Observations from the NFL Rookie Shoot

All right. This post is a week late. (The shoot was last weekend.) However, I've been too busy (and, ahem, lazy) to sit down and write something... until today.

Let me just say that going from NY to LA and back to NY in less than 48 hours was tough. I kept myself on NY time the whole time there (never changed my watch). That seemed to help stave off jet lag. Since pretty much everyone else was there at least a day longer than I was, they suffered from full-blown jet lag on Tuesday. Ha, ha. Sucks to be them...

The shoot was out at the LA Coliseum, which was a bit overkill for what we needed to do (last year was at the Rose Bowl). It was cool, though, to watch the last episode of 24 and come to the realization that 48 hours ago, I was standing where Sherry Palmer and Kingsly were meeting. And as everyone says, the LA Coliseum is not in a nice neighborhood...

But I digress. The shoot itself was pretty uneventful. No surprises. No problems. No bad weather. In fact, it was actually so routine, it was boring. The guys this year were among the best group ever. No real attitude problems. All stand-up guys. Some were even freaking hilarious (see: Terrell Suggs).

So... On to my random observations from the NFL Rookie Shoot:

1) Carson Palmer is a man of little words.
2) Dallas Clark looks just like Riley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn't have the guts to tell him this to his face, though.
3) Teyo Johnson is a cool guy. He was involved in a plot to play a prank on me. (He was supposed to act all pissed off about a mistaken birthplace on his trading card.) He couldn't keep a straight face, though, so he gave up the act. He almost had me, too. He was probably the nicest guy there.
4) Taylor Jacobs can flat-out catch the ball. I didn't see him drop a single pass.
5) As stated before, Terrell Suggs is a funny guy.
6) Kelley Washington is not really excited about playing in Cincy.
7) Dave Ragone is also a man of little words. When asked if he liked Houston, he replied, "It's warm." I, of course, countered with, "Wait until August... Mu ha ha ha!!!" He said nothing else to me the whole time. (He also has big teeth.)
8) Musa Smith really likes guns and firing them. That guy scares me. Musa and ROXRAN would probably get along fine.
9) Andre Johnson and Larry Johnson both looked pissed off the whole time.
10) Terence Newman was light years better, personality-wise, than last year's Roy Williams.
11) Rex Grossman has a hot girlfriend.
12) Byron Leftwich is a big dude. He's also got a nice arm.
13) Kyle Boller surprised me with his accuracy. Sure, it was just practice, but he looked good. I wanted him to throw the ball through the uprights at the 50-yard line on his knees, like he did for scouts, but I was shot down.
14) Chris Simms and Charles Rogers didn't show. I think Simms was afraid of the hard questions I would have undoubtedly asked him about his poor showings in college.
15) Kliff Kingsbury reminded me of Josh Heupel 2 years ago at the shoot. That's not a compliment.
16) Seneca Wallace is shorter than your average QB. He looked decent throwing the ball around, though.
17) If you find yourself stuck outside without shade in the California heat, be sure to use a cream-based sunscreen lotion and not one of those roll-on types. I learned the hard way. My sunburn was uneven and looked ridiculous.
18) None of the players at the shoot looked as ripped as they have been in year's past. 2 years ago, Andre Carter wowed me with his tree-trunk biceps. Last year, Julius Peppers was friggin built (and set the bar quite high). This year... meh.
19) Dewayne Robertson was not as big as I thought he'd be.
20) Willis McGahee didn't run much, which disappointed me. I desperately wanted to see what the Texans were missing out on.

Finally, I'm happy to report that Andre Johnson looks like the real deal. Sure, I'm no scout or great judge of skill, but he looked fluid and caught the ball quite easily. I was afraid of his reception skills before, but watching him in action has erased mpst doubts I have. (I'm still a little worried about him catching fast-as-lightening bullet passes from Carr, though.) Unfortunately, he was running at half-speed the whole time, so I didn't get to see how fast he really is. Oh, well...

All in all, they were a great group of guys. I wish them all the luck in the NFL.

A few selected pics:


Smile for the camera, Andre! Fine, don't smile...


Kliff Kingsbury and Carson Palmer get interviewed.


Dave Ragone's turn for an interview.


Kliff looks tired.

 

I've got a pic at work of both of them posed together. I'll fish around for it tomorrow...

 

All right. Here's Rex Grossman and his girlfriend:



Riley (Marc Blucas) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer:



Dallas Clark, tight end for the Colts:

 

Probably should have posted this thread over at HoustonProFootball.com. I'm sure this kind of info would be much more appreciated over there. Hell, it seems more people here are interested in 90-year old nickels than the NFL...