1. Next Step The Biggest for Worrilow: After racking up an impressive 12 tackles in Thursday night's preseason debut, undrafted rookie linebacker Paul Worrilow has set a very high standard for himself heading into the next three preseason games. Even head coach Mike Smith raved about him during his time with the media Saturday, saying that he hopes Worrilow's success fuels the other players on defense to try and show out. But, as one would expect a linebacker who registered such numbers in his first NFL game to act, Worrilow isn't shaken about where he goes from here: "I'm going to approach it just like I would any other game, whether it's my first or second, or any other game I'm playing in. It's the same approach, and i've still got tons of work to do this week."
2. Julio Expected Back to 100 Percent Soon: Wide receiver Julio Jones was held back a bit during the combined practices with the Bengals earlier this week due to a precautionary hamstring issue, but he was back on the field Saturday in full pads and participating. He was limited in his participation, but Smith said he expects Jones to take on the full practice load here in the next few days.
3. Trufant, Alford Continue to Impress: When asked to assess the tape of Thursday's game, it didn't take long for Smtih to mention Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford as standout players. The two had impressive performances again during Saturday's practice at Flowery Branch, with Alford making an interception in the red zone off Dominique Davis and Trufant batting down a long pass intended for Kevin Cone from Matt Ryan before hyping up the camp crowd. "The two corners did a very nice job in the ball game in terms of what we were wanting to see from them," Smith said. "I was impressed with the way that they handled it, not only their production on the field but their grade sheet when we graded it on Friday."
4. Samuel 'Striving for Greatness: Cornerback Asante Samuel took his first turn in front of the media Saturday for the first time during training camp. After being in so many training camps during his career, Samuel was asked what he could possibly be working on during his 11th: "Me, I'm just always striving for greatness — just in my technique or whatever I didn't do last year, I just want to do it better this year."
5. Biermann Working on Finer Details: Defensive end Kroy Biermann isn't lacking in size, speed or power, so it should come as no surprise that he's not focused on any of those things during camp. Of course, everything is always a work in progress, but he said Saturday that his main focus in Thursday night's game was what his hands were doing: "The preseason's hard. It's a different tempo. It's a different feel. (Cincinnati's) got some good tackles that were setting good. I've had to work more on my hands and hand placement and vision and not necessarily just speed-to-power, so you're working on fine tuning different things instead of having your whole array of things open."
