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Thursday, May 20, 2010

OTA's.....Just Practice Baby!

Big thanks to Jerry McDonald, the tweet-maniac who keeps Raider Nation up to speed on every play from the OTA's and training camp. I love it when my Blackberry chirps and it's yet another tweet from Jerry telling us what just happened, even better when it's a tweet about DHB catching a pass. While I'm on the Twitter topic, thanks to the Oakland Raiders players who participate in updating the fans after practices and workouts. The most active are, tyvonbranch, Mr.53 (T.Howard), Ekejiuba50, JayRichardson98, MikeMitchell34, j_holland7, QuentinGroves52, and mariohenderson, some other notables on the Twitter tip but are relatively quiet are nnamdi_asomugha, murph918, dmcfadden20, Chris_Johnson37, big_cel (Marcel Reece), and JasonCampbell17. Damn, I'm hungry for some Raider football, the buzz is in the air that something is turning for the better.......stay tuned Nation.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

THANK GOD FOR A DRAFT THAT MADE SENSE

Wow, one year later and here we are Raider Nation, looking much better than we did at this time a year ago. JaMarcus Russell has been given his walking papers, Rolando McClain and Lamarr Houston were added via the draft to a defense that is young, hungry, and fast, Jason Campbell was added at the cheap price of a 4th rounder in 2012.......all of this points to positive progress for the team. My favorite additions though, are Hue Jackson and Mike Waufle. Jackson, a quarterbacks coach from the Ravens, brings an impressive resume that includes the shaping of Joe Flacco, who has made Ravens fans forget about Troy Smith. Jackson will coordinate the Raider offense, which was close to last in almost all categories last year due to inexperience at WR, a patchwork O-line, and QB play that was, kindly, subpar (with the exception to every QB on the roster not named JaMarcus), but Jackson will have some new toys to work with in Veldheer and Bruce Campbell on the line and Campbell at QB, along with Cartwright and Bennett in the backfield (someone is going to get cut here I think). I think the general concensus is that we will see a more versitile and broader playbook now, no need to water it down for JaMarcus any longer. The Raiders will still be a run-first team for sure, Michael Bush I think is poised for a breakout year while DMC will have to prove he is durable enough to garner more carries and tough enough to break a tackle or two. With a playbook consisting of heavy running and play-action passing coupled with the insertion of more versitile audibles and an improved O-line for Campbell to work behind, the offense can only improve.
Defensively, the Raiders made a great step forward drafting McClain at #8 and Houston in the 2nd round. Oakland is going to have a better pass rush so we shouldn't see Chris Johnson abused so often while opposing QB's have time to find the guy not covered by Nnamdi. While Kirk Morrison was a great hometown talent, he wasn't a true MLB, but McClain is. Head Coach Tom Cable stated that, "this guy came back to us as a coach on the field", which I interpret as a skilled leader in the LB corps of a defense, something the Raiders needed. Oakland will be better outfitted to stop the run and get a good pass rush now, with Seymour leading the line and McClain running the LB's and Nnamdi taking charge of the secondary. Oh the secondary, I love this group of Raiders, I just wonder how we can get Nnamdi, Branch, Huff, and Mitchell on the field at the same time.....3-3-5 anyone?