The Shrine Game moved to Orlando this year, and what beautiful weather we had for the first day of practice.  Coach Romeo Crennel led the East squad in their first practice, and the pace was good.  Unfortunately they were not in shoulder pads today, but ran through practice in helmets and shorts.  Players instantly began to stand out for reasons both good and bad.

QB

John Skelton (Fordham) Skelton has the prototypical size for an NFL QB that scouts just love.  However, he is a project and showed why early and often today at practice.  First the good—I liked the way that he was listening intently to everything the coaching staff was telling him.  He seems like a very coachable kid as he would also listen to the playcall in the huddle even when he wasn’t taking the snap.  Skelton set up in the pocket nicely, and has great field vision because of his size.  Now for the bad—his delivery was too deliberate, and it always seemed like he was aiming the ball instead of just throwing it.  Short passes and deep passes were equally off the mark, and usually behind his targets.  Skelton had decent velocity when he really stepped into his throws, but the ball wobbled far too often on underneath and shorter routes.

Daryll Clark (Penn State) When he wasn’t fumbling the snap (he fumbled 3 times today) Clark was fairly impressive - at least when he was passing to shorter routes.  He puts plenty of zip on his passes, and does a good job of keeping them low and away from defenders.  Clark had a good throwing motion when asked to throw on the run, and looks athletic enough to elude the rush.

Mike Kafka (Northwestern) Kafka had an impressive day of practice, but perhaps it’s because my expectations were low for the Wildcat quarterback heading into this game.  He displayed a quick release and good accuracy on short and intermediate routes.  He rarely threw downfield, but showed good touch when throwing long. 

RB

Javarris James (Miami) “Baby J” showed some moves today that were reminiscent of his older brother Edgerrin James.  On a short pass over the middle James looked like he had eyes in the back of his head when he caught the pass and outjuked the linebacker in coverage—with his back to him!  James runs a little too upright, but showed good burst when running between the tackles.  He also showed good balance when changing direction and has natural “make you miss” ability.

Andre Dixon (UCONN) Dixon showed good vision, quickness, and speed to the hole today in practice.  He would stutter step before hitting the hole sometimes, but those moves weren’t unnecessary.  Dixon clearly can create his own space with his quicks and instincts.  He makes nice jump cuts, but shows patience when waiting for his holes to open up.  I love his footwork, and ability to sidestep defenders when running through trash at the line of scrimmage.

Andre Anderson (Tulane) Anderson has good feet, and showed good lateral agility when picking a hole.  I like his field vision and pad level when he runs.  He did drop a few passes today, and even though there was no live tackling he seemed to hear footsteps on a checkdown pass over the middle. 

Richard Dickson (LSU FB) Dickson is not a traditional fullback, but more of an H-Back type and showed good hands on short passes out of the backfield.

WR/TE

Freddie Barnes (Bowling Green) was by far the most sudden and explosive player on the East roster.  He showed great hands today, and had to make several difficult catches—in a number of different ways!  Barnes would catch high passes, with arms extended away from his body.  He would go down and get the low catches, scooping them up to make sure the pigskin didn’t hit the turf.  He snagged balls in traffic, and showed no fear going over the middle.  He caught a few deep passes over the shoulder, and showed good ball tracking ability.  Barnes also was returning punts, which only increases his draft stock.

Alric Arnett (West Virginia) did a nice job of squaring his body to the quarterback and presenting a big target.  Arnett also helped out his quarterbacks by coming back to the ball when the coverage was tight.

Naaman Roosevelt (Buffalo) showed good athleticism, but above all else his hands were incredibly natural.  He plucked the ball out of the air with ease seemingly all day at practice.  One pass from John Skelton did come in hot, and Roosevelt let the tip go through his hands and hit his facemask.  However, to his credit he held onto the ball.

Blair White (Michigan State) impressed me today with his overall ability as a route runner.  His routes were very crisp, and even though most of the passes coming his way were off the mark White would go all out to get the football.  White does have a tendency to body catch, and I saw him jump for a pass when he didn’t need to.  White’s best play of the day may have come on an incomplete pass.  John Skelton threw a deep pass inside when White was breaking outside.  With an interception likely, White flew back to the ball and knocked the pass away from the defender.

Patrick Simonds (Colgate) presents a big target at 6’5” 227 lbs.  I like the way he would slide and go low for a pass if he needed to, in addition to his natural skill as a “jump ball” receiver.  Simonds also seemed adept at finding the soft spot in the zone.  He would sit down on his route and float away from coverage to give his quarterback a larger throwing window.

Andrew Quarless (Penn State) showed good route adjustment on poorly thrown passes today.  He is an impressive athlete, and moves well for a man his size.  Quarless is a player that can create mismatches nearly every time he’s on the field, and the quarterbacks were looking to him underneath.

DEF

O’Brien Schofield (LB-Wisconsin) gets really low and moves his feet well from side to side.  He is very quick and agile, and showed good hands in a drill when he slipped which caused him to bobble a pass, yet he was able to haul it in while changing direction.

Chris McCoy (LB - Middle Tennessee State) looks like a great sleeper pick.  I liked his balance, quickness, agility, and concentration in linebacker drills.  He caught every pass thrown his way and seemed very intense on the first day of practice.

Kavell Conner (LB - Clemson) showed good balance, agility, and explosion when asked to change direction.

Lindsey Witten (DL - UCONN) is very well built, but yet is athletic enough to get position against bigger offensive linemen.

Doug Worthington (DL - Ohio State) moves well for a big man, and showed good anticipation of the snap count.

Patrick Stoudamire (DB - Western Illinois) looks like he could help a team immediately because of his speed and ability to shadow receivers.