OTA: Simpson Improving

Either Jerome Simpson reads my posts and wants to prove me wrong or he's finally decided that he would like to play some football. He's impressed Carson Palmer and Bob Bratkowski at practice with his catches but most importantly his consistency. Hobson says that Simpson had the catch of the practice today. He dove toward the sidelines and grabbed a ball out of the air from Palmer, who says that Simpson has improved more in this last off season than he had for the first two years of his almost non-existent career.

"The one thing you want to see Jerome do is make plays consistently," Palmer said. "He’s consistently made plays every practice. If he can keep doing that from now until training camp and from training camp into the preseason and from the preseason into the regular season, the sky’s the limit for him."

Bratkowski has been singing Simpsons praises too:

"He’s got a little more confidence in himself," Bratkowski said. "Sometimes he reverts to old habits, but he has made a lot of nice, spectacular plays. He just needs to keep being in a position where he doesn’t fool the quarterback. He isn’t quite the same he should be every time, but he’s gotten a lot better at that.

"The assignments (have) not been the (big) issue. It’s just been consistent. Running the same route the same way every time. Don’t fool the quarterback. Either getting the depths wrong on it, being way short, or way deep on a route. Or an extra move in the top (of the route) that we don’t teach. He’s kind of clearing those things out of him and it’s leading to a little more consistency."

Simpson has been taking the snaps for Chad Ochocinco while he's gone at the X receiver spot. That's what a lot of people had, and some still have, expected of Simpson, to eventually take over for Chad.

Joe Reedy also wrote about how impressive Simpson was:

One person who has impressed early on is Jerome Simpson. After being inactive in all but two games, Simpson has received rave reviews from coaches and Carson Palmer for the way he has approached these workouts. Simpson had the catch of the day during Tuesday’s two-hour session when he stretched to make a catch near the goal line over corner Johnathan Joseph.

I'll admit, I had basically all but written Simpson off as a bust, but it seams that I may have done my writing a little too soon. If Simpson is going to start proving people wrong, this is the year to do it. There is so much talent at the wide receiver position this off season that if Simpson was to do his usual, he would almost certainly find himself without a job. He's adding more competition to a position that is already highly competitive going into mimi-camp. Whether he makes the team or not (and I'm assuming if he keeps doing what he's doing now, he'll make the team), he's only going to improve himself and the guys around him.