Bront Bird

[Formula 21]

Somebody screwed up and left an open lane last week on that first punt return.

[Steve]

Bird was awful as a rookie, but he really improved last year. It will be interesting to see if he continues to keep improving as fast as last year. He was reasonably effective when he got to play last year, and is the only ILB we have that has any height, so he has a longer reach and is harder to throw over in the middle of the field.

With the exception of a couple of guys like Gachkar, Bird and Stuckey, I am not really sure what 1st team coverage means? ST players are traditionally the backups, and all those guys are fighting for roster spots. Yes, they designate a bunch of them as the ST starters, but at this point ST units are in flux. If they look great, that's good, but it is not unusual for very good ST groups to have some rocky moments in preseason. It also depends on how much time we have spent on ST so far, but many teams putting in new schemes puts less emphasis on the beginning, so that they can get over the speed bumps of learning new schemes, then puts more emphasis later.

[Mister Hoarse]

Yeah, ST units won't be close to settled until final cutdown. Then those guys all have to get used to playing next to each other.