So it looks like the Raiders will see a heavy dose of Colt Brennan on Thursday. Charlie Frye is still out with injury as well as Bruce Gradkowski. Which means that Jason Campbell will start, work a series or two and hand the offense over the the second team led by Kyle Boller. Boller will likely work through the first half and perhaps a tad bit more. This will leave Brennan with quite a bit of game to play.
Brennan couldn’t be more excited about his new opportunity either. Despite being in the league for two seasons, he has never seen the field in a regular seasonNFL game. He has barely even seen the field in a game since college, period.
“I have had four surgeries in 2 years and I think that made things hard for me. And when the new staff came in, I was there for two weeks and ended up needing another surgery– my last of the four. It kind of prolonged my progress with [the Redskins]… I get to play football on Thursday in the NFL. That’s a dream I’ve always wanted as a kid and I’m just trying to hold onto it.”
And if simply getting his first snap in an NFL game wasn’t enough, he is getting to trot out onto the field as a Raider, the team he group up watching as a native of Southern California.
“My dad had season tickets to the Raider game and some of our greatest stories when I was 6, 7, or 8 years old were going to games and experiencing the crowd and obviously there were some good years down there. The Silver and Black was always a big deal where I grew up. When they first gave me my helmet I was like ‘Wow, this is kind of a surreal moment’ and it was a fun moment thinking about going to all their games as a kid and now being a Raider. It’s pretty awesome.”
The thought of being thrown into a live game situation after just a few days with his new team can be a little nerve wracking for sure. Working in his favor are a few familiar faces. Jason Campbell and Rock Cartwright were teammates of his in Washington and Samson Satele was his center during his time at the University of Hawaii.
Hue Jackson and Tom Cable haven’t thrown the whole playbook at him right away either. They have given him a few select plays to get his feet wet. But even so, Cable knows he has a player with a vast amount of experience at least at the college level. And he has faith that he can execute the throws he needs to execute.
“He came out of a much different system then maybe the pro style,” Cable says of Brennan. “but the fact is he’s thrown a million footballs. If you watch him he does a nice job of being able to put it on receivers, and lead them and time it up over the top. He has a knack for some of those things.”
Brennan gave Cable plenty of reason to believe in him in practice today. As Cable said, he was really doing a nice job of leading his receivers on deep throws and dropping passes between defenders. His first nice pass he hit Todd Watkins in stride along the sideline with Stanford Routt defending. If the ball hadn’t been perfectly in stride, Routt would likely have caught up to him. But as they say, there is no defense for a perfectly thrown ball.
Brennan was back at it shortly as he hit Shawn Bodiford along the left side and then showed he could make the same pass to the right side to Bodiford again. But his best pass was one that no one expected because one of Brennan’s detractors was supposed to be that he didn’t have big time NFL arm strength. But when he threw a beautiful long strike to Nick Miller that traveled a good 50 yards in the air, the dispelled that notion pretty quick.
At this moment, the third string quarterback job is between Kyle Boller and Colt Brennan. Both have showed flashes that they could earn the job. We have a lot of camp and 4 games still to play to see how things shake out. It should be interesting though.
Nnamdi spreading his wings
After years of wondering why the Raiders kept Nnamdi Asomugha guarding only the receiver along the left side of the fields, Cable has finally decided to move him around. For the first time, Nnamdi was guarding receivers along the right side as well as the middle of the field.
“Some of it is just being able to get him comfortable on both sides because of all the slot formations,” Cable said. “and some of it has to do with him maybe lining up on the best receiver.”
So finally, Asomugha is going to be put up against the opposition’s best receiver. I don’t know about anyone else but I am SO sick of hearing about how Darrell Revis held all these great NFL receivers to under 35 yards last season. Saying that opposing offenses only threw to Nnamdi’s side of the field 27% of the time or mentioning that Nnamdi gave up an average of about one catch on his receiver per game apparently isn’t near as impressive.
I have to believe that Raider coaches and probably their managing general partner wanted to show the Jets, Darrell Revis and the rest of the sports world just what Asomugha is capable of if he is allowed to line up on the other team’s best receiver all the time. But more importantly, it just makes sense! You put you best corner on the other team’s best receiver.
This is really great news. Some of the best news of the offseason as far as I can tell.
Rookies looking a little strange
The Rookies came out for the afternoon practice looking a little bit like they had caught a strategic case of mange. Many of them had a lot less hard on their head in some pretty interesting patterns. I have to admit that I saw what many of them looked like well ahead of them introducing their new fashions in practice. The list of players included Lamarr Houston, Jared Veldheer, Bruce Campbell, Jared Goethel, Kellen Heard and Alex Parsons.
Rolando McClain came out with just a small bald spot looking like he had escaped the ordeal almost unscathed. But Michael Huff assured onlookers, “Don’t worry, he’s not done yet”. And he did indeed get his hazing haircut a bit later
To see all the rookie’s new hair chop jobs CLICK HERE
Dmac and Chaz among no-gos for Dallas
The oft injured pair will not be playing in the Raiders preseason opener against Dallas on Thursday. The injury to Darren McFadden will mean that Rock Cartwright and Michael Bennett have a substantial load for nearly the entire game as there is no one else behind them on the depth chart.
Chaz Schilens would have started along with Darrius Heyward-Bey but with him being out Louis Murphy will likely get the start on the right side. We will also have to wait to see Jacoby Ford as well as he has been scratched for the game.
With McFadden and Schilens out of the starting lineup, it will look as follows:
QB Jason Campbell, RB Michael Bush, FB Marcel Reece
WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR Louis Murphy, TE Zach Miller
LT Mario Henderson, LG Robert Gallery, C Samson Satele, RG Cooper Carlisle, RT Langston Walker
Defensive starters present and accounted for
The Raider starters on defense will be as follows:
LDE Matt Shaughnessy, RDE Lamarr Houston, DT Tommy Kelly, DT Richard Seymour
SLB Kamerion Wimbley, MLB Rolando McClain, WLB Trevor Scott
CB Nnamdi Asomugha, CB Chris Johnson, FS Michael Huff, SS Tyvon Branch
Jay Richardson is the lone defensive player who will out for the game but he is not projected as a starter.
Goal line wrinkles
The Raiders worked on their goal line offense and defense today in practice and a couple of things jump out at you. First with the defense; there are no corners in the game. The secondary consists of strong safeties Tyvon Branch and Mike Mitchell and linebacker Thomas Howard. This will allow them to cover receivers if need be and still crowd the line to knock back a running back trying to punch his way into the endzone.
On offense it is the fullback; DE Lamarr Houston. And I don’t just mean for blocking. I mean handing the ball off to the big 300 pound lineman and letting him bull his way in and even having him get open in the endzone for a short dump-off touchdown. Now THAT, I can’t wait to see unveiled in a game. And I would not want to be the guy who had to try and tackle him as he came through the line. It hurts just thinking about it.
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