And today, as planned and as promised, Malcolm Kelly participated in the full practice session and flashed all the abilities that made him seem like such a promising talent coming out of college last year. He caught balls in the air, ran crisply, and looked -- maybe for the first time that I've seen -- like a healthy, ready player. Now all he needs to do is string together a hundred or so more days like that and he'll be in terrific shape.

Zorn was asked after practice if he could tell that Kelly had had surgery by watching him run. "No, not watching him run," he said. "The only thing I could tell is he's just trying to get the offense down, because this is basically his first year. So it's easy to tell everyone, I ran a curl route, but to line up at the right splits, look inside, get off on a snap count, run it against a db who may be inside or outside ... that takes a little bit of time and he's going to have a learning curve, if you will, of the position."

Which doesn't sound as promising as you might be hoping, so here's the optimistic follow-up quote: "I hope he can compete for the starting role. There is Santana who is our starter, and Antwaan is our starter on the other side. Devin and Malcolm will both compete for a position, and if not the starting position, their roles are to hopefully be real players that get on the field this year and hopefully I'll be able to give them the ball."



The story was not Albert Haynesworth either, although I still maintain that even in non-contact practice drills, the defensive line looks more effective when he's participating.

The story is also not the defensive backs, although DeAngelo Hall looked like a man possessed out there today, possibly because of his anger over his drop in the Madden ratings. (More on that a little later today.) Whatever the reason, he was breaking up passes, intercepting passes, and high-fiving Coach Zorn all day today.


No, the story is the offensive line. Between the release of Jon Jansen on Friday and the competition at the right tackle position, those were the guys everyone wanted to talk to. Stephon Heyer was swarmed by the media as he came off the practice field (allowing Chris Samuels to make a clean getaway) and declared the position his to lose, and Mike Williams held forth for something like twenty minutes on the bench outside the facility, sparring briefly with Andre Carter about something in Williams' blocking scheme that had surprised Carter. "It's what Buges wants," Williams said.

I talked to Carter about those two; here's his take after one practice of lining up across from them. "Stephon's always been good," Carter said, "and he's been consistent. I think the main thing now is just him being healthy, and I think he's worked his butt off in the offseason toward that."

What about Williams? Is this for real? Can he really make it all the way back? "I think he can. He's been working really hard to shed those pounds, along with his diet. He's already as strong as an ox, and I think it's just about consistency and longevity, with a big guy like that."

Maybe you and your group should take him to Whole Foods, work on his diet? "I know, right?"

Carter wouldn't say which of these guys -- or the other candidates, Jeremy Bridges or D'Anthony Batiste -- was his choice for early favorite at the position, and, if I'm being honest, I didn't really expect him to. This is the biggest story of the offseason, and there's still plenty of offseason left in which to explore it.