Chris Mortensen was in attendance today as he makes his way across the western part of the United States visiting NFL camps. Yesterday he was at 49ers camp and today it was the Raiders turn. There was a little bit of surprise earlier this week when it was reported Al Davis was going to allow Mortensen on the premises. Davis once called the ESPN analyst “a professional liar” for his false reports on the Raiders dealings. This prompted Mortensen to fire back suggesting that Davis should expect it considering his well known penchant for snubbing the media.
But Mortensen was there along with officials calling penalties… and Al Davis took the day off. Raider fans can only hope Mortensen is not lying this time because he seemed to have nothing but raves to say about the Raiders during his visit. The biggest praise he had was for quarterback Jason Campbell.
“Jason Campbell’s demeanor is a stark contrast on the field,” Mortensen said. “He is very much in command and has a starting QB’s presence. It’s his team.”
Coach Cable echoed those thoughts in his press conference following morning practice:
“My bottom-line feel for him is that his approach to everything is that ‘it’s new and I’m hungry and I want to be great’. To me, that’s passion and professionalism , and I love that about him.”
The praise continued from Cable about the Raiders quarterback depth overall:
“I think our players are really comfortable with our group of quarterbacks. Whoever our three guys are, we’ll be confident in whoever is in the game. I like the depth, I like the players and I think our team has a lot of respect for that group.”
According to Mortensen one raider had noted “the QB meeting dynamics are tangibly improved [from last year].”
A few weeks ago I mentioned that the Raiders were in an enviable quarterback position. Not just that having such depth was a good thing but that most NFL teams in the league either have no solid starter or have a star QB with no one behind them and should they go down, the season would be lost. Bruce Gradkowski sees the Raiders enviable situation too.
“You can’t ask for much more than to compete against guys who have experience in this league. You look at teams around the league like Carolina, guys that haven’t even taken a snap except for one quarterback on the team. And we’re very fortunate to have a good quarterback room. We talk a lot of good football and it helps all of us out. We’re helping one another out. Whatever’s going to be best for this team this year, hey, we all want to win, we’re all searching for the same goal.”
And this quarterback chemistry Gradkowski speaks of doesn’t stop there. It extends to those big men protecting them as well. Last season Russell distanced himself from the rest of the team. Not only was he and the line not on the same page but the entire team seemed to turn on him. And their demeanor when he stepped on the field was that of defeat before the ball was even snapped. The change between then and now is night and day.
“They’re always together,” Says Cable about the quarterbacks and the offensive line. “They’re together off the field. You see those guys eating together, hanging out together, watching film together. I think that naturally has taken on its own life.”
Zach attack!
After a rare bad practice yesterday, Zach Miller was more focused than ever today. In the morning practice, he caught four touchdown passes. And it didn’t seem to matter who was covering him either.
He was obviously the go-to receiver in the team’s red zone drills and he was unstoppable. Quentin Groves couldn’t cover him, rookie LB Travis Goethel tried and failed. Then Hiram Eugene got fooled and gave up a TD to Zach as well.
He was a highlight machine in practice today and Cable addressed it:
“I think Zach is about consistency whether it’s about running, whether it’s in the pass game or the run game it doesn’t seem to matter. He just seems to be really solid. Nothing ever real spectacular, but very good. Just a solid, consistent football player… Those guys are getting comfortable, they understand what they’re going to try and do with him [in the redzone] and make him part of it, a big part of it.”
Langston Walk-ing away with right tackle job
As camp started, the right tackle position was considered up in the air. The main two guys that would be fighting for the starting job were Khalif Barnes and Langston Walker. Both players split duties there last season in the injury absense of starter Cornell Green. Barnes was signed last offseason and expected to compete for the starting job at left tackle with Mario Henderson. But after Barnes went down with injury, Henderson locked down the job. Walker was picked up mid-season to add depth to the position and Barnes recovered from his injury. None of those three gave the Raiders much confidence in protecting the right side of the line. Green was released this offseason and both Barnes and Walker were re-signed to compete to be the Raiders new starting right tackle.
Well, that competition ended not long after it began. Yesterday Khalif Barnes got a chance to run with the first team. But he was replacing Robert Gallery at left guard while Gallery was getting some rest. Gallery got the afternoon off again today and Barnes was right back in there playing left guard. All the while Walker has remained with the first team at the right tackle spot and he has gained the confidence of coach Cable enough to keep the job.
“You’ve got such a great, big guy who is very comfortable as a right tackle,” Cable said of Walker. “He is probably a natural there. I like the size and the mass in terms of being able to protect the quarterback. And he is starting to really get a feel for what we’re trying to do running the ball, so he’s been a positive.”
At this point Barnes is hoping he can hang on with the Raiders as Gallery’s backup at left guard. While Langston Walker has secured the starting right tackle job and is looking as solid as he has ever looked in a Raider uniform.
Holy crap, some tackling to the ground
The talk thus far about the contact drills was that there was no tackling to the ground allowed. Cable didn’t tip his hand yesterday but he was allowing tackling in this morning’s practice for the first time since… well since he was head coach. It was nice to see but the whole thing can be worrisome for injury concerns.
It was clear that the some of the players took a few plays to adjust to the heightened physical play. Darren McFadden started out going nowhere on runs but after a few minutes he got back to it and was breaking off a few decent runs between 4-7 yards.
One guy that did not need to get the hang of it was Mike Mitchell. At one point, he shoved Jason Campbell out of bounds hard on a QB scramble. This did not make Campbell very happy and it looked as if he was considering throwing the ball at Mitchell in anger but he decided not to in the spur of the moment.
Gallery had someone roll into his knee and he came up limping. It was cause for some concern but he had it taped up on the sideline and came back in without any visible limp.
The only real injury on the day was when WR Jonathan Holland banged his knee and had to be carted off the practice field. Questions arose of the team adding a receiver to the team with the injuries to Murphy, Schilens, and now Holland. Cable insisted there are no plans of adding anyone but that answer seemed contingent on the seriousness of Holland’s knee injury– which is as yet unknown.
Cable addressed the issue of tackling to the ground and injury concerns:
“It looked like the first time we had been tackled or tackled anybody, though it wasn’t what you want, but that’s why we’re doing it because obviously it’s been since last January since we tackled anybody, so we’ve got work to do, but we’ll be ready do that when we get ready to play a game.
“You’ve got 80 guys and you’re going to cut to 53 at some point and have your team and every one of them is so valuable, so you want to be smart about it. You have to find your balance to have the team ready to play, and at the same time be smart enough to protect your team as well. I just want to not push it any further than we have to and lose somebody and now we have to go find people.”
Jay Richardson chimed in as well:
“You figure it’s going to happen sooner or later. You might as well get your body used to being hit now. You kind of forget how violent this game can be when you’re in T-shirts and everything. You heat it up one good time and it brings you back to reality.”
Afternoon skeleton crew
After a morning practice of some much needed tackling, the afternoon was quite the contrary. The team came out sanz pads with only helmets. And there weren’t quite as many players as usual. In fact, some positions didn’t even field enough players to make a team.
Wide receiver and fullback were extremely unrepresented. At wide out; Chaz Schilens, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Paul Hubbard and Jacoby Ford were all standing on the sideline not practicing. And Louis Murphy and Jonathan Holland were not even on the practice field as they were being treated for injuries. That left just five receivers available to practice.
The fullbacks have been banged up for a few days. With Marcel Reece, Luke Lawton and Manase Tonga all injured, Chane Moline is the only remaining fullback practicing. This has forced rookie DE Alex Daniels to work at fullback as well as tight end Brandon Myers.
Others getting the afternoon off were Robert Gallery, Cooper Carlisle, John Henderson, Kellen Heard, and Richard Seymour who has had to entire day off. For a total of 14 players either in T-shirts on the sideline or nursing injuries in the training room. And as laid back and boring as practice was in the afternoon, they may as well have given the entire team the rest of the day off.
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