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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Musing on OTAs, Grimes, Robinson and Petrino
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Falcons got back to organized team activity (OTA) practices Wednesday and coach Mike Smith flipped the script a little bit.
Instead of workouts being like mini-camp, full team practices, they will be more like the old-school passing camps over the next few weeks.
The entire team will be on the field for most of the 2-hour sessions, but the interior guys will cut out early to concentrate on weight lifting and conditioning. The skill players will stay on the field and go through passing game/pass coverage work.
Smith said the skill-position players need to focus more on the nuances of the new schemes, while the big fellas need to use this time to build up their strength.
In terms of the skill players, the two guys who keep looking better and better are second-year wide receiver Laurent Robinson and third-year cornerback Brent Grimes.
Grimes, who came out of small Shippensburg State, has a real opportunity to emerge as DeAngelo Hall’s replacement at left cornerback. Assistant head coach Emmitt Thomas told me last season that Grimes was probably the best athlete on the team and that the only thing holding him back is experience.
Grimes (5-10, 180) also is small and could have problems against bigger receivers but if he stays focused and holds up to the rigors of training camp and preseason, don’t be shocked to see this guy in the starting lineup or at least in the top-end of the rotation.
As for Robinson, he could really become a special player. He is a lot like fellow WR Roddy White in terms of size and speed. Robinson has a stride that can negate a defensive back’s cushion in the blink of an eye. As a rookie, Robinson showed poise and toughness and his arrival to the big time could come earlier than others expected.
In other developments, veteran players stayed away from talking about the remarks made in today’s AJC by former coach Bobby Petrino. Petrino, who resigned with three games left in 2007 to take the job at Arkansas, said the timing of his departure was tough but that his departure was imminent.
Petrino said the college game is just a better fit for him but declined to admit he made a mistake in taking the Falcons’ job. Petrino said he liked college kids because they are trying to achieve goals while some pro players feel they’ve already reached them.
I have to agree with Profootballtalk.com (a good and very entertaining NFL website), which said that Petrino’s experience as an NFL assistant coach in Jacksonville should have provided him with enough perspective to know that NFL players are different than college kids. Pro guys aren’t going to feel nearly as threatened by their coaches as college kids and after awhile, they will retaliate in some way if they’re continually dogged.
From what I saw, players, although they strongly disliked Petrino, did what he and his staff asked him them all season, which is why they were so upset when he left.
Though most of the veteran players I spoke with today said they didn’t want to say anything about Petrino, one did say he was amused by Petrino saying coaching the Falcons was like the movie “Misery.”
“He’s the one that made it that way,” the player said.
