He said his bench press has increased 60 or 70 pounds and he is squatting more, too, but wasn't sure of the numbers. He said the big focus of his off-season work was his core strength, a staple of strength coach Joe Juraszek. With a stronger and more flexible midsection, Petitti believes he can do a better job against the speed rushers a right tackle faces.
"At least now I can just keep my body in front of them," Petitti said. "If I do that, then at least the guy has to go through me and that gives Drew [Bledsoe] more time. That's better than just totally missing the guy."
Well, I guess getting your body in front of the guy is a start.
Guess what? We just got assigned an NFL Europe International player to our practice squad.
Eight of the NFL Europe League's leading national players have an opportunity to build on a record-breaking season after being awarded places on NFL team practice squads for the 2006 season.
The third year of NFL International Development Practice Squad program will see teams in the NFC East and AFC North divisions each carry an NFLEL national player on their practice squad roster for the duration of the upcoming campaign.
And our guy is: Carl Johan Bjork (LB, Sweden) who played for the Amsterdam Admirals.