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Receivers earn Vick's confidence
By
STEVE WYCHE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/09/06
Flowery Branch — Earning Michael Vick's trust isn't an easy thing.
Tight end Alge Crumpler secured it a while ago. So did sure-handed wide receiver Brian Finneran before tearing apart his right knee early in training camp. The amount of balls thrown their way by the Falcons
quarterback the past few years, especially in tight situations, is proof enough.
BEN GRAY / Staff
Wide receiver
Michael Jenkins pulls in a pass while running drills this week during Falcons' training camp in Flowery Branch.
Vick has something brewing with Roddy White, an athletic but still unproven second-year wide receiver. Now you can add third-year wide receiver Michael Jenkins.
"He's earned my confidence," Vick said emphatically. "I'll throw it to him in any situation right now."
The vote of trust doesn't stem from having a full season with Jenkins in the starting lineup or even a summer's worth of chemistry building during offseason workouts. Vick's newfound faith in the 6-foot-4, 217-pounder stems from Jenkins' attitude and
performance since Finneran's season came to a crushing end during practice July 30.
"After what happened to Brian, I think it just changed his whole perception as far as the game and his confidence level and what his job and role has to be right now," Vick said of Jenkins. "It's sad to say that it took something like that for him to turn on, but God has a plan for everybody.
"Finn was a guy we really relied on and a guy I had a lot of trust and faith in. They saw that. They knew that. He wants to get to that point. He knows. He's seen it now. I haven't seen him drop a ball in the last five or six practices."
Jenkins acknowledged that Finneran's injury was a wake-up call. Theories of development were thrown aside, he said.
It was time to grow up.
"As a group, we knew that when he went down, we had to step up," said Jenkins, who was third in receptions last season with 36 for 508 yards and three touchdowns. "It pushed things further ahead. We knew we had to step up faster, where coming into that first game we're really on point.
"Of late, it's been a confidence-building thing with Mike, our whole team, knowing that when the ball is in the air, we're going to come down with it or we're going to draw pass-interference calls."
The biggest change of late with Jenkins, besides his sticky fingers, is how he's catching the ball. At the beginning of training camp — and for much of last season — Jenkins would wait for the ball to reach him before corralling it against his body.
He has been much better about catching ball with his hands, away from his body, which will enable him to snatch balls in traffic or ones thrown off target, coach Jim Mora said.
White also showed signs of stepping forward, Mora said, until a sore hamstring sidelined him for the past three days of practice, including Tuesday.
White said after Finneran got hurt, he and Jenkins had a sit-down where they challenged themselves to be no longer players of potential but players that make a difference.
"We were in the room and said to each other, 'We've got to go out and catch everything,' " White said. "Ever since then, we've been catching the ball really well and making plays out there. There's a lot of confidence going on with me and Jenk and Mike [Vick]. Alge's back out there practicing and yeah, Mike's throwing it to Alge, but he's throwing it around a lot to the wide receivers.
"He's getting confidence with us out there. You can tell."
