WitP: Ikaika, Bess, Satele, Colt, Lelie, LaBoy

Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli continues to push Ikaika Alama-Francis in practice.

The Lions are counting on Ikaika Alama-Francis to contribute at defensive end this year, and Rod Marinelli is after him to be more consistent. An example from morning practice: In one drill, Marinelli praised Alama-Francis for having good pad level and good get off (he got under right tackle George Foster's pads and knocked him backwards with ease). In the next, Marinelli hollered that Alama-Francis needed to get off the ball better and "I haven't seen you make one play all day."

In Dolphins camp, Davone Bess showed off some moves.

Davone Bess continues to prove why he caught so many passes at Hawaii. He fakes Scorpio Babers out of his shoes on a down-and-in, and Babers lets out an audible cuss word that is not suitable for print.

Samson Satele has his hands full with Dolphins defensive lineman Jason Ferguson.

After closely monitoring the line play for the past four practice I've discovered C Samson Satele can't handle NT Jason Ferguson one-on-one. Ferguson puts him on skates in passing downs, and one-on-one drills. I'm struggling to figure out if this is a good thing or a bad thing for the Dolphins. You tell me? However, a good nose tackle SHOULD demand help from a guard.

By contrast, Satele handles Paul Soliai with ease.

Miami coach Tony Sparano addressed the situation:

"... we talked about guys on the field, each individual player on the field, when you're working your matchup, trying to make the guy across from you a little bit better. This is happening with Satele right now. Jason Ferguson gives a lot of people fits. It's hard to block him. I've said that before, he's hard to move. Even the guys in Dallas, the big strong guys, they would come off saying 'he's hard to move.' With Satele, this is good work for him. We don't have little noses in our conference. They're all big people, physical people, so this is good for Samson."

Colt Brennan has a new entry in his blog. Here's an excerpt:

It's cool to see the celebrity status of someone like Jason Taylor and what he brings to the team. It's really neat when you get out to the practice field and you have Jason Taylor at defensive end, Clinton Portis as your running back and Santana Moss as your wide receiver. You kind of pinch yourself a couple times.

When I'm around those guys, I'm actually pretty quiet. I understand where I am on the pedestal.

Ashley Lelie missed practice again.

WR Ashley Lelie also missed practice with a calf injury. Nolan said Lelie had an MRI on Sunday and could miss anywhere from a few days to a week.

And Mike Sando of ESPN.com says Travis Laboy has had a good start in Arizona Cardinals camp.

Travis LaBoy's speed could help the pass rush. Signed as a free agent from Tennessee, LaBoy proved disruptive in pass-rush drills over the weekend.