Raiders get ahead of themselves on Heyward-Bey

Sunday the Raiders put out a press release with the sole purpose of telling the media just how good Darrius Heyward-Bey is going to be this coming season and beyond. And did they ever. The release went as far as say “The greatest wide receivers in professional football have passed through the portals of the Oakland Raiders or have been coached by Davis.” And then list them off. Here is the list:

Lance Alworth, Willie Gault, Art Powell, Andre Rison, Warren Wells, Bob Chandler, Fred Biletnikoff,  Jerry Rice, Cliff Branch, Tim Brown, James Lofton, and Randy Moss

The release goes on to say “The list of wide receivers should make any pundit or so-called expert think twice before putting negativity on Heyward-Bey.” Really? Get ready for that statement to backfire. The media has been buzzing about how good he has looked in practice all through OTA’s anyway. So was this press release really necessary? It only serves to further raise the bar for Heyward-Bey as well as stir up the media to say the Raiders are yet again wrong in their expectations. DHB suffered from the pressure of high expectations last season and his play was directly effected by his buckling under said pressure.

But lets take a moment to look at this list. Lance Alworth didn’t play for the Raiders. He was recruited by Al Davis when he was an assistant coach for the Chargers. So, despite the ties between the two, he is a reach to be on this list. And I don’t think Al Davis or anyone else involved with the team wants to start listing off all the miserable failures that Al Davis has recruited at receiver over the years. So let’s not open that can of worms.

Andre Rison, Randy Moss, Willie Gault, Jerry Rice, and James Lofton played most of their careers elsewhere and were certainly not drafted by the Raiders. And Moss’ time in Oakland is one that he and the rest of us would like to forget. Signing a player who was drafted elsewhere and put up great numbers elsewhere, has no place in the defense of a player the Raiders drafted.

Would anyone seriously put Bob Chandler, Warren Wells, and Art Powell in the class of “the greatest wide receivers”? Wells and Powell are Raider legends and Chandler had a few good seasons but they are a reach to be placed among the greatest in NFL history.

So what we’re left with is Fred Biletnikoff, Cliff Branch and Tim Brown. The only three that were drafted as Raiders and can be considered among the greatest ever to play the game. The press release says that “Darrius Heyward-Bey, the Raiders’ top pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, is prepping to join that select group.” But join them in what regard? Yes, he has already joined them as Raider receivers. But until his catch total at least reaches double figures, let’s chill on the “greatness” discussion.

Tom Cable told us at mini camps that DHB had a great offseason and looked better than ever. But what I didn’t see was it translate onto the field. That progress he spoke of would really start to show until OTA’s. At which point every member of the media on hand, including TFDS were reporting on how good he looked. We all agree that he is a far cry from the 9 catch performance he had in his rookie season. But we all need to temper our expectations a little bit for a few reasons.

1. Nnamdi Asomugha, Chris Johnson and Stanford Routt have all been absent for much of the OTA’s leaving just 5th round rookie Walter McFadden as Heyward-Bey’s toughest defender.

2. These are NON-CONTACT drills in shorts. Making predictions based on them is not wise.

3. Heyward-Bey started looking good in last year’s training camp as well. But when the lights came on and the crowd was watching, he choked.

So “prepping” he is certainly doing, but “joining that select group” of “The greatest wide receivers in professional football” is about the biggest stretch I can imagine at this moment. It is at very least, extremely premature. It only stands to dwarf the premature sentiment in calling DHB a bust after one rocky rookie season.