Comments about Practice on Friday and Monday

Here are a few comments you probably will not see elsewhere about Friday’s practice. I watched Friday’s practice (the first open to the public) and then again on Monday. Both times I watched on the near field. On Friday most of the action was on the far field, on Monday most of the action was on the field I watched.
I will start with things I saw on Friday on the non-main action field. The practice started in shells and then midway went to pads.
When the WRs run individual drills the were in the following order Kupp, Robinson, Van Jefferson, Skowronek, Atwell, Harris …. and Powell last.
In the receiver with no DB coverage there was a drop by Kupp. There was one pass too high and ahead of Atwell that was incomplete – it was in the middle of the field and could have been a pick to a safety if there was a defense.
When the rams went to 7 on 7s on Friday, after each play two coaches went to talk to the defense. Each had a tablet to show players content. One coach talked the rushers (DL, edges) and the other to the ILBs and DBs. They did not do this when the team went to 11 on 11s.
When they went to 7 on 7 and 11 on 11 it on Monday it was Kupp, Robinson, VJ and sometimes Atwell with the 1s. Atwell, Powell, and Skowronek were the top WRs with the 2s.
On Monday (post VJ injury) both Atwell and Skowronek ran with the along with Kupp and Robinson. Interestingly Akers (WR) also got some action with the 1s.
Robinson was moved around a lot. Kupp was rarely isolated on one side of the field. Only once did I see him start alone on one side and not have a WR or RB go in motion to his side. VJ and Robinson were often isolated on one side, but as I said rarely Kupp.
Akers (R and Henderson ran with the 1s. Funk and Calais ran with the 2s.
I noticed on both days that when the second team offense was in there were way too many shotgun snaps that were too high. Kolone who is not even listed in the center depth chart was playing center. The reason for that is that the backup center (Shelton) was playing guard with the 1s so he was not running center with the 2s. So this is not likely a problem during the regular season but I did want to point it out.
I watched the special teams players when the 1s and 2s were on the other field. Gay was kicking FGs into a thin set of uprights. He started 20 yards out (3 yard line equivalent) and slowly moved back to 50+. He would move the ball left and right so not always kicking dead center. Initially, no one was holding for him. While that was going on, Dicker (the UDFA) was going through punt warmups. He started kicking soft line drives to a player started 10 yard punts and then moved to 15 and 20. Mostly just working on form. Dixon, the punter from the Giants, just stood around talking to the LS and bouncing the ball down and then catching it. When Gay started kicking with the LS and holder – Dixon got all of the holding reps. Same thing happened on Monday. Note I did not see most of the practices but if Dicker never gets holding reps, then he really has no shot of being the punter. He was a kicker in college so does not have that experience. There is no way the Rams will make him the punter if they do not let him get practice with Gay kicking field goals.
When the 3s ran on the near field, Perkins was QB and the WRs were McCutcheon, Akers and Koski and Rose was the RB. Oline was Pritcher, Jackson, Snyder, Ealy, and Acuri. The fact that Akers (WR) was with the 3s on Friday and got some run with the 1s on Monday was interesting.
At the end of practice, the QB coach was giving instructions to Perkins and Perez. They were throwing to a standing WR (not running routes). Kupp was the WR. Anyone could have been the stationary receiver so it was pretty cool that it was Kupp as he was helping out players who may not even make the team.
I lost my pen going from the car to the field on Monday, so I have less extensive notes. I was not a fan of Perkins running with the 2s after the shut down Stafford. He is playing with the #2 OL against the #1 DL and has a center who is making him lose a fraction of a second catching snaps that are too high. So he is under pressure a lot. Perkins has a habit of running too much and that does not help with WRs, TEs or DBs. I would much rather see Perez with the 2s as he is more likely to stay in the pocket.
In the QBs throwing to WRs there was a pass from Worford to Atwell that was too high but it was along the sideline so maybe less likely to be picked than the pass on Friday. That said, Atwell and Kupp were the WR stars of the day.