Joint Practices Wrap-Up: Pointer Praises Bradford


Photo by: Jeff Fusco.

Photo by: Jeff Fusco.

Quinton Pointer understood the hype. In one of his first practices after signing with the Rams as an undrafted free agent, Sam Bradford dislocated the defensive back’s finger.

“I went to break up a pass and he messed my finger up real good,” Pointer said of the 2012 incident. “He can throw it hard.”

Pointer played in St. Louis with Bradford in 2012 and 2013, but now he’s trying to make the Baltimore Ravens. Pointer lauded Bradford after the Eagles’ joint practice with the Ravens Friday.

“He looks healthy,” Pointer said. “There’s no difference from now and St. Louis. He spins the ball pretty hard like he always has and he moved well coming off the knee surgery.”

Pointer went on to discuss how his former teammate looked when he was healthy with the Rams. Then he heaped on additional praise.

“In practice, he looked so good,” Pointer said. “He looked like one of the top quarterbacks [in the NFL], but he never got to play a lot. I really hope he’s able to go out and play a full 16 [games].”

Pointer concluded by saying that if Bradford remains healthy, he’ll “definitely” be one of the top quarterbacks in the league.

“He can throw the ball with the best of them,” Pointer said. “With Sam, it’s about intelligence and he can make all of the throws.”

TIPS AND TRICKS

One of the benefits of joint practices isn’t just going up against a fresh set of faces, but it’s learning from players on another team and exchanging tips and tricks with them. With that in mind, we asked several Eagles which Raven they learned the most from or what tools they were able to pick up.

Malcolm Jenkins: “You get used to the tendencies of your own teammates you go against on a daily basis so it’s good to go against some other receivers who have different tricks, especially a guy like Steve Smith. With him, you have to rely more on your technique and not your hands because he’s smart enough and fast enough to really have a good first step. Your feet have to be light on the line of scrimmage and he’s strong at the top of his route so you can’t let him push you or get you off balance.”

John Moffitt: “Their defensive line has a certain style of play; these guys are particularly heavy on the bull rush so you work on your technique for that. When they’re playing bull rush, you have to get lower and get up under them. It can be tricky to block.”

Jaylen Watkins: “You get to see different releases. They have a lot of smaller, quicker guys so in the slot it was tough to stay more square against guys like [Michael] Campanaro. Otherwise, they’d release right up the field on us so you really work on that.”

Rasheed Bailey: “Sometimes when I’m in slot, they like to blitz that nickel. That’s something I’ve never seen before. I learned that if [two defenders] are stacked up, one of them is coming. Now, I’m more familiar with it and it won’t mess up my release.”

Chris Maragos: “It’s cool because they play a lot more two-back offense. We run a lot of three wide receiver sets, so it’s good to see different routes and types of plays. It changes your eye progression, communication, leverage points and different facets like that. If you’re to the open side, you usually have a slot receiver. But now you don’t, so your read is in the backfield and not at receiver.”