We might have seen a changing of the guard at cornerback Thursday in the final two plays of practice.
Working in the two-minute offense to close things out, Ben Roethlisberger lofted a 36-yard TD pass down the sideline to Antonio Brown, who got behind Keenan Lewis - the current frontrunner to start opposite Ike Taylor.
On the very next play, Cortez Allen, who along with Curtis Brown is fighting to unseat Lewis, leaped over rookie receiver Tony Clemons to pick off a Byron Leftwich pass along the sideline, showing the athleticism that has the coaching staff so excited about him.
Lewis has been battling a shoulder injury - and had to briefly leave practice Thursday after jacking up wideout David Gilreath at the line of scrimmage - but Allen's athletic ability is hard to overlook.
Coming out of the Citadel, Allen was supposed to be a project. At this point, the former fourth-round draft pick looks like the second coming of Ike Taylor - with hands.
@ LaMarr Woodley sat out practice again today and as a result, the linebackers vs. tight ends running drill was a walkover for the tight ends - who to this point have looked like five guys named Moe.
Jamie McCoy continues to shine in the one-on-one blocking drills, but until he lines up against Woodley, James Harrison or even Jason Worilds, we'll withhold judgement.
On the defensive side, the only linebacker who flashed was Adrian Robinson, a rookie out of Temple.
After beating pretty much everyone the team put in front of him, Robinson drew what Mike Tomlin called, "Varsity reps" against David Johnson.
Robinson also looked good there.
Mind you, Heath Miller has not been participating in these drills for the tight ends.
@ A moment after being chastised for not being physical enough on a stunt, rookie nose tackle Alameda Ta'amu brought the pain in a collision with Ramon Foster. That was 700 pounds of human being ramming into each other there and was not for the faint of heart.
Cam Heyward looks like a beast in those drills.
He jacked up Trai Essex so hard on a bull rush that it's possible Essex' ancestors felt it.
15 comments:
Dale,
The cream always rises to the top eventually, that's why I still think Cortez Allen will be starting oppose Ike Taylor on opening day. I have been surprised to see that DeCastro has been getting whipped so much in one-on-one drills. Maybe he's the type that plays better during a game than he does in drills. I am surprised that Adams has looked as good as he has so far. When I want to know how a lineman really looks on the field, I like to turn to Tunch Ilkin. When he says Adams has played the best and is the most athletic tackle he's seen in practice so far, that is saying something. As always, I still reserve judgement until I see what happens in between those white lines, beginning a week from today in Philadelphia. Mike Wallace, cut the foolishness & come back where you belong.
Dale, I burst out laughing multiple times while reading this post. Great stuff; keep it coming!
I have been telling anyone who would listen about Adams, went to HS here in my Dublin OH, and watched him at OSU, he got caught up in a bad culture, and thankfully it helped him fall to us. You can not teach a 6'9" man to have feet that quick, you either have them or you do not, just wait until he has a couple years of pro coaching, he could be one of the best in the league, he is that gifted of an athlete.
Great to hear about Cam Heward as well, I could see him beating out hood at end, he seems more natural at the position to me. Also great to hear about Allen, heck, it's great to hear about any DB looking good. I think a lot of folks are overlooking what could be a special team, and a very special team for several years to come.
Dale i know Robinsion is an UDFA but think his name is Adrian.
Dale, I've been hard on you in the past, but you called the A brown talks before they happened, and the plaxico talk, so I really think you're doing a great job this year. All that aside, theres no Patrick Robinson on this team.
also, Lance, Mike Adams is tall, but hes nowhere near 6'9 buddy. And if he were, I'd be concerned
If the current group of wide receivers don;t show enough would not be surprised if Plex gets a call
and yes it Adrain Robinson like i posted earlier
Mike Adams has always been listed at 6'8" He is actually 6'7 1/2". I stand corrected, but 6'7.5" is certainly near 6'9".
if 6 7.5 is close to 6 '9 then a 5 '3 guy is close to 5 4.5? Might as well call that midget 5'5 then.
Dale do you think the RB's will be Redman, Dwyer, Rainey, D. Johnson and then either B. Batch or J. Clay?
When Mendenhall comes off PUP do Batch and Clay both end up on PS? There seems to be 1 too many RB's right now and I guess Clay is the choice to let go (as duplicative of the skill set Dwyer brings without the upside), but he didn't seem half bad last year, whereas Batch seems like a good 3rd down back that can block (which Tomlin has essentially admitted Rainey isn't).
Patrick: I think Tomlin isn't so much saying that Rainey can't block (hell, Sproles can block) it's just that a smaller guy typically employs cut blocking to do so. I know you pretty much never cut block in practice (too many chances to blow out your teammate's knee), so leaving Rainey out there would just be asking him to get pancaked.
Also, no offense to the other posters, but I won't give Dale a hard time for messing up an UDFA's first name on his blog. Now if it's something that gets published, then yeah, people need to fact check their stuff.. but these are free musings.
dale,
how is hood doing thus far?
should we be worried about the TE group? If miller gets hurt it seems we will be pretty thin based on your comments.
I also don't expect Dale to get the names of the Steelers correct.
Adrian Robinson, not Patrick. Nice pickup there.
Let me say this about Cam Heyward as well, he flashes every once in a while, but he needs to be more consistent with it.
When he flashes, he flashes strong. But other times, it's like he's lost out there.
Cam's in his first full offseason, like all of last year's rookies. The class of 2010 is only having their second full offseason.
I think we have good reason to expect larger than normal improvements from those players in their 2nd and 3rd seasons, in their 1st and 2nd offseasons, respectively. That's a lot of guys, including Heyward, Gilbert, C. Brown, Allen, Carter, Batch, Pouncey, Sanders, Sylvester hopefully, A. Brown and Dwyer. I was looking forward to including Worilds in this list, but unfortunately he can't stay on the field.
Both those draft classes have looked good all along, and I think this year we'll find out they're even better than we thought.
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