver, plus his coaches. He’s so likeable. Not big, though. Moore is smaller than I thought, and Josh Palmer is bigger than I thought. The surprise from yesterday was that Jalen Virgil was on with the gunners. Don’t cut him yet! Today, Virgil is doing hamstring stretches directly in front of us. Shavers has a band around above his knees doing outside leg movements. Kaden Prather is being coached up by Adam Henry, the wide receivers coach. Last receivers to join the position group are Hamler and Curtis Samuel.

The team begins with two warm-up plays, with the DL including DaQuan Jones. Josh’s pass is lame-duck lazy. I doubt we’ll see full effort today, especially with the high heat. Mike White gets the second pre-calisthenics play today, not Trubisky.

The team lapses into calisthenics. Today’s stars for effort include Dalton Kincaid, Travis Clayton, Greg Rousseau, Chase Lundt, Jacob Bayer, Alec Anderson, Dion Dawkins, and Mike Edwards, today’s Calisthenics Superstar.

Kick returners are Ray Davis, Elijah Moore, Ty Johnson, KJ Hamler and Brandon Codrington. Codrington appears to be the most shifty, and in his absence (should that happen), I’d give it to Ty Johnson.

Josh Palmer and Curtis Samuel are right in front of us. They have to duck under a 4 foot PVC bar to sink their hips enough at their break.

Perhaps the most refreshing thing I’ve seen so far is James Cook looking very animated catching balls with Dalton Kincaid. I’m glad he’s staying in the moment. The present is a gift.

In the positional drills, the offensive lineman are practicing drive blocks, two-on-one blocks, paying attention to hand placement and pad level.

The horn sounds and WRs are working on blocking. McDermott is giving instructions, gesturing about keeping your hands in for blocking. He nods when KJ Hamler does what he is told. McDermott is definitely getting into the personalized instruction here, more than any other season at Fisher. Sean’s gesturing, demonstrating holding his elbows in for David White Jr. The wide receivers are sinking their hips doing zigzag patterns in front of us, applying the sinking hips they had just practiced with the PVC Limbo bar. As a whole, this is a very smooth unit with more quicks than size. Coleman and Shavers are relatively bigger, but we don’t have an Allen Lazard here.

Tight Ends are working with all three of the quarterbacks. Gilliam with a drop. Sokol has good hands. He’s the Packers acquisition. A young woman and Billy Buffalo are throwing T-shirts into the bleachers. Neither can get it to the top row, but I didn’t come for the swag.

Josh Freaking Allen passes on the money to Kaden Prather, Josh Palmer, Laviska Shenault, and Elijah Moore. I have a soft spot for Elijah Moore. I think he’s gonna be real stiff competition with Curtis Samuel and Palmer for WR3. Josh throws a pass too high for Khalil Shakir to catch. Samuel catches a nice one and Kristian Wilkerson catches his pass. Gosnell and Shakir each run a pretty dig route. It seemed that Elijah Moore jumped a bit early for a Josh Allen pass –they’re still getting on the same page, but Khalil Shakir is one with Allen, as he crosses the field to reel in a perfectly-thrown, 35-yard throw. Our MVP does it so effortlessly. Jalen Virgil looks quick in his movements; I think he wants to be more than a gunner.

Here comes the defense back from the third field. Mike White dishes up 5th-rounder Jackson Hawes with a pretty pass. On the other side of the field, over with the ones, Josh just lasers it over the middle to Curtis Samuel, who makes a leaping grab for Catch of the Day. Closer to us, Mike White throws a very nice out pass to RB Darrynton Evans. Further away from us, Josh’s throw to Shakir is off just enough so that Shakir actually falls down after catching it. On the next turn, it’s deep deep play bouncing off of Josh Palmer’s pads, but he catches it on the ricochet.

Buechele throws a deep pass well over Tyrell Shavers’ head. After Shavers and position coach Adam Henry discuss that, Buechele throws it to Shavers again and it’s just right. But you only get one chance in a game.

It’s 11-on-11 now, with DaQuan Jones again the 1-tech. Allen’s out pass to Kincaid is overthrown. Samuel makes his second Catch of the Day on the far side, about 20 yards deep. Hard count draws Ed Oliver offsides, and the next play, a run by Ty Johnson, shows how fortunate we are to have Ty in our stable. His deke of Cole Bishop deep down the sideline was a thing of beauty. To be fair, though, the defensive line actually gummed that play up pretty well at the line, so I doubt that he would get that far.

The twos are sprinkled in now, with Maxwell Harrison is out there at CB2, along with Te’Cory Couch, Cam Lewis, and Buffalo Joe. Andreesen might be out of position on that pass; it’s layered over his head quite well. White makes a fine connection with Elijah Moore, then with KJ Hamler.

Trubisky gets to throw to David White Jr., who’s well-covered by Te’Cory Couch and Ja’Marcus Ingram.

We see a really nice dart from Josh on a slant to Josh Palmer on the far side. The nice breeze and cloud cover are keeping us alive right now, plus my double bottles of water. I watch Maxwell Harrison on Keon Coleman, in phase on Coleman’s route. Now, they were both running 1/2 speed so a lot should not be deduced from what you’re seeing.

VanDeMark is getting the work at right tackle today in place of Spencer Brown (tweaked back), so they are spreading out the work among the backups –a great strategy if you have an extra pair of Kromer-trained understudies.

Shane Buechele’s out there throwing a nice pass to Ray Davis, protected by Kendrik Green, Tylan Grable, and Zach Davidson.

Hoecht (pronounced “Hoyt”) was in on Buechele really quick from the RDE position. I saw Hoecht do this twice, and the LT relly didn’t have an answer. It’s been a long time since we had a defensive end just destroying plays. Think Burce Smith. We will have the healthiest defensive line come Week Seven with the return of the PED Duo.

The Defense is right in front of us now, working on checks. There’s lots and lots of chatter to get everything right. Andreesen is doing that same thing for the B team, including Harrison, Hamlin, etc. On one play, post-chatter, Shaq Thompson blitzed. I still think he has a little bit left in the tank.

More red zone work today, with 11 on 11. Sean McDermott stands over the ball. The offense breaks huddle with Josh Palmer in motion, followed by a long pass to Keon Coleman, a 35-yarder hitting him in stride at midfield. So much for Coleman having a bad camp.

Elijah Moore goes in motion this time, with Keon in the slot, and Jackson Hawes on the end. However, Hoecht does it again. He was in so fast that the blocker could not contain him. He went right for Josh, pullling up at the last moment.

KJ Hamler goes in motion, and Josh’s pass goes on a rope 20 yards to Shakir. A nice pass to Curtis Samuel follows from Trubisky. Javon Solomon is impressing out there, too, putting pressure from the LDE position against the twos. Trubisky shows good eye manipulation as he looks off one way, then passes back over the middle to KJ Hamler.

The threes take a turn. White hands off to Ray Davis up the middle with lineman Keleki Latu, Chase Lundt, Rush Reimer, out there with David White and Stephen Gosnell the other WRs (Yes, White to White is still a possible play). White changes the next play at the line. With David White in motion, he fakes the handoff, and throws over the middle to Gosnell. Heady play.

Back to the ones. Josh looks in Shakir’s direction, and passes the other way to Cook who just takes off down the sideline to loud cheering. To be fair, Hairston closed in at the end. No cornerback in the next draft is faster. And I’m looking at 80 of them!

Now it’s another screen to Shakir. Defense has screens pretty locked down. I love all the checks going on with the defense. Buechele throws to Dalton Kincaid. Then Buechele runs a bootleg to his right, throwing to on the wrong side of Kristian Wilkerson. Wilkerson goes right over to Buechele and talks to him along with the coach. My money is that Wilkerson was not in the right spot.

Grable’s out there with Palmer and Coleman, the offense checks into an alert, but Javon Solomon rushes the play, a pass to Shakir which falls incomplete. On the ensuing play, Shakir motions, but Josh passes to Ty Johnson, our third-down secret weapon, who just took off to enthusiastic cheers. We’ll give that one a Play of the Day.

The twos are out there now with Mike White. There is a dropoff that is noticeable between the ones and the twos with a few exceptions. A late throw is tipped by Shaq Thompson. Jalen Virgil catches a slant pattern after the Reggie Gilliam cleared out the flat for another pretty play. There is less of a chasm between the twos and the threes, and enough here in camp for a pretty impressive (poachable) practice squad.

We see a nice catch by Keon Coleman on a curl route with Kincaid doing a prior clean-out of the area. The defense tried some last-minute adjustments, but Josh simply rose to the occasion.

More motion with Elijah Moore on the left we haven’t had as much motion in our repertoire before. A nice handoff to Ty Johnson, who seems to be playing more than Ray Davis today, or Cook for that matter.

Keon Coleman beats Tre White, then Josh hits Elijah Moore on a sideline route. It’s nice to have trouble naming your WR4, 5, and 6. Everybody Eats.

Many thanks to Lance Nelson for the tickets today. If I get tickets to camp practices , I promise to write them up!!!

Depth Chart After 2 Practices: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XO2kWQtr9m01lGJJOirYmRdFeWUmPDL1LtiIUs67MuA/edit?usp=sharing

Numbered Roster For Camp: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LaEkEQm4nKb9wlxwoMAmnti0SF65W-2H4d83fpBdlVc/edit?usp=sharing