MVN: Most Valuable Network

Oakland Raiders head coach, Lane Kiffin, wasn't mincing words when he talked about the morning session of training camp day 6.  The first edition of Tuesday's two a day was full of physical plays and a hit that forced one player to take the rest of the day off.  It's said that the Raiders don't tackle in training camp, but that doesn't preclude them from laying hits and 'forgetting' not to tackle.  According to Kiffin, and I agree, it's good that a team that was so poor in tackling last season is already fired up and working to get better at it, even if it gets them in trouble from time to time.

This is what Kiffin had to say about the morning practice:

"It was probably our most physical practice of camp.  We were in short yardage and goal line situations.  We ran about 85 team plays today.  It was good to sting them a little bit this morning.  I thought they responded well.  They were physical, and it was good to see Big O, [Oren] O’Neal, show up in short yardage and goal line and really go after our linebackers today."

We've all seen Oren O'Neal level players in his way last season.  All indications are that he's going to continue that level of play and even improve on it this season.  Kiffin gladly remenisced about last season and gave his assessment of O'Neal when asked.

"He is extremely physical.  He started off on special teams for us and continued to play more.  There were a few games, for instance at Kansas City when we went there and won, where he actually played more than Justin [Griffith].  He is very physical.  You see him every day going against our linebackers at full speed.  He brings a lot to our team.  He doesn’t say a word.  He’s never going to give you a speech or talk to the guys.  There are some times where he won’t talk the whole day, but he lets his play do the talking.  He is very valuable to us in special teams, as well as at fullback."

When asked if O'Neal and Justin Griffith will be rotating this season, Kiffin said that they will, but it will depend on all of the factors of the game and opponent as to how they will be rotated.  Kiffin also made a point to say that the fullbacks do different types of things better, just like his stable of runningbacks.

Michael Bush got a little praise from Kiffin as well when asked about his 'Thunder and Lightening' playmakers.

"Yeah, it was good to see Michael [Bush] today.  That is the most we have done as far as allowing him to lower his pads.  We don’t want to bring guys to the ground, but he looked really good in short yardage and goal line.  Hopefully he carries that over to the games."

Bush is hoped to be the Raiders' short yardage back this season, meaning that if you're in a 'TD only' fantasy league, he's going to be at least a mid-round selection for your draft.  Of course, that all relies on him actually showing Kiff & Co. that he can do the job well.

Speaking of physical players, Kiffin was asked about his thoughts on his big free agent safety, Gibril Wilson.

"He has looked great.  He is really showing a lot of leadership in the huddle and in the classroom.  As I said before with Michael Huff being a shadow right now to him, he is paying off extremely well for us with his play, but also with his affect on the rest of the secondary."

The play of the day was probably a hit that Jarrod Cooper put on backup tight end John Madsen.  Madsen was going across the middle and Cooper leveled him on a helmet to helmet pop.  Madsen was visibly shaken on the play and fumbled what was a reception.  Since the hit was a high hit, Kiffin didn't mind that so much.

"There was the first play, which I was fine with.  He hit the guy and it was straight up.  We need that. We need to be more physical on defense. I've got no problem with that and our young players need to see that. A guy like Cooper, as well as a guy like Gibril, they need to bring it like that so our young players see that.  There was a second play where he was down at the guy's legs. We don't want that obviously. We want them to protect their teammates."

Cooper's later hit was on rookie tight end Darrell Strong, which drew the ire of Kiffin and defensive backs coach, Darren Perry.  Madsen would watch the evening practice from the sidelines (probably due to the bell ringing).  Cooper was also credited with a few good quotes:

"You got grown men out here playing football, bumping into each other.  Somebody's going to get mad. And today, I got mad. Yesterday, somebody else got mad, but I took the mad role today. It worked."

"I got a little heated on the second one.  I probably shouldn't have tackled the rookie but, first of all, he's a rookie so I'm not worried about him. But you got to be smart."

"I'm looking for DeShaun Foster, make sure you put that on there.  You know we used to play in Carolina together, we used to fight all the time."

Foster is now with the 49er's and Cooper can't wait to practice across the line from him prior to their preseason meeting Aug. 8th, or what it's being marketed as: 08/08/08.

Safety Greg Wesley sat out the day due to back spasms.  Grant Irons (LB) sat out also with a strained hamstring, while corner, John Bowie injured his knee in the morning and didn't return to practice during the evening session.  The following took scheduled practices off: Tommy Kelly (morning), Javon Walker (night), Jake Grove (night), Fred Wakefield (night).

The most troubling injury came from JaMarcus Russell.  He missed the evening practice after his right elbow came down on the helmet of rookie Darren McFadden.  He was seen shaking his throwing arm during the morning session and after practice had his elbow in ice for the rest of the day.

Kiffin said that he tried to practice during the evening session, but his arm tightened up so they erred on the side of caution and that if it had been a game, he would've played.  Kiffin and the training staff don't see it as anything serious and referred to the injury as Russell getting 'nicked' up.

In Russell's place was Andrew Walter, who in both practices reportedly lit it up.  Marques Tuiasosopo apparently took second string snaps with Walter taking first.  The offensive line got good reviews on the day as well.  Apparently, Russell only had to escape the rush once in the morning (not the play he injured his elbow on), and Walter had time to beat Hall and Asomugha on pass plays.

When Kiffin was asked about the competition between Walter and Tui, which was worded to ask him if there were a clear number 2 and number 3 already, this is what he said:

"No, we have a competition for number two between those guys.  They will both play a ton in pre-season to see who can move us and who can make really good decisions.  The backup quarterback will be decided by who takes care of the ball the best."

Ricky Brown was still taking first string snaps at the strong side linebacker spot, Derrick Burgess was also playing a little linebacker as well.  TFDS favorite, Todd Watkins, is drawing so much attention that the press had to ask Kiffin about him as well.  When asked what he liked about Watkins, Kiffin responded,

"He has made a number of plays for us down the field on balls.  When we played him at SC his junior year, he had a great junior season, and he beat us on a deep ball.  The only deep ball we had given up all year was to him.  He does make a lot of down the field plays and he’s a great guy.  He has been here the whole off-season and he is working hard."

Watkins has to be one of the clear stars of camp so far.  Fellow camp stud, Drew Carter, was also seen taking quite a few first string snaps.  Jon Alston is taking snaps as Shane Lechler's last line of defense during punts, a job that Stuart Schwiegert used to do.

Tight end Zach Miller is also showing that he'll be a tough target to stop this season.  Besides catching everything thrown to him, he's also finding an easy time getting open.  Kiffin thinks that if the line was better at protecting the QB last season, Miller would've caught at least 15 more passes.  That's pretty high praise for a guy that bested all rookie tight ends last season in receptions.

Out of all of the groups, the offensive line and the linebackers had the least satisfying meals last night.  Both groups were taken to a Mexican restaurant down the street from the hotel, while other groups enjoyed some of the Napa area's famous fine dining.  According to reports, some of the players were still feeling it this morning.

Kiffin was asked if he thought the team would be sluggish during the morning practice after their big dinners the night before.  According to his answer, it looks like Kiffin is going to test this group as much as possible to find out which players can handle it.

"Yeah, that was part of us changing the schedule.  That was all done for a reason, and we wanted to see how they would respond to a different schedule.  Sometimes you get in a routine, but everything is not a routine...there are going to be different things that are going to happen to throw you off.  So it was really good to see.  They ate a little bit later than they usually eat, and they probably ate more than they normally eat.  Especially the defensive line, I saw the bill.  But they came out and responded, that was a good test and I was happy with the results."

Batman Returns

Alright, so TFDS didn't bother with the frustration of interviewing the Dark Knight again.  I don't think I could've dealt with that again.  Reader Mark Shelton wanted to correct us from when we made the statement,

"Raider Nation is known for many outlandish and menacing costumes during Raiders events and games.  There’s a Raider, a Gorilla, Darth Vader, but I don’t think there’s a Batman…"

He found that Batman, at least it might be him, IS a Raider fan last year at the Dolphins game and here's the proof:

Just looking for Raider Robin here at TFDS