News, notes and quotes from the Raiders training camp practice Monday:
– The Raiders have two more practices before they break camp in Napa,
but have already begun to go into their Alameda mode.
Instead of having the first team offense against the first team defense,
and second team offense against the second team defense, and so on,
JaMarcus Russell and Co. were operating against a defensive scout team,
while the lead defensive unit worked against offensive players who may
not be around when the club cuts to the final 53.
The result was the Raiders passing game, which has relied heavily on
running backs and tight ends with occasional spurts by the wide
receivers, involved the wideouts heavily. Russell opened with a
perfectly thrown deep cross to Louis Murphy and a nice connection to
Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Coach Tom Cable said involving the wideouts more heavily was the result
of “being a little bit more dialed in about some game plan thoughts for
this week. It’s the first itme we’ve game planned anything this
offseason adn we wanted to focus on that a little bit more.”
– It was a play Javon Walker has done hundreds of times before, only not
in the last nine months.
In his first practice after being elevated from the Physically Unable to
Perform list, Walker found an open area, sat in it, and caught a pass
from Jeff Garcia.
Walker didn’t do much else _ truth be told he worked a lot harder on his
rehab days than he did during a full practice session. But if all goes
according to plan, Walker will practice again Wednesday and Thursday and
see game action Saturday night.
“The rehab part is the hard part,” Walker said. “The easy part is
getting out there and catching balls.”
Walker said it felt good to know he could still “get in and out of
breaks against NFL corners,” (hold the jokes about being the defender on
his reception being John Bowie), and noted, “the catching for me has
always been the easy part. The hard part is, OK, what’s the quickest way
to the end zone? That’s what I try to figure out.”
Walker didn’t get a lot of work in with Russell, and couldn’t work with
him at practice while on PUP. It’s something Walker will need to work on
if he hopes to ascend on the depth chart.
He spent part of practice catching passes on the sideline with intern
Danny Southwick.
“From my Pro Bowl year to the year in Denver to my rookie year I’ve
always done that,” Walker said. “I’ve always just played catch because I
treasure catching. I don’t drop the ball. That’s not something to get
back in the groove. I’ve been doing that for the last eight years.”
Said Cable: “(He) looked a little rusty but he ran some good routes,
caught some balls, looked decent in individual. We’ll kind of bring him
along a little more each day as we go through the week.”
Walker said he isn’t concerning himself with earning a role as the lead
receiver.
“What I expect is to be No. 1 in my ability that I know I can be,”
Walker said. “I expect to be No. 1 in the plays that I know can make. I
expect to be No. 1 in my confidence.”
– Napoleon Harris, the starting middle linebacker for the Raiders in
their AFC championship season of 2002 as a rookie first-round draft
pick, arrived to help pick up the slack for the injured Kirk Morrison
(disclocated elbow).
There’s no guarantee that Harris will be around much longer than the man
he replaced, cornerback Ricky Manning. Manning was a Raider nine days
and struggled in coverage from the outset.
“A lot of new faces,” Harris said. “It’s not the same Raider teams I
played with but, hopefully, we can have some great results like we did
the first year when I was out here.”
– Cable avoided criticism of Terdell Sands while discussing the
elevation of Harvard undrafted free agent Desmond Bryant to the second team.
“I don’t know if I’d say disappointed (with regard to Sands),” Cable
said. “I just think it’s a young guy stepping it up. He just continues
to improve daily and played really well Saturday night.”
Bryant said the jump from Ivy League to the NFL hasn’t been as daunting
as he thought, and said, “Obviously that was my ultimate goal, to make
that progress. I didn’t know what kind of timetable I’d be able to make
it, so at this point I feel like I’m doing a great job. There’s always
going to be room for me to grow.”
– ESPN dispatched a reporter hoping to get to the bottom of the Randy
Hanson/Cable issue and didn’t get any elaboration from the coach,
although he did say he hasn’t been contacted by local law enforcement or
the NFL.
– Safety Rashad Baker, who arrived last week, had an interception in
practice and has performed much as he did last year when he had three
interceptions. He said despite the turnover on the defensive staff,
“it’s still Raider football,” and described his role as a free safety as
unchanged.
“That’s one of the freedoms of being a free safety in this defense is
you get to read the quarterback and make plays downfield,” Baker said.
“You’ve got great corners on the outside and you’re in the middle of the
field, if you’ve got good vision, you’re able to make plays and I’m
grateful for the corners we got so that I can roam a little bit.”
– Running back Michael Bush seemed pleased but not overly excited about
a chance to start Saturday against New Orleans.
“It’s the preseason, and I really haven’t been getting a lot of work,”
Bush said. “We’ve been rotating. So it’ll be something fun.”
Bush has learned to wait his turn, having spent his rookie year
rehabbing a broken ankle even though he thought would be activated, and
then doing a lot of watching last season before exploding for 177 yards
agaisnst Tampa Bay in the season finale.
“You kind of learn to go with it,” Bush said. “There’s not a lot you can
do about it, you know what I’m saying? I’m not rushing to do anything
spectacular or anything like that. I mean, it’s normal.”
– Russell was running sprints following practice along with some
linemen, including defensive tackle Gerard Warren.
– Those who didn’t practice included Chaz Schilens (foot), Khalif Barnes
(ankle), John Wade (stinger), Justin Fargas (hamstring), Matt
Shaughnessy (foot), Isaiah Ekejiuba (shoulder), Kirk Morrison (elbow),
Jason Horton (toe) and Shane Lechler (groin).
Tight end Brandon Myers didn’t finish practice with a tight quadriceps
and Hiram Eugene was out with the stomach flu.
The Raiders, attempting to simulate a game week right down to the 1 p.m.
kickoff, will take today off and pick up practice Wednesday.
