Mickey Spags reports that Parcells seemed happy with the team's intersquad scrimmage this past Saturday. Pareclls was especially pleased with second year player Jay Ratliff who is filling in nicely for injured Marcus Spears.
And when asked if any particular player stood out, Parcells said, "I was very pleased with Jay Ratliff. He looks good. He's going to make a run at the starting job."
Boy, if this Ratliff kid is the real deal, what steal in the 7th round. The 2005 draft class just keeps getting better and better. I even think it might surpass the dirty dozen of '75 and the great '89 class that produced Aikman, Moose Johnston, Mark Stepnoski and Tony Tolbert.
Getting back to the scrimmage, Parcells saw some good things which he pointed out.
# "I was glad to see (Mike) Vanderjagt make some kicks, that was comforting."
# "I think (Marion) Barber is going to be a good player for us . . . some day, if he can learn to bring the ball with him all the time. If you noticed, he's on our ball drill. He has a ball with him all the time."
# "I think there were some players from last year, one and two (year players), guys like (Lousaka) Polite, looks like a guy who is much improved from what you've seen the first two years."
# "(Drew Henson) completed more passes and he hit what he was throwing at."
One of the things he didn't like in the scrimmage was the pass protection provided by his tight ends, which would explain why the tight ends were working one-on one with the linebackers on pass protection drills during Monday's morning practice.
Seems like Marion Barber is really having a great camp. It is looking more and more like this will be a running back by committee deal this year with both JJ and MB3. Fantasy owners won't like owning either one, but I'm glad we have two really good backs, especially with JJ's tendency of getting hurt.