Bryan Broaddus checks in with his thoughts on the OTA’s from today, read here.

Of Free and Parnell, it appeared by my view that Free had a slightly better of the day overall but both players seemed to struggled at times against Anthony Spencer and his quickness. It’s clear that Parnell is stronger than Free and was better at sitting down on his man. Free did a better job of working his man wide and to the outside. As this possess moves on both players are going to get plenty of chances to win this job.

Frederick was much better in this practice handling the twist stunts in the blitz period than he was at the rookie mini-camp. Where Frederick had his struggles was sitting down on rushers like that used power against him. He also took a nice shot to the head when he went up onto the second level and ran head first into Sean Lee who stopped him in his tracks. What Frederick is going to have to learn against these veteran players is how to finish blocks.

I liked what I saw from Matt Johnson today for a couple of different reasons. His best trait and I remember this from his college film is his burst. There was one time where he was down in the box and they brought him off the edge on a blitz and he was on the ball in a hurry. He has a real feel for this. His pedal looked smooth and relaxed when he was playing deep. The main thing is that he looks ready to compete and I see that as a real plus.

Going to give you a name of a player that only his mother and father know that he is on the team but he caught my eye today. Defensive end Cameron Sheffield is not a household name but for one practice he played like we should all learn it. Sheffield played with really nice quickness and was difficult to block when on the move. His best move of the day was using a quick swim move to free himself on the rush, then another time knifed hard down inside getting in the backfield for a tackle for loss. In a scheme where quickness and getting up the field is key, Cameron Sheffield did his part to make the coaches stand up and take notice of him.

Seems that Freddy is the starting Center right now and will be given every opportunity to be that starter when September rolls around. Good. And now let’s hope he’s a good young player.