I’m quickly heading out into practice before Day 4, so we’ll have to wait on in-depth observations, but I do have a few quick hitters to get out of the way.
Defensive Backs
Generally, it was a pretty good day for the defense. We saw another good day in recovery for Xavier Rhodes, another poor day—especially deep for Terence Newman, and more good days for Jayron Kearse and Anthony Harris.
Trae Waynes, who will probably play a good number of snaps with the ones in Day 4 of practice, did well in Day 3 with pads. He fixed some of the technical errors Mike Zimmer mentioned and stayed within his assignment reasonably well throughout the day. His best highlight was assisted by a poor pass from Shaun Hill, but I thought it would have been a good play by Waynes (and a poor play by Treadwell) regardless. Waynes stayed step-for-step with Treadwell going deep, and was able to push him to the sideline. Hill threw the ball short of where he needed to, and both players adjusted for the ball.
The underthrow assisted Waynes, and Treadwell couldn’t bully him out of position for the ball, eventually losing it to Waynes’ PD.
I don’t know if Waynes would have gotten his hand on the ball if it had been thrown well, but I do know that he was in excellent position regardless and because of that likely prevented almost any pass in his direction.
If this is the kind of improvement we continue to see, it would make Waynes a valuable contributor to a young and growing secondary.
Captain Munnerlyn played well and grabbed an interception, while Mackensie Alexander continued to struggle, especially as he played out of assignment once more.
Harrison Smith looked a little out of place in coverage, but did do well filling in in the run game. Kearse was perhaps the best-performing safety among the rest, with Anthony Harris following. I’m not sure Antone Exum or Michael Griffin performed well at all.
Tre Roberson continues to impress, and despite having played quarterback at Indiana and Illinois State, he seems to be a natural defensive back. Aside from him, none of the other defensive backs stood out to me, except Melvin White, who seemingly had a poor day.
Linebackers
It’s very difficult to get a good read on linebackers in camp.
Defensive Line
The defensive line is everything you’d expect. Everson Griffen looks like a monster, Linval Joseph is wreaking havoc, and Sharrif Floyd finds himself in the backfield often. Brian Robison struggled, but Danielle Hunter flourished.
Tom Johnson was a mixed bag, which is maybe a good thing for the offensive line. I don’t think Toby Johnson or Travis Raciti did well on the occasions I could watch them, and I wish I could have seen more of them or Kenrick Ellis. Shamar Stephen flashed. Justin Trattou seemed to be on all camp.
