Photo by Bob Carr
Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 12, 2013 Raiders rookie cornerback and twelfth-overall selection D.J. Hayden hasn’t seen a padded NFL practice in which he has been cleared for contact, but that could change soon. Raiders head coach Dennis Allen stated on Monday that Hayden is expected be cleared physically as soon as Friday, though he isn’t expected to play when the team takes on the New Orleans Saints on Friday. “He won’t play this week,” Allen said of his young corner. “He should be cleared for contact on… really Friday is when he should be cleared for contact.” Hayden was forced out of Offseason Team Activities after he had to have a surgery done in order to remove scar tissue from his abdomen after the nearly-fatal injury he suffered on the practice field last season at the University of Houston. With the game on Friday, the first opportunity for Hayden to see his first contact is Sunday at 2:50 p.m. when the team returns to practice, though it isn’t known if the team will wear pads that day. Allen also revealed that Hayden will likely see his first game action during the Raiders’ week three matchup at home against the Chicago Bears on Aug. 23. “We’ll re-evaluate that with the doctors after that but the plan going forward I would anticipate is that he would be up and going for the Chicago game,” Allen said.
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Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 11, 2013
The Raiders returned to the practice field for the first time following their 19-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys On Friday. The team did not wear pads on Sunday which won't hurt the chances of getting some of their players back off of the injured list, a list that seems to keep growing. Added to the long list were a couple of players that saw snaps in the game against the Cowboys: wide receiver Juron Criner, linebacker Keenan Clayton and running back Latavius Murray who never dressed up for Sunday's practice. Running back Taiwan Jones was able to begin practice but was escorted off of the field and into the field house after sustaining an injury early on. Jones was unable to return to the practice field. The same goes for linebacker Sio Moore who was on the field and doing drills at the beginning of camp but then was seen being taken off of the field and never returned. Though head coach Dennis Allen doesn't see them as "serious" injuries, he knows that players with injuries are missing precious time on the practice field that can't be made up. "Nothing season-threatening or anything like that," Allen said of the injuries. "I don't expect the guys to miss a lot of times, but we've got to get the guys healthy. We've got to get guys back out here. Those guys are missing a lot of time and they're falling behind, the more practices they miss, especially the young guys." The defense wore the silver jerseys today as part of the inter-squad competition and will most likely be wearing them again tomorrow after the offense struggled to get the ball downfield. The offense was often forced to dump the ball off short as a result of good coverage deep. Cornerback Tracy Porter was a defensive standout today, breaking on multiple routes by Denarius Moore and getting his hand in to defend the pass. During a red-zone drill, Porter timed a leap perfectly to get up and knock a pass down harmlessly to the ground in the back of the end zone in front of Matt Flynn's intended receiver, Rod Streater. Prior to that, Streater was able to get open in the middle of the field and haul in a nice intermediate pass from Flynn. The offense's biggest play of the game occurred when quarterback Terrelle Pryor threw a ball deep down the left sideline that rookie wide receiver Brice Butler hauled in the for the touchdown. Butler did a nice job adjusting on the ball to make the tough catch. Butler continues to impress during camp after making the great touchdown catch during Friday's game against the Cowboys, the team's lone touchdown. Allen attributes Butler's success in camp to the improvement in his routes, but at the same time, he wants to make sure that his young wide receiver stays hungry to improve each day he is on the field. "I think his route running has gotten much-improved as he's been out here working," Allen said of Butler's biggest improvement. Allen has been pleased with Butler's development but wants to make sure that his young wide receiver stays hungry to improve each day he's on the field. "Listen, make no mistake, he's been a nice surprise," Allen said of Butler. "When you get a seventh-round draft choice like that who's really developed, that's nice to have. But at the same time, I don't want him reading too much of his press clippings and start feeling too good about himself. He's still a rookie, he's still got a long way to go, but he's off to a nice start." The Raiders return to the practice field on Monday morning, beginning at 9:20 a.m. Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 9, 2013
The Raiders hosted the Dallas Cowboys as they took the field at O.Co Coliseum for their first preseason game of the 2013 campaign. After winning the coin toss and electing to receive, the Raiders were quickly put in their first tough position of the season after Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee got in untouched to sack and forced the fumble on Matt Flynn on the fourth play of the drive. Much to the pleasure of head coach Dennis Allen, his defense responded by forcing the Cowboys to go three and out and limit them to just three points. After a holding call on the Cowboys, defensive end Jack Crawford got his hand up to knock a screen pass down followed by rookie linebacker Sio Moore recording his first sack. The defense then held Miles Austin short of the first-down line on third down to force the field goal attempt. Moore said it helped to just get on the field and play football to get his nervousness out. “Man, it just helped being able to play, to tell you the honest truth. Mike Jenkins came up to me before the game and was just like ‘Alignment. Know your assignment and the rest will happen as it come.’ I was just excited to be out there with guy.” On his second drive of the game, Flynn drove the offense down the field with a 12-play, 49-yard drive that culminated in a 51-yard field goal from Sebastian Janikowski to tie the game at 3-3. Romo and the Cowboys’ offense was able to move the ball downfield their next attempt, driving to the Raiders eight-yard line but was once again limited to a field goal attempt. This time, safety Tyvon Branch got behind the line and blocked Dan Bailey’s attempt. The block was recovered by middle linebacker Nick Roach and returned to the Raiders 19 yard line. Flynn finished his part of the game 4-5 for 37 yards and the one fumble. Pryor came into the game for the Raiders first series of the second quarter and quickly made his presence felt as he used his athleticism to rush the ball for 13 yards. Pryor showed off his running ability on three occasions, finishing with a total of 31 yards. Pryor’s first drive included three third-down conversions and got the offense all the way to the Cowboys’ six-yard line. Pryor then failed to get the play called in time and was forced to burn a timeout. The timeout preceded an ill-advised throw in which the young quarterback threw it into triple coverage and Cowboys safety J.J. Wilcox came down with the interception. “I looked at the pictures and I could have easily ran it in, but I got greedy,” Pryor said of his interception. After replacing Romo on the next drive, veteran Kyle Orton drove down the field 80 yards on 10 plays that culminated in a perfect touchdown pass to Cole Beasley who beat Raiders cornerback Joselio Hanson. Pryor’s second chance to get the Raiders back on the board came with just 36 seconds left before halftime. After driving the team down to the Cowboys’ 22-yard line with a couple of nice passes, Pryor built on his experience from the interception and threw the ball away twice instead of trying to force the pass. The Raiders were able to come away with another field goal to take the score to 10-6 heading into halftime. “At the end of the day, God has given me a chance to play this game and he’s given me an opportunity to learn, and I learned right there,” Pryor said of his interception the drive before. “As long as you can take one or two things out, and I learned one thing for sure, don’t turn the ball over there, don’t force anything and don’t be greedy. I’ll never do that again and that will never happen to me again.” The Raiders lone touchdown came in the third quarter with undrafted-rookie Matt McGloin airing out a well-thrown 30-yard touchdown reception to rookie wide receiver Brice Butler who made a beautiful diving catch. “I knew Matt [McGloin] was coming to me. In practice, every time I do it with him he throws it to me,” Butler said of his touchdown reception. “I was running down the field, I could see the ball in the air. I’m running and I was like ‘my legs aren’t giving me what I need right now’ so I just dove and I just caught it. And after that I didn’t know what to do with myself, I just started running.” The touchdown gave the Raiders a 16-10 lead, but the Raiders would have to fight back late in the game to retake the lead after another Dallas touchdown gave the Cowboys a 17-16 lead. With rookie quarterback Tyler Wilson struggling, the Raiders punted the ball away but the Cowboys’ receiver muffed Marquette King’s punt and the Raiders recovered on the Dallas nine-yard line. Though Wilson was unable to get the ball in the endzone, Eddy Carmona gave the Raiders the lead again with a field goal to put his team up 19-17. The Cowboys had one more chance late in the game but Dallas quarterback Alex Tanney was unable to advance the ball and his fourth and 10 attempt was dropped by his receiver, giving the ball back to the Raiders and allowing Wilson to take a knee three times in a row to seal the Raiders victory. The Raiders return to camp on Sunday and head to New Orleans for their next game, taking place on Aug. 17, 2013.
Photo by Bob Carr
Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 6, 2013 The departure of Brandon Myers in the offseason left the Raiders’ tight end position one of the more open competitions heading into training camp. After being drafted in the sixth round (184th overall), rookie tight end Mychal Rivera is using his first training camp to make an impression on coaches and help earn a chance to fill that void. Rivera has shown one of his biggest strengths by using his speed and route-running to get open against defenders on numerous occasions. On one play, Rivera used a nice double move that left veteran safety Usama Young trailing and shaking his head at what had just happened. Rivera’s ability to get open shouldn’t come as a surprise after the finishing his senior year at the University of Tennessee with 36 catches on the year for five touchdowns and 562 yards, setting a new school record for a tight end by surpassing Jason Witten’s mark of 493 yards. Rivera’s 1,018 career yards at Tennesse make him just the second tight end to exceed the 1,000-yard mark. But being well aware of his young tight end’s success as a receiver, it has been Rivera’s blocking ability that has impressed Raiders head coach Dennis Allen. “I’ve been really impressed,” Allen said of Rivera. “Like I said [last Thursday], one of the question marks you had on Mychal Rivera is his ability to block. We knew he was going to be skilled in the passing game, which he has been, but I’ve been impressed with the fullness of his game and his ability in the running game as well as in protection.” Undersized at 6-foot-3, 245-pounds, Rivera must use solid technique in order to gain leverage against defensive lineman that are often much bigger than him. “The blocking, I still need to improve my technique,” Rivera said. “Me being a smaller guy, you know, 50-, 40- pounds under what most of these d-linemen weigh, I need to really focus on my technique to be sure I can be in the right position at the right place at the right time to make sure they can’t get around me.” Rivera attributes his relatively smooth transition into the NFL to his time playing in the SEC while at Tennessee, along with his natural desire to succeed. “I feel like Tennessee and the SEC competition really helped me a lot,” Rivera said. “That play is really fast up there and it’s really similar to the NFL play here. I’m just really competitive and just want to come here and work hard everyday. You’ve got to bring a fighter’s mentality everyday to practice.” Though he is in the midst of a competition for the tight end position, Rivera knows he just needs to focus on improving his own game as opposed to focusing on the actual competition. “I don’t think about it much,” Rivera said of the competition. “I feel like we’re all brothers out there. We’re all competing for playing time but at the end of the day, you just have to work hard individually.” The 22-year-old tight end approaches each practice with a clean slate and ignore the highs and lows that occur. “Everyday I come into practice with a new mentality,” Rivera said. “Some practices you do really good and catch 10, 11 balls out there and you’re just all over the place and some practices you’re blocking a lot and maybe you have a drop and stuff. So everyday you’ve got to come in with a new mentality. Like I said, you’ve got to come into it as a fighter and just win everyday.” Originally published by SBReport.net on Aug. 5, 2013
The Oakland Raiders put the pads back on Monday after having an unexpected day without them the day before. Head coach Dennis Allen had previously scheduled Sunday to be a padded practice but decided against it due to the injury bug that has hit his team. Rookie cornerback D.J. Hayden seems to have joined the injury list after going out with a hamstring injury, according to Allen. Allen stated after the game that Hayden was going to sit out of Friday’s game against the Cowboys even if he did not get injured in practice Monday. The young cornerback has been wearing a red “no contact” jersey for all of training camp after an offseason surgery to remove scar tissue in his abdomen. “D.J. Hayden has a little bit of a hamstring,” Allen said of Hayden’s injury. “We’ll see where he’s at when we come back to work on Wednesday, players are off tomorrow for the mandatory day off. So we’ll see where he’s at on Wednesday. D.J. won’t play in the game against Dallas, then we’ll kind of reevaluate where we’re at with him after that.” Hayden made a couple of nice plays in practice before pulling up lame. On consecutive turns in coverage, Hayden cut underneath wide receivers Juron Criner’s route and got his hand in there to knock the ball away. With seven defensive lineman out after Sunday’s practice, the Raiders brought in defensive tackle Ryan Baker to compete on the team. “I bring leadership. I bring high intensity. I’m a blue-collar kind of guy that just come out here and basically hits somebody in the face and gets practice going,” Baker said. Monday marked Baker’s first appearance wearing the Silver & Black number 60 jersey, and he got thrown right into the fire in his first practice. Baker knows there’s no time to get acclimated with a game coming up this week. “We have a game this Friday,” Baker said. “It’s time to get going, I’m glad they just threw me in there.” Baker even got some chances as a long-snapper during special teams drills, but I wouldn’t expect him to be taking Pro Bowler Jon Condo’s job anytime soon. Baker short hopped some of the snaps but he stated afterwards that he’s here to help the defensive line, not snap to the punter. “Actually, that was a mistake,” Baker said while laughing. “They said to switch the punt team and they turned me around and handed me the ball. So I’m not going to argue so I got down there and snapped the ball. I should’ve taken my gloves off, but I’m curious to see the film on that. But to answer the question, no, I’m not a long snapper.” The defense seemed to have the upper hand on practice today and should be wearing the silver jerseys during next practice. Defensive end Jason Hunter had a solid practice getting into the backfield and disrupting pass plays. Hunter was able to bullrush the right side of the offensive line and knock down the pass from quarterback Matt Flynn. On the next play, Hunter got around right tackle Khalif Barnes and Barnes was forced to hold Hunter to keep him away from the quarterback. Young defensive end David Bass also had another nice practice. Bass used a good move to get to quarterback Terrelle Pryor for what would have been a sack. The Raiders will need Hunter and Bass to help improve a defensive line that finished with just 25 sacks last season. The return of right guard Mike Brisiel meant that Barnes was pushed back to his starting right tackle position while Alex Barron moved to the second-team left tackle position. The Raiders wide receivers once again suffered from drops, this time from guys that have been catching everything during camp. Tight end David Ausberry had a couple of drops you wouldn’t expect, and wide receiver Rod Streater had one clank off of his hands in the end zone. Wide receiver Denarius Moore also had two drops in a row, one of which went right through his hands and another one that was low but still catchable. With the wide receivers struggling, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the quarterbacks didn’t have an especially great day as well. Flynn did complete a nice ball deep to Moore who beat his man easily for what would have been a touchdown. After the team had so many drops in practice, it wasn’t surprising when practice ended with a ball going through Greg Jenkins’ hands on a quick pass from Matt McGloin. Allen gave his players the night off away from meetings and the team doesn’t have to report back until 11 p.m. tomorrow night after the mandatory day off. “I gave them the night off as far as meetings are concerned tonight,” Allen said. “The next thing they have is an 11 o-clock curfew tomorrow.”
Photo by Bob Carr
Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 4, 2013 Raiders head coach Dennis Allen had anticipated having his team practice in pads on Sunday but decided against it due to the ever-growing injury list. “The anticipation was to be in pads today, but with the injury situation the way it is, we had seven defensive linemen that couldn’t practice today,” Allen said. “It’s hard to get multiple groups of a defensive front out there when you only have seven guys that are able to go. We took the pads off, we slowed the tempo down there at the end in hopes that we can keep some of these guys who have to take extra reps as fresh as we can.” Included on Sunday’s list of non-participants was offensive lineman Mike Brisiel, wide receiver Josh Cribbs, cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Tracy Porter. But Allen stated that the injuries were minor and all were believed to be back soon. “Sio Moore, Mike Jenkins, Tracy Porter, we held them out,” Allen stated. “Again, none of those are major injuries. Obviously they’re part of camp, part of things you have to deal with, so hopefully we’ll get those guys back sooner rather than later. We held out [Josh] Cribbs and Mike Brisiel.” With Brisiel out, Allen pushed starting right tackle Khalif Barnes into the right guard position with Alex Barron stepping into the starting right tackle spot. Allen says the move is all part of the evaluation process that takes place during training camp. “The guy is a big, powerful man, and he’s played guard before,” Allen said of Barnes. “I mean it’s not like it’s a totally new position to him. Putting him in there, giving him a look, at the end of the day, we’re trying to find out what’s the best combination of five guys to put out on the field that’s going to give our offense the best chance for success.” Taiwan Jones, who converted to cornerback in the offseason, has benefited from the time missed by fellow cornerbacks ahead of him in the depth chart. Jones had another solid practice defending passes on multiple occasions. Jones attributes his recent play in the defensive backfield to his quick reactions. “On defense it’s all about reacting and that’s one thing I’m pretty good at,” Jones said following Sunday’s practice. “It’s coming pretty easy… I’ve still got a lot of work to do though.” It’s not often that a player makes such a drastic switch after entering the NFL, but Jones is accepting of the challenge and is having fun with it. “It’s coming pretty good and I’ve been having fun and that’s what’s important,” Jones said. “The guys have welcomed me and I’m learning a lot from everybody so it’s been fun.” Wide receiver Jacoby Ford was on the field again after missing time with an undisclosed injury. Ford made his presence on the field felt by catching virtually anything that was thrown his way. The Raiders will certainly need Ford to be healthy as they need production from their wide receiving corps. The Raiders will need to get some players back quickly as they head into their first game on Friday, hosting the Dallas Cowboys. The Raiders return to the practice field on Monday at 2:50 p.m.
Photo by Bob Carr
Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 2, 2013 The Raiders announced on Friday that they have signed kicker Sebastian Janikowski to a four-year contract extension. The Raiders’ all-time leading scorer (1,318 career points) is entering his 14th season and has led the Silver & Black in each of his 13 previous seasons. The “Polish cannon”, as some refer to him, currently holds two of the three longest field goals in field goal history. Included in that is a record-tying 63-yard field goal agains the Denver Broncos on Sept. 12, 2011. Janikowski previously hit a 61-yard field goal in Cleveland on Dec. 27, 2009. The 6-foot-1, 258-pound kicker is coming off a 2012 campaign in which he finished 31-for-14 on field goal attemps with his only misses coming from 51-, 61-, and 64- yards. Janikowski only has one Pro Bowl under his belt, coming in 2011 after he finished seven-for-10 on field goals over 50 yards. Janikowski also currently holds the franchise record for most points scored in a season with the 142 points he scored in 2010. Originally published on SBReport.net on Aug. 1, 2013
The Oakland Raiders returned to their Napa, Calif. practice field without pads for their first practice after having the day off on Wednesday. Many of the players injured during the last week have yet to return to the field, with the exception of defensive tackle Vance Walker who was back on Thursday. Joining the injury list was defensive back Brandian Ross and defensive end Lamarr Houston. Head coach Dennis Allen says these injuries occur but stressed the importance to get his team healthy and back practicing. “It’s part of training camp,” Allen said of the injuries. “But anytime you have injuries there’s a concern because this is the time that you develop your football team. So, we need these guys out here and we need them to get rehabbed and get out here as soon as possible.” Tight end David Ausberry continues to have a nice camp and has been able to create separation on a variety of defenders. The third-year tight end used a nice double move on veteran safety Charles Woodson to get separation and haul in a deep pass that was placed nicely by Terrelle Pryor. Another tight end that impressed today was rookie tight end Mychal Rivera. Rivera used a nice move on a deep post route that shook safety Usama Young and left him wide open for the deep reception. When drafting him, Allen knew Rivera could catch but the second-year coach has been pleased with what he has seen in the blocking game thus far. “Rivera’s one guy as a rookie that’s come in and done a nice job,” Allen said. “He’s got a great feel for the passing game. One of the question marks of him coming in is ‘how well is he going to do as a blocker?’ and he’s really responded and done a nice job as far as that’s concerned.” After losing Brandon Myers in the offseason, Allen is looking for a new starting tight and knows the team is better off when a player can haul in passes and block at the position. “The more versatile they can be, the better off we’re going to be,” Allen said. “The tight end position is one of those which you’re part offensive lineman and you’re part wide receiver. So, they’re ability to be versatile for us when we need to run the ball and when we need them in pass protection they’ve got to be able to step up and do their job. And when we get a chance to throw the ball down the field to them, they’ve got to go make plays for us.” Just a day after Allen stated that the team didn’t have any clear-cut number one receiver, Denarius Moore had a great practice, catching everything thrown his way. Moore made a great play leaping up and attacking the ball at the highest point to haul in a ball by Matt Flynn over Woodson and cornerback Tracy Porter. Allen had previously said that this is one thing he would like to see from Moore. “I thought Denarius Moore made a great play down at the boundary,” Allen said of the play. “Those are the types fo plays that we expect out of him. I think he’s responding to the challenge.” The Raiders would like to see Moore return to the play he provided at the beginning of last season before having a rough second half. Though it is early in camp and his team hasn’t hit the field for even an exhibition game, Allen likes the way his team is developing. “I said it before: I like this team,” Allen said. “I like their mindset. I like their mentality – they way they go about their business. We’re going to be a tough, physical football team and we’re going to be a mentally-tough team. That’s the challenge I’ve put forth to this team and they’ve responded.” A couple things of note:
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