NFL
Practice Report (7/26): Notes from the sideline
* The matchup between Deonte Banks and Malik Nabers continued as the two matched up with one another often during team drills. Early in practice, Banks did a good job staying plastered to Nabers on the left sideline, breaking up a pass. Later in practice, Nabers got some revenge, but you’ll have to get to the next to last bullet point of this report to find out how.
* Undrafted rookie Dante “Turbo” Miller caught two touchdown passes. The first came on a swing pass after some misdirection in the play design. Miller had a lot of space on the sideline and turned on the jets to outrun any angles defenders had to get into the end zone. His second score had him lined up wide right against a linebacker 1-on-1. He quickly got past the defender on the sideline and ran under a perfectly thrown deep ball from Drew Lock for the touchdown.
* Daniel Jones had one subtle throw that stood out to me. He completed a quick seven-yard pass to Jalin Hyatt over the middle. The pass appeared slightly behind the receiver, but from my angle Jones appeared to put it there on purpose to take away Hyatt’s momentum, which was leading him right into what would have been a big hit from middle linebacker Bobby Okereke. It was a subtle adjustment from both the quarterback and receiver to the coverage that had them both on the same page. We would see something similar from the two later on in practice.
* Drew Lock completed a deep throw to Bryce Ford-Wheaton. Ford-Wheaton’s combination of side and speed is hard to miss.
* The defensive front did a good job of disrupting at the line of scrimmage. Kayvon Thibodeau won off the right edge for what would have been a sack, and later in practice he worked around the offensive line before he actually knocked the ball loose from Daniel Jones’ grasp for what also would have been a sack. Boogie Basham had a batted pass and a pressure, while DJ Davidson had a good run stop near the line of scrimmage and got close to the quarterback on a later play. Elijah Riley could have had a sack on a corner blitz.
* The offense had the chance to move the ball against the defense in a two-minute drill in the final practice period. On their first opportunity, the starters took only three plays to get the ball into the end zone. On the first play, Jones hit Nabers with a deep ball on the right sideline perfectly placed over his outside shoulder despite tight coverage from Deonte Banks. On the next play, Jones went to the same side of the field and hit Hyatt on a well-placed back-shoulder catch to defeat tight coverage. On the next play, Jones ran it in for the score on designed run up the middle.