Recap of the Black and Gold scrimmage

I’m back for another year of reporting from the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The 2 hour drive from Charlottesville, VA was surprisingly chilly (68 degrees) and wet throughout. The temperature remained the same when practice started but the rain had subsided. Overall I have to say the play was pretty poor. For what it’s worth I walked from last year’s scrimmage seeing a very sharp team that looked crisp and focused. This year I saw a team disorganized and less impressive. But based on how last year turned out that’s not necessarily a sign of anything. Below are bullets on the scrimmage:

• The first team offense with Drew Brees looked pretty crisp. Brees looked sharp and guided the offense to a touchdown on a beautiful fade to Marques Colston right over his shoulder for a soft catch.
• Ben Watson looks very strong and was a frequent target.
• The offensive line really struggled pre-snap. There were also a couple of botched snaps. Hard to know how much the quarterbacks were to blame for this but it affected the spotty play of Luke McCown, Ryan Griffin and Garrett Grayson. The penalties in particular were really piling up, I counted five false starts. That just can’t happen.
• I would say Luke McCown looks the most comfortable as the #2 quarterback right now. Grayson show some signs of potential but looked really poor at other times. Griffin, who was the star of the scrimmage last year, did not play as well.
• Defensively I was impressed with the corners. Coverage on the whole was very good, even when they were getting beat. Keenan Lewis, Delvin Breaux, Brandon Browner and Josh Wilson in particular all stood out as being disruptive and around the ball.
• The starting defensive line with Akiem Hicks out was Kasim Edebali-Kevin Williams-Bobby Richardson and Cameron Jordan. Edebali and Jordan looked like a fierce pass rushing tandem. Both were frequently in the backfield.
• The flip side of that was Andrus Peat looked poor. He had his hands full with Edebali. At the end of practice during sprints, Peat looked like he was going to die. Conditioning is not where it needs to be for him.
• Cyril Lemon and Griffin stayed to make sure every fan there got an autograph. Kudos to those guys. Very nice people.
• Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry is in attendance as well as other Pelican officials. I was told by one source off the record that the Pels are looking to possibly build a training facility in the area as well.
• Colston looked strong making tough catches in traffic. Nice to see him on point.
• David Hawthorne looked good pursuing in coverage. He had a nice tackle and play diagnosis on a screen to Marcus Murphy and good coverage on a bootleg to Erik Lorig where he stuffed the play at the line of scrimmage.
• Marcus Murphy looks explosive and FAST on returns. Get ready for him to have a good preseason I think.
• Tim Hightower got tons of reps. I think the Saints really want to see what he has to offer. He’ll probably get a lot of carries in preseason.
• R. J. Harris had the catch of the day on a ridiculous diving outstretched grab on a deep ball down the sideline. Vinnie Sunseri had the defensive play of the day on an interception that was probably a pick six if the play hadn’t been whistled to stop.
• Overall I wasn’t impressed with either side too much. The offense looked really disorganized, the defense had substitution issues which sent Rob Ryan over the edge, and the team didn’t look on point. There were a lot of prominent key guys being held out, though.
• Mark Ingram had a really nice cut back run. He looks fast and in good shape.

That’s it for now. I’m here for 4 days so stay tuned for more from the Greenbrier.