E-Boland & Gang Green

Morning practice

1. Vernon Gholston looks big and fast. And that concludes the Gholston portion of our program. Well, not really, but in these non-contact drills there’s not much that can be read in terms of how quickly a guy like Gholston can get to the quarterback, which is what everyone is most interested in. What I can tell you is Gholston spent the morning solely with the second team, alternating between the left and right outside linebacker spot. The outside backer opposite Gholston was Brad Kassell on some plays and Matt Chatham on others.

2. Good rebound day for Dustin Keller, who dropped several passes yesterday. This morning Keller made a nice fingertip grab of a Chad Pennington pass while falling to the ground in the back of the end zone during a goal line seven-on-seven drill. Keller did not have any drops this morning, and what is becoming evident in the OTAs and through three minicamp practices is that linebackers are going to have a very difficult time covering this tight end. Speaking of which, during a later 11-on-11 drill, Gholston dropped into coverage against Keller and Keller caught a six-yard pass on the sideline from Pennington.

3. This morning Clemens worked with the first team while Pennington worked with the second and the morning session between the two quarterbacks was a draw from this perspective. The morning’s best catch came courtesy of Brad Smith, who made a sliding reception on a 20-yard throw from Pennington over the middle in the back of the end zone during a seven-on-seven. Earlier, with the first team, Clemens connected on a deep slant to Laveranues Coles for a touchdown and a down later, Clemens threw a 15-yard touch pass to Keller, who had barely beaten Darrelle Revis, in the right corner of the end zone. Pennington had a second touchdown during this seven-on-seven drill as well, hitting David Clowney on a three-yard slant.

4. Clemens hit Bubba Franks, who had gotten inside Revis over the middle, for a 15-yard touchdown on his first throw of 11-on-11’s. But the next two plays of the series were Clemens overthrows, both intended for Chansi Stuckey. On one of those overthrows, Revis had as tight as coverage as a corner can have without drawing a penalty. On his first throw of the same 11-on-11 drill, Pennington dumped the ball away to Leon Washington who scampered into the end zone from 13 yards. His two plays were an off tackle run by Washington and a throwaway in the back of the end zone.

5. During down-and-distance drills toward the end of practice, Pennington went 2-for-3, including a 15-yard touch pass to Jesse Chatman, who had gotten behind Brad Kassell in the right corner of the end zone. Chatman has shown good hands to this point. Clemens went first in the same drill and was 1-for-4, his one completion a three-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cothery, who after tight coverage, finally shook free of Abram Elam.

6. Chris Baker, a day after sounding off about his contract – he did so again after this morning’s practice – spent much of the day on the exercise bicycles in the “limited” capacity. He participated in some position drills very early in the day but otherwise was on the sideline. He would not disclose his injury, per team policy, which is funny in way that he is following that team policy while ripping the organization to threads. Not a judgement one way or the other, just an observation. More from Baker later, though not as much as yesterday because it’s mostly redundant (NOTE to a few different readers: a couple of those “ask Baker” questions were asked today).

More to come in a bit, including answering your questions, but Eric Mangini is on his way to the press room.