Training Camp day 13: notes and afternoon audio from Blackmon, Gruden

by Alex Zeese

Players were out bright and early for the last day of 2017 training camp here in Richmond.  The First man out through the doors was AJ Francis, who walked allong the lines of fans giving warm greetings and kicking a soccer ball with small kids.

Players were not in pads for the morning walkthroughs session. Their jerseys were warn down, with the numbers falling off as a result of the two weeks of brutal heat.  Everyone seemed to be in a good mood as they went through plays. Josh Norman had an ear to ear smile as the receiver he was covering made some comment that was inaudible to the media.

The crowd was more modest sized and fairly quiet today compared to other days.   The fans’ biggest reaction of the day came not as a result of a play, but when Kirk seemingly faked out the whole defense with his snap count.  Norman bit hard and after the play gave the quarterback some respect for drawing him offsides.

I focused a lot on corners and QBs during the afternoon practice, which was padded and with full contact.  Safety Deshazor Everett was given reps with the starters as a result of the absence of regular starter Su’a Cravens’ due to his injury.  Fabian Moreau really impressed me today. He had a great deep ball pass breakup on a play in which it initially appeared as though he was beat on a cut move by the receiver.  I also liked his awareness of where the ball is even in run situations.  Quinton Dunbar was also solid all day going, stride for stride down field with WR Brian Quick and ended camp with an interception of a Colt McCoy pass over the middle.  Josh Norman had multiple pass breakups on the day.  I was worried when he went down at one point but the trainers quickly got him back up and on the field.

When it came to QBs, Cousins was sharp on the day, hitting rookie Robert Davis on several deep balls. Despite that, the offense once again struggled in the red zone.  Kirk had one scramble where he had to dodge a gaggle of coaches 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage.  Two or three plays later he did eventually find Terrelle Pryor, who pushed past his defender to get in the goal line; regardless, more work needs to be done on pushing the ball into the end zone from the red zone.

Audio from the afternoon session includes my interview with Will Blackmon and the last half of head coach Jay Gruden’s final press conference from Richmond.  Thanks for following our coverage from 2017, both with Jamual earlier in camp and my adventures of the past two days.  It’s been a blast.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbenTAfwV8Y

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