[1965southpaw]

Just listened to Rick Venturi's assessment of Day 1....I always enjoy and mostly agree with his analysis so fwiw here are my notes. Sorry for the quality of the writing.....no time to pretty it up. He strongly caveats this is just Day 1.....not enough data but just initial impressions

1.Assessment of what he saw from Luck: Physically he saw that his arm strength, explosiveness, and accuracy were all very good. He said his throwing motion was as it was before injury. Saw 3 plays to TY that would have resulted in big gains downfield (combo of Luck/TY executing and good play design by Frank). Mentally, he's focused and is seeing the field well. Already on day 1 he saw him being a force multiplier in the huddle. He had all the reasonable cautions of needing to wait and see what repeated days of practice and then games will do to his ability to sustain this level of work.......but he said he came away believing that Andrew is really ready to go.

2.Assessment of oline from day 1: Talent level (both from draft and free agents) vastly improved. We are now playing with 4 number 1's (in terms of talent) across the board. Right Tackle really his only concern. With only 1 weakness you can live with that. Pretty excited with the skill set/talent level and thinks that Frank's scheme will complement the talent level to multiply the improvement we will get from the talent alone.

3. Defense and perimeter offense are his biggest question marks. Not a great fan of the Tampa scheme but does think we will get more aggressiveness out of the 4-3. Thinks T. Basham will be the biggest beneficiary of this scheme change. Looking for him to make a big step up this year in a system that suits his talent more. The corners were off to a pretty good start and they will have to perform well in order to have any success with this unit.

4. On receiving core outside TY Hilton.......Doyle = reliable, Ebron has been an underachiever but he has talent and he liked what he saw from him yesterday....He is a match up problem but its a big wait and see on him. He liked that Frank had him lined up all over the field just on Day 1....bodes well for creative use of a potential play-maker. Grant, like Doyle, won't create his own opportunities, but he is reliable. The scheme has to get him open...he's not an explosive big play guy. Deion Cane is interesting to him....liked him in draft. He can fly...hasn't seen the inconsistent hands that was his rap in the draft. Looked quick coming out of break........Rodgers = big wait and see if he will stay healthy.

5. On running game = wait and see

6. Thoughts on TY not going to Stanford to work out with Andrew, only Chester Rodgers: Not what you would like (raises work ethic question) but we don't know all the details so reserve judgement.


I neglected to mention that he sees Frank's offensive scheme as state of the art progressive design. Across the board he believes we will see a massive improvement in coaching and talent development.