Throughout the course of training camp, there are several benchmark dates.
There’s the first practice of camp, of course. There are the scrimmages. And, in what is surely a highlight for the players, there’s the day they break camp.
Tucked in between, usually in the first week, is the day the players put on full pads for the first time. After two days of practicing with no pads at all and two days practicing with just shoulder pads, the first day in full pads is a welcome site by all parties, since it means that practice is finally going to involve activities that actually resemble real football.
Wednesday was the first day in pads for the 2019 Pitt Panthers, and they took the field for the morning session with plenty of energy. That included the head coach.
“Live,” Pat Narduzzi said before practice. “It’s live today.”
The media viewing window at the beginning of practice didn’t include too much in the way of live contact, but it did feature one drill that doesn’t usually take place with the press in attendance: a live seven-on-seven period.
That meant Kenny Pickett and his skill players facing off against the first-team back seven of the defense. That group looked the same as it has since camp started: Saleem Brightwell at middle linebacker flanked by Chase Pine and Phil Campbell, Dane Jackson and Jason Pinnock at cornerback and Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin at safety.
The rotation on offense is a bit tougher to nail down, since there are different roles and the coaches want the quarterbacks to be comfortable with all of the receivers and running backs. So while Taysir Mack and Maurice Ffrench are the top two wideouts, there are plenty of snaps to go around for Aaron Mathews and Tre Tipton and Dontavius Butler-Jenkins, among others.
Similarly, the tight ends were mixed and matched quite liberally. But what was notable about that group was the volume of targets they saw in the seven-on-seven drill. Will Gragg, Nakia Griffin-Stewart and Grant Carrigan took the bulk of the reps, and they each had multiple passes thrown to them.
A few of those were check-down passes, to be sure, but more were throws where the tight end was the primary target. That included a number of snaps in the red zone, and while the tight ends didn’t pull in any touchdown catches, their involvement was significant.
The touchdown receptions that I saw in the red zone drills came on passes to Mack and Mathews. Each pass came from Pickett, although Jeff George Jr. and Nick Patti both got a lot of work - and not necessarily in each order, as Patti seemed to be a bit ahead of George Jr. in the rotation. There’s a lot o competition for the backup quarterback job, Narduzzi said, and he seemed to like how the two backups are competing with Pickett, who is still the clear starter.
- Narduzzi certainly wouldn’t say that he feels like he has three starters at quarterback, but he did use that term on three separate positions Wednesday - all on defense. While he conceded that only two can start and have their names called at Heinz Field, Narduzzi said that the staff views Amir Watts, Keyshon Camp and Jaylen Twyman as starter-capable at defensive tackle. The same goes for Jason Pinnock, Dane Jackson and Damarri Mathis at cornerback and Damar Hamlin, Paris Ford and Jazzee Stocker at safety.
The situations in the secondary are probably a little more clear-cut than they are on the line. Jackson and Pinnock are the top two at corner and Ford and Hamlin are the top two at safety. Having Mathis and Stocker gives the coaches more depth to work with, both to create competition and to keep players fresh with a rotation in the games.
Defensive tackle is a little less clear. Watts is a multi-year starter with little production to speak of. Camp has been productive but limited by injuries. And Twyman’s biggest limitation has been his youth, which shouldn’t be an issue this season.
There really are quite a few possibilities for how the defensive tackle position could work out. Last season, the average snaps per game for Pitt’s top four tackles looked like this:
Shane Roy - 34
Amir Watts - 30
Keyshon Camp - 26
Jaylen Twyman - 24
Now, some of those numbers were affected by Camp’s midseason injury; in the first seven games of the season, Twyman topped 25 snaps just once, but in the final seven, he only had one game with fewer than 25 snaps. So a rotation with three tackles playing the bulk of the snaps and a fourth tackle like Devin Danielson seeing a smaller number is the most likely scenario.
- Pitt will be back on the practice field for each of the next four days, with Saturday serving as the first scrimmage of camp. Stay tuned for photos, videos and articles from Wednesday’s activities and more throughout the week.
There’s the first practice of camp, of course. There are the scrimmages. And, in what is surely a highlight for the players, there’s the day they break camp.
Tucked in between, usually in the first week, is the day the players put on full pads for the first time. After two days of practicing with no pads at all and two days practicing with just shoulder pads, the first day in full pads is a welcome site by all parties, since it means that practice is finally going to involve activities that actually resemble real football.
Wednesday was the first day in pads for the 2019 Pitt Panthers, and they took the field for the morning session with plenty of energy. That included the head coach.
“Live,” Pat Narduzzi said before practice. “It’s live today.”
The media viewing window at the beginning of practice didn’t include too much in the way of live contact, but it did feature one drill that doesn’t usually take place with the press in attendance: a live seven-on-seven period.
That meant Kenny Pickett and his skill players facing off against the first-team back seven of the defense. That group looked the same as it has since camp started: Saleem Brightwell at middle linebacker flanked by Chase Pine and Phil Campbell, Dane Jackson and Jason Pinnock at cornerback and Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin at safety.
The rotation on offense is a bit tougher to nail down, since there are different roles and the coaches want the quarterbacks to be comfortable with all of the receivers and running backs. So while Taysir Mack and Maurice Ffrench are the top two wideouts, there are plenty of snaps to go around for Aaron Mathews and Tre Tipton and Dontavius Butler-Jenkins, among others.
Similarly, the tight ends were mixed and matched quite liberally. But what was notable about that group was the volume of targets they saw in the seven-on-seven drill. Will Gragg, Nakia Griffin-Stewart and Grant Carrigan took the bulk of the reps, and they each had multiple passes thrown to them.
A few of those were check-down passes, to be sure, but more were throws where the tight end was the primary target. That included a number of snaps in the red zone, and while the tight ends didn’t pull in any touchdown catches, their involvement was significant.
The touchdown receptions that I saw in the red zone drills came on passes to Mack and Mathews. Each pass came from Pickett, although Jeff George Jr. and Nick Patti both got a lot of work - and not necessarily in each order, as Patti seemed to be a bit ahead of George Jr. in the rotation. There’s a lot o competition for the backup quarterback job, Narduzzi said, and he seemed to like how the two backups are competing with Pickett, who is still the clear starter.
- Narduzzi certainly wouldn’t say that he feels like he has three starters at quarterback, but he did use that term on three separate positions Wednesday - all on defense. While he conceded that only two can start and have their names called at Heinz Field, Narduzzi said that the staff views Amir Watts, Keyshon Camp and Jaylen Twyman as starter-capable at defensive tackle. The same goes for Jason Pinnock, Dane Jackson and Damarri Mathis at cornerback and Damar Hamlin, Paris Ford and Jazzee Stocker at safety.
The situations in the secondary are probably a little more clear-cut than they are on the line. Jackson and Pinnock are the top two at corner and Ford and Hamlin are the top two at safety. Having Mathis and Stocker gives the coaches more depth to work with, both to create competition and to keep players fresh with a rotation in the games.
Defensive tackle is a little less clear. Watts is a multi-year starter with little production to speak of. Camp has been productive but limited by injuries. And Twyman’s biggest limitation has been his youth, which shouldn’t be an issue this season.
There really are quite a few possibilities for how the defensive tackle position could work out. Last season, the average snaps per game for Pitt’s top four tackles looked like this:
Shane Roy - 34
Amir Watts - 30
Keyshon Camp - 26
Jaylen Twyman - 24
Now, some of those numbers were affected by Camp’s midseason injury; in the first seven games of the season, Twyman topped 25 snaps just once, but in the final seven, he only had one game with fewer than 25 snaps. So a rotation with three tackles playing the bulk of the snaps and a fourth tackle like Devin Danielson seeing a smaller number is the most likely scenario.
- Pitt will be back on the practice field for each of the next four days, with Saturday serving as the first scrimmage of camp. Stay tuned for photos, videos and articles from Wednesday’s activities and more throughout the week.
