Camp Recap: Day 4 (A.M.)

Vontae blankets Marshall, Smith struggles
Today, we finally got some insight into how Vontae Davis looks in year two. And the consensus seems to be, he is clearly the more improved out of the two sophomore corners. He reportedly held Brandon Marshall without a catch in 7-on-7’s this morning, and the Miami Herald’s Jeff Darlington said he continues to look like a “top-tier” corner.

So far, the same can’t be said for Sean Smith. Sean was burnt on a few notable plays matched up against Marshall on day one, and now Brian Hartline is getting in on the action-beating him deep on a ball Smith reportedly played poorly. It’s still early, of course, so there’s no reason to jump to conclusions on Vontae or Sean.

Let’s just hope this is consistent of what is to come with Vontae, and a minor bump in the road in an otherwise solid career for Sean. But I do wonder, If Sean continues to get burnt, how long before Will Allen becomes a threat to earn his starting job back?

Receiver update
Like you can notice above, Brian Hartline continues to impress in his co-starting role with Brandon Marshall. That has been the case everyday so far in camp, so I’m starting to think the hyped battle for the No. 2 receiver is already over. As expected, Davone Bess was working at slot today, with Greg Camarillo spelling him there.

Meanwhile, in the battle for the likely final receiver roster spot, Patrick Turner has actually mildly impressed and continues to benefit from Ryan-Grice Mullen missing valuable reps (missed second straight practice this morning with suspected quad or hamstring injury).

Today’s O-Line depth chart
Starters- LG: Donald Thomas C: Jake Grove RG: John Jerry
Second-team- LG: Cory Procter C: Joe Berger RG: Richie Incognito

Wake exposed in coverage
We continue to hear reports of Wake being an explosive pass rusher, but haven’t heard much about his production in the other elements of his game. The knock on him a year ago was he couldn’t cover or stop the run. Today, he was reportedly left in the dust trying to cover Anthony Fasano. It was just one play, so it’s no time to jump off the Earth-Wake bandwagon, but he needs to make progress in coverage and against the run to be a solid every down starter.

He has started every practice with the first-team, though, and appears to be locked in as the starter at weakside linebacker. On the other side, Koa Misi worked as staring strong side linebacker again, with Alama-Francis backing him up. It’s still not clear how open that competition is, but Misi still seems to be in the lead for the time being.

Is it time to give up on Pat White?
Nothing new here. Pat White reportedly had another horrible practice. It just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for White to be an NFL quarterback, and his roster chances appear to be slim-to-none.

Nolan’s aggressive scheme shines
We all know Mike Nolan is going to shake things up on the defensive side of the ball, and in particular be more aggressive. Well, the linebackers, both outside and inside alike, and safeties were seen blitzing all session. Even the non-factor, from a playmaking standpoint, Channing Crowder got to Henne twice and even forced a fumble.

Sources: Omar Kelly, Benjamin Volin