Warriors in the Pros: C.J. Hawthorne Signed by Bills (w/add'l Colt, Miami, 49ers News)

Former UH receiver C.J. Hawthorne was signed by the Buffalo Bills today.

The 5'11" 168-pound Hawthorne fits the bill. Used mostly as a flanker at the University of Hawaii, Hawthorne believes he can be effective outside.

"I feel if you're going to play outside you have to be fast and that's something I definitely feel I can bring to this team is speed," said Hawthorne. "I feel confident about that."

"He's a competitive and quick, high character guy," said Jauron. "He's got a chance and he'll take some of the load off of guys."

Hawthorne got right to work Monday afternoon as he participated in individual receiver drills and in some special teams segments. Buffalo's head coach believes he'll begin to take some reps on offense as soon as Tuesday evening.

Excellent news.

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...might as well add a bunch of other WitP news. Here's more stuff on Colt Brennan and his performance in the HOF game.

Here's a quote from Washington coach Jim Zorn, via Redskins 360:

"Colt Brennan had a couple of plays that could have gone either way. Those are things he can learn from, and he has to become a more disciplined quarterback and not risk as much as he did in the game. This week those risks turned out great for us, but they could have easily turned out the other way."

More from observations from Zorn, via the Redskins Blog:

An interesting note about the quarterbacks: Zorn says he’s telling them “Do NOT stand tall in the pocket,” so they’ll be ready to move. He mentioned the Colt Brennan scramble-throw touchdown as an example of this working effectively.

His analysis of this game is that Campbell was steady but could be faster, Collins did a good job pressing, and Brennan could use to pick up the tempo slightly. (Devine was excused, as his job was to burn clock.)

From the Hog Heaven MVN blog:

I knew there was something about Colt Brennan from the uncommon loyalty shown by his Hawaii fans on these pages and elsewhere. I have just one word to describe Brennan after watching him play. Dayam!

How did the Jets, the Dolphins, the Chiefs, the Bears, the Vikings and the Falcons let this guy slip past them to fall to us?

I’m sure Jim Zorn will find something to correct in Brennan’s performance; he did miss on one of his ten passes. From a fan perspective, Brennan put on quite a show and I’m on his bandwagon. So, let me be the first to compare Brennan to Tom Brady as another example of the gems you can find late in the draft.

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The Miami Dolphins released their first official depth chart of the season. Samson Satele is the #1 center, Reagan Mauia is the #1 fullback, and Davone Bess is listed #3 at three different positions: WR2, kickoff returner and punt returner. Looking good for all three, but Dolphins coach Tony Sparano says not to read too much into it.

"It's something that we had to produce and put out there, so we had to put it out there," Sparano said. "That depth chart won't be the same this afternoon, never mind tomorrow, so it's going to change every single day."

Sparano did mention the duel at fullback between Reagan Mauia and Boomer Grigsby. Mauia is listed No. 1 but has dropped several passes in the past few days, including a couple this morning.

"There's some spots out there where there's quite a bit of competition going on," Sparano said. "We'll get in the game and see where that falls. We're not ready to make any decisions right now."

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And the 49ers practiced with the Raiders today. Here's what Jeff Ulbrich had to say about it:

“It was nice, a different color jersey, a different offense, and different guys,” said linebacker Jeff Ulbrich. “You get tired of hitting the same guys all of the time.”

Ashley Lelie was able to practice even though his calf was still not 100%.

Lelie took a full practice, but said his calf got stiff towards the end of the morning practice.

“I think it just got fatigued,” said Lelie of his left calf. “It was already a little tender.”

Even though he's slowed by injury, Lelie talked about remaining mentally in the game:

“When you have an opportunity to make plays, make plays. That’s what’s in my control. When I’ve gotten a chance, i haven’t had too many mental errors. That’s the biggest thing with this offense, having it down and being able to execute the game plan and it gives you a chance to compete at the highest level. I know all of my plays, it’s just getting over these nagging injuries.”