Angry Pope
All Raider
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I will just use this to start the thread....
Home improvements
Posted by Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer on Monday at 5:27 pm
News and notes, sights and sounds from the first day back in Alameda:
The Raiders returned to Alameda to find their locker room had been rearranged, with lockers with two rows of lockers running laterally across the room instead of horizontally.
"I guess coach Kiffin wanted a different look," said safety Stuart Schweigert. "I like it. It kind of opens things up."
Posted in many lockers were the Raiders three team rules:
1) Always protect the team
2) Be early
3) No whining, no complaining, no excuses
JaMarcus Russell's locker sits directly opposite those of Josh McCown and Andrew Walter, filled with two unopened delivery boxes, a zipped up equipment bag and a miniature Raiders helmet with a note attatched from a well-wisher about his selection as the No. 1 pick in the draft.
– Oakland may or may not have remodeled its defensive line with the trade for Broncos' tackle Gerard Warren. Even if Warren doesn't work out, it's a smart acquisition by the Raiders. Warren has already been paid some $2 million in roster and workout bonuses and carries a salary of just $595,000 this season.
"It’s something that has been available for a little while here," coach Lane Kiffin said after practice. "It’s something that we feel in our situation is an extremely low risk for us. We’re going to give the guy a shot and see if he can come in and make the team.
Over the next three seasons, under terms of a six-year deal he signed last year with the Broncos, Warren's scheduled salaries are $4 million, $4.63 million and $4.68 million.
Denver coach Mike Shanahan said the Broncos would receive a fifth-round draft pick but only if Warren makes Oakland's 53-man roster.
The NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports Warren would earn an additonal $2 million if he were to play 50 percent of the defensive snaps. Given Oakland's philosophy of rotating defensive tackles, it's not a given Warren would play that much.
If Warren plays as he did in Denver he earned the big contract, the Raiders get a top-level player at a bargain price for one season. Then they can renegotiate a subsequent deal to their liking or let him go as a free agent.
If Warren is the player he was in Cleveland or apparently the one the Broncos saw in training camp this year, they can cut him.
"Obviously I've been here for training camp so I don't know how (Denver's) training camp has gone or any of that," guard Cooper Carlisle said. " I know when I was there he still had plenty of gas left."
Another organizational source regarding Warren is personnel man George Streeter, who worked in Cleveland when Warren was there. Warren is scheduled to arrive in Oakland Monday night and the deal is not official until he passes a physical Tuesday morning.
Defensive tackle Larry Brown was waived in anticipation of Warren passing his physical.
In theory, Warren, at 6-foot-4 and 324 pounds, adds a second player of girth to be available in a rotation basis along with Terdell Sands. It enables Oakland to use Tommy Kelly at right end, giving them a more stout presence against the run.
"He's a big guy that's tough to move but he can also move around for his size," Carlisle said.
Rookie Quentin Moses, a sleek defensive end, may be more suited to situational pass rush duty than as a point-of-attack run defender. Jay Richardson, a fifth-round pick, is bigger but raw in terms of positioning and leverage against the run.
– Warren was the third pick overall by Cleveland in 2001 _ one spot ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson.
– It only seems like the last time the Raiders and Broncos were involved in a trade was 1967, when Al Davis fleeced Denver by getting cornerback Willie Brown (and a quarterback named Mickey Slaughter) for defensive tackle Rex Mirich and third-round draft pick.
The last time the Raiders and Broncos actually completed a trade was 1993, when Gaston Green came to Los Angeles for a third-round draft pick. Kiffin offered a smile and a no comment with regard to the length of time between a Broncos-Raiders trade.
– Defensive tackle Warren Sapp, to whom diplomacy is a foreign concept, will see what Warren has to offer but remains fiercely loyal to his teammates on the defensive line.
"If he makes it, he makes it. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. He’s not going to make or break us. If you don’t make or break us, you’re irrelevant to us," Sapp said. "We’re a unit. We’re a unit that runs together. I see my eight. My eight’s been here since I first walked in the door and I said, ‘There’s my eight.’ That’s what I’ve looked at and said, ‘There’s my eight, I can win with those eight.’ And he never came into that picture until I walked into the job this morning. I don’t see him cracking that eight. I don’t make personnel decisions around here, but I don’t see him cracking my eight.”
– Safety Donovin Darius, who left practice last Thursday with a calf injury and did not play Saturday, said the injury is minor and expects to face St. Louis Friday night.
– Tackle Chad Slaughter (ankle) returned to practice. Safety Hiram Eugene had his left arm in a split and was scheduled to see a specialist Monday, Kiffin said.
– The Raiders went through tape of the 49ers game before lunch before turning their attention toward St. Louis, simulating a regular-season game week in terms of game plan meetings as closely as possible, Kiffin said.
– Kiffin wants to go through Tuesday's practice before determining a starting quarterback against St. Louis. Regulars will go deeper into the game than at any time in the preseason, but Kiffin said the starting quarterback against the Rams is not a lock to start the regular season against Detroit.
– LaMont Jordan bounced back well from his 8-carry, 67-yard performance against the 49ers, Kiffin said. Kiffin said he has had "constant conversations with him about being a great back and the way he needs to practice to do that."
Kiffin thinks the success behind a zone-blocking line probably came as a relief to Jordan.
"I'm sure he was thinking in his mind, 'Hey maybe I am a power gap scheme runner,' because he's run so much of that in his career," Kiffin said. "So I'm sure he felt really good and felt excited about the results he had."
– The last thing players see as they walk out under a canopy outside the locker room to the playing fields is a Raiders banner with the Kiffin slogan, "I'm in!"
By Sept. 1, of course, many will be out as the Raiders reach a 53-man roster. A good indication of players who are extreme longshots or on the bubble are those who share a locker.
Aside from third-round draft picks Mario Henderson and Johnnie Lee Higgins, both roster locks, virtually every other shared locker contains either one or two players who aren't likely to make the team.
Other shared lockers include Jeff Otis and Kyle Shotwell, Eric Frampton and and Johnathan Holland (I.R.), Marquice Cole and John Bowie, Rich Parson and Lauren Williams, Levonne Rowan and Kurt Campbell, Michael Bush and Oren O'Neil, Chris Morris and Tyler Fredrickson and Jared Clauss and Chris McFoy.
Home improvements
Posted by Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer on Monday at 5:27 pm
News and notes, sights and sounds from the first day back in Alameda:
The Raiders returned to Alameda to find their locker room had been rearranged, with lockers with two rows of lockers running laterally across the room instead of horizontally.
"I guess coach Kiffin wanted a different look," said safety Stuart Schweigert. "I like it. It kind of opens things up."
Posted in many lockers were the Raiders three team rules:
1) Always protect the team
2) Be early
3) No whining, no complaining, no excuses
JaMarcus Russell's locker sits directly opposite those of Josh McCown and Andrew Walter, filled with two unopened delivery boxes, a zipped up equipment bag and a miniature Raiders helmet with a note attatched from a well-wisher about his selection as the No. 1 pick in the draft.
– Oakland may or may not have remodeled its defensive line with the trade for Broncos' tackle Gerard Warren. Even if Warren doesn't work out, it's a smart acquisition by the Raiders. Warren has already been paid some $2 million in roster and workout bonuses and carries a salary of just $595,000 this season.
"It’s something that has been available for a little while here," coach Lane Kiffin said after practice. "It’s something that we feel in our situation is an extremely low risk for us. We’re going to give the guy a shot and see if he can come in and make the team.
Over the next three seasons, under terms of a six-year deal he signed last year with the Broncos, Warren's scheduled salaries are $4 million, $4.63 million and $4.68 million.
Denver coach Mike Shanahan said the Broncos would receive a fifth-round draft pick but only if Warren makes Oakland's 53-man roster.
The NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports Warren would earn an additonal $2 million if he were to play 50 percent of the defensive snaps. Given Oakland's philosophy of rotating defensive tackles, it's not a given Warren would play that much.
If Warren plays as he did in Denver he earned the big contract, the Raiders get a top-level player at a bargain price for one season. Then they can renegotiate a subsequent deal to their liking or let him go as a free agent.
If Warren is the player he was in Cleveland or apparently the one the Broncos saw in training camp this year, they can cut him.
"Obviously I've been here for training camp so I don't know how (Denver's) training camp has gone or any of that," guard Cooper Carlisle said. " I know when I was there he still had plenty of gas left."
Another organizational source regarding Warren is personnel man George Streeter, who worked in Cleveland when Warren was there. Warren is scheduled to arrive in Oakland Monday night and the deal is not official until he passes a physical Tuesday morning.
Defensive tackle Larry Brown was waived in anticipation of Warren passing his physical.
In theory, Warren, at 6-foot-4 and 324 pounds, adds a second player of girth to be available in a rotation basis along with Terdell Sands. It enables Oakland to use Tommy Kelly at right end, giving them a more stout presence against the run.
"He's a big guy that's tough to move but he can also move around for his size," Carlisle said.
Rookie Quentin Moses, a sleek defensive end, may be more suited to situational pass rush duty than as a point-of-attack run defender. Jay Richardson, a fifth-round pick, is bigger but raw in terms of positioning and leverage against the run.
– Warren was the third pick overall by Cleveland in 2001 _ one spot ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson.
– It only seems like the last time the Raiders and Broncos were involved in a trade was 1967, when Al Davis fleeced Denver by getting cornerback Willie Brown (and a quarterback named Mickey Slaughter) for defensive tackle Rex Mirich and third-round draft pick.
The last time the Raiders and Broncos actually completed a trade was 1993, when Gaston Green came to Los Angeles for a third-round draft pick. Kiffin offered a smile and a no comment with regard to the length of time between a Broncos-Raiders trade.
– Defensive tackle Warren Sapp, to whom diplomacy is a foreign concept, will see what Warren has to offer but remains fiercely loyal to his teammates on the defensive line.
"If he makes it, he makes it. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. He’s not going to make or break us. If you don’t make or break us, you’re irrelevant to us," Sapp said. "We’re a unit. We’re a unit that runs together. I see my eight. My eight’s been here since I first walked in the door and I said, ‘There’s my eight.’ That’s what I’ve looked at and said, ‘There’s my eight, I can win with those eight.’ And he never came into that picture until I walked into the job this morning. I don’t see him cracking that eight. I don’t make personnel decisions around here, but I don’t see him cracking my eight.”
– Safety Donovin Darius, who left practice last Thursday with a calf injury and did not play Saturday, said the injury is minor and expects to face St. Louis Friday night.
– Tackle Chad Slaughter (ankle) returned to practice. Safety Hiram Eugene had his left arm in a split and was scheduled to see a specialist Monday, Kiffin said.
– The Raiders went through tape of the 49ers game before lunch before turning their attention toward St. Louis, simulating a regular-season game week in terms of game plan meetings as closely as possible, Kiffin said.
– Kiffin wants to go through Tuesday's practice before determining a starting quarterback against St. Louis. Regulars will go deeper into the game than at any time in the preseason, but Kiffin said the starting quarterback against the Rams is not a lock to start the regular season against Detroit.
– LaMont Jordan bounced back well from his 8-carry, 67-yard performance against the 49ers, Kiffin said. Kiffin said he has had "constant conversations with him about being a great back and the way he needs to practice to do that."
Kiffin thinks the success behind a zone-blocking line probably came as a relief to Jordan.
"I'm sure he was thinking in his mind, 'Hey maybe I am a power gap scheme runner,' because he's run so much of that in his career," Kiffin said. "So I'm sure he felt really good and felt excited about the results he had."
– The last thing players see as they walk out under a canopy outside the locker room to the playing fields is a Raiders banner with the Kiffin slogan, "I'm in!"
By Sept. 1, of course, many will be out as the Raiders reach a 53-man roster. A good indication of players who are extreme longshots or on the bubble are those who share a locker.
Aside from third-round draft picks Mario Henderson and Johnnie Lee Higgins, both roster locks, virtually every other shared locker contains either one or two players who aren't likely to make the team.
Other shared lockers include Jeff Otis and Kyle Shotwell, Eric Frampton and and Johnathan Holland (I.R.), Marquice Cole and John Bowie, Rich Parson and Lauren Williams, Levonne Rowan and Kurt Campbell, Michael Bush and Oren O'Neil, Chris Morris and Tyler Fredrickson and Jared Clauss and Chris McFoy.
