The Oakland Raiders 2018 Season Thread

[raider5]

Better look at the Warren smack

 

[kayzeezay]

Donald Penn taking a pay cut yeah ok Gruden

 

[mr jordan04]

Mack gonna hold out all camp?

 

[raider5]

Donald Penn taking a pay cut yeah ok Gruden

Yeah i don’t see that **** playing out so well. Reports are Kolton Miller is holding up koo, but idk if you wanna trust your QB who just signed for hella money to a rookie LT.

 

[raider5]

Mack gonna hold out all camp?

I’m not buying into these reports about the Raiders taking offers on a trade. Maybe they are just to see his worth.

But I do think he holds all of camp. From the Raiders perspective they might be waiting to see how the Donald deal goes down. From the Mack perspective - why put yourself through camp and risk injury when you’re trying to lock in a new contract?

 

[mr jordan04]

Sounds stupid to trade him. You essentially have him for his year, and you can franchise tax for 2 years right?

But it wouldn’t surprise me if he does get traded because Gruden seems to be on that it’s my way or the highway attitude

 

[njavier03]

Gruden has no involvement. He said he’s letting Reggie handle it.

 

[albooboo]

Mack wants his contract backloaded, so when they move to Vegas he can cash out. Since Nevada has no income tax.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

**** guys....

I'm about to commit to the Vegas stadium.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Five matchups to watch when the Raiders open the preseason against the Lions

By Ted Nguyen 5h ago

3

The Raiders’ first preseason game is almost here and the team is eager to see how the dozens of new faces on the roster will perform and meld together as a unit. Rookie defensive linemen Maurice Hurst and P.J. Hall can start to prove the Raiders were right when taking chances on them in the draft while veterans like Martavis Bryant will fight to carve bigger roles for themselves as the regular season approaches.

Players don’t earn anything from winning a preseason game. They earn their coach’s attention, more reps, and can climb the depth chart by dominating their respective matchups when the lights are on. Here are five matchups to look for when the Raiders play the Lions at the Coliseum on Friday night:

Raiders DT Maurice Hurst vs. Lions G Frank Ragnow
If you followed my work during the draft process, you know that I loved Hurst as a prospect. His lightning-fast get-off and short-area quickness jumped out in his college tape and made him a perfect fit for defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s aggressive single-gap defense.

In the joint practices with the Lions, I thought he played above average. Hurst did flash and get the occasional pressure or knifed in because of his get-off, but it looked like he had difficulty adjusting to NFL speed and physicality at times. This doesn’t mean the Raiders should panic at all considering that it’s only Week 1 of the preseason, but the Raiders probably want to see him make some plays against Lions rookie guard Frank Ragnow.

Ragnow was the 20th pick of the first round as a center but has since moved to guard. He’s currently a starter, so Hurst won’t have a lot of time against him, but it’ll be good for both players to match up with each other. Ragnow is a very physical player and is fundamentally sound. Hurst will have to win with quickness and his hand usage.

Guenther is going to have some fun drawing up blitzes, pressures, stunts with Hurst and Key. These guys could jump gaps in a flash.

(That was 2017 Key btw) pic.twitter.com/OB7QW5hEIJ

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) May 3, 2018

Raiders DT P.J. Hall/DE Fadol Brown vs. Lions’ second-team offensive line
Hall was seen as a project with incredible physical tools coming out of Sam Houston State. I didn’t expect much of him in the joint practices, especially since he was just recently off of the PUP list, but he made some noise when he was inserted into the lineup on Day 2 with the Lions.

In a 9-on-7 period, Hall got some early reps and just obliterated some double teams from the Lions starting offensive line. The force with which he came off the ball was shocking. He didn’t dominate every play. He might have gotten a little extra juice from the excitement of getting to face starters from another team, but he definitely flashed.

Brown was also a pleasant surprise, especially during the 1-on-1 drills. He won most of his reps against the Lions’ second-team line and had some nice rushes during team drills.

Both Hall and Brown were moved throughout the line. They played inside and outside, so it’s difficult to single out for matchups against them; but they’ll likely get to play for a good amount of time against the Lions’ second line, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can continue their strong play during the actual game.

P.J. Hall is a different animal the closer he lines up to the ball. Lined up in a 1T for most of the shrine game and dominated d1 comp. pic.twitter.com/0C5pUgMw2I

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) May 8, 2018

Raiders WR Martavis Bryant vs. Lions CB DeShawn Shead
So far at least, it seems that Bryant has put any of the possible suspension question marks behind him, but now he has to focus on the playbook. Coach Jon Gruden called him out a bit by saying that Bryant “has to master the offense and be more versatile.”

Bryant is currently working with the second team. He’s behind Jordy Nelson and Amari Cooper, as expected. Ryan Switzer is a true slot, and though Bryant could line up in the slot at times, he’s not going to run the same types of routes that Switzer will be asked to do.

There isn’t much doubt that Bryant will have a role as a deep threat in this offense considering the Raiders traded a third-round pick to get him from Pittsburgh. But if he wants a bigger role and for Gruden to draw up some more plays for him, Bryant has to perform in the preseason.

Lions cornerback DeShawn Shead looks to be the frontrunner to start opposite of Darius Slay, but the competition isn’t over yet. It wouldn’t surprise me if Lions coach Matt Patricia leaves Shead in the game for most of the first quarter to get a better look at him.

Bryant had his best day in practice in Day 2 of the joint practices. He has to keep the momentum going by showing that he knows the playbook and it would help him if he could use that world-class speed to get behind Shead.

Raiders Film Room: Can Martavis Bryant be more than a third option? He'll need to put in some work to be more than a deep shot receiver.

Link: https://t.co/Jf2l60AqpJ pic.twitter.com/FobAFf6I1y

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) May 16, 2018

Raiders LT Kolton Miller vs. Lions DE Anthony Zettel/OLB Devon Kennard
Miller has as good of an athletic profile as you’re going to find among left tackles, but fundamentally, he is raw. I will say that after watching him in OTAs, minicamp, and training camp, he’s much further along now than I thought he would be.

He’s handled the mental side of the game exceptionally and has gotten praise from Gruden for knowing the playbook and even the late adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Physically, he’s gained some weight and made some progress cleaning up his technique. But the Raiders probably will not be comfortable if he’s the Week 1 starter at left tackle.

Miller won some reps in practice during 1-on-1s but also has some really bad whiffs against Bruce Irvin and Arden Key. Lions Pro Bowl defensive end Ziggy Ansah doesn’t look like he’ll play Friday, so Miller will get to go against Zettel or Kennard for a series or so. Neither of them are near the level of Asnah.

Though Miller is the current starter while Donald Penn continues to rehab from last year’s foot injury, and though the first-team unit probalby won’t play much, Miller likely will get a few drives because Gruden and his staff needs a good evaluation on him, especially with the uncertainty with Penn’s health and contract situation. If Miller wants to be a serious contender to start Sept. 10 against the Rams, he doesn’t need to just play well against Zettel or Kennard, he needs to dominate them. Because if he can’t, what prayer does he have of blocking Von Miller or Joey Bosa?

Raiders S Erik Harris vs. Lions TEs Luke Willson/Hakeem Valles
Harris could be the biggest surprise of the Raiders offseason. An undrafted free agent who signed late last season for special teams could potentially be the Raiders’ starting safety. Harris’ hard work and playmaking ability caught the eye of Gruden in OTAs.

What’s also impressive is how fast he came back from fracturing his finger. He hardly missed any practice time and will play the game with a cast on. Toughness and availability are two traits that Gruden has constantly harped on, so Harris winning huge points already.

Marcus Gilchrist hasn’t practiced since injuring his foot last week in practice and will likely be out Friday night. The Raiders know what they have in Reggie Nelson, so Harris will likely get a bulk of the reps in the first quarter and maybe even the second quarter. In Guenther’s defense, he’ll be asked to match up with tight ends out of a two-deep alignment a lot, so he’ll be matched up with Willson early and Valles later.

If he shows that he has the ability to match up with the Lions tight ends, he could take an early lead in the safety competition for the spot opposite of Karl Joseph.

(Top photo: Jeff Chiu/AP)

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Would any of you be interested in reading Ted's article on why he joined the Athletic? He details his journey of working past having his stomach removed for precautionary reasons and how it led to writing about sports.

 

[The_Isomotion31]

Game 1 of the preseason. This is when I stop looking at the stats and ish and be a fan. SUPERBOWL. Call me delusional, call me insane, call me stupid, call me someone who "who doesn't know football". Just don't forget to call me a member of the ONLY NATION...THE RAIDER NATION.

If only this coffee cup was something breakable....F**k it. Throw it anyway. RAAAAAIIIIDDDERRRRS

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Nguyen: Why I joined The Athletic, a belated version on the anniversary of the surgery that sent me on this path

By Ted Nguyen Aug 9, 2018

126

In the NFL, even the most meticulous of game plans can go awry. If you can’t adjust, you lose. In life, you may think you have things planned out, but the universe has a way of reminding humankind that we really can’t control much. What we can control is how we respond to the unexpected.

Two years ago, I discovered my genetic code would be responsible for disrupting my game plan. A gene called CDH1 presented me with an unexpected quandary. Essentially, having this gene put me at an 80 percent risk of getting stomach cancer. Option A was to keep getting screened for stomach cancer every six months for the rest of my life. However, screening for this cancer is very unreliable and often, when it’s caught, it’s too late.

Option B was to get my stomach completely removed. You can’t get stomach cancer if you don’t have a stomach. And yes, you can live a relatively normal life without a stomach. The small community of people that took Option B call this the “new norm.” It takes time to recover and readjust your daily life, but it’s doable.

After watching multiple members of my family suffer and lose to this disease, I chose Option B. I was young and fit and figured my body could handle a recovery of this magnitude much better than if I were 40 and had the surgery.

I’ve always had the naïve feeling of invincibility that comes with youth, but in the days leading up to surgery, I felt like I was facing my own mortality. My stomach became a ticking time bomb, but I couldn’t see how much time was left. CDH1 was an extremely rare genetic mutation, so why did I have it? Couldn’t I have a cool genetic mutation like someone from “X-Men” or something?

The final stage of the seven stages of grief is acceptance and hope. When I finally got there, I was inspired not to live a life dictated by fear. I decided after my surgery, I would pursue a career that I would truly love — sports journalism.

I didn’t have much real experience or the right connections, but I thought I could add a unique perspective to the field. I had my own blog and slowly gained some attention, but I wasn’t making much money off of it. While recovering, I had to relearn how to eat. There are few things in this world that I enjoy more than eating, but eating was now painful and became a chore. I had to eat more calories but there just wasn’t enough time in the day. It would take me two hours to eat two eggs.

I started watching film and writing while eating to kill two birds with one stone. My daily schedule would consist of agonizing food consumption and content creation. But because of it, I started to publish a lot of work and slowly started to gain recognition. Fortunately, established media members like The Athletic’s Vic Tafur would occasionally retweet my articles.

There were setbacks. My body became unrecognizable to myself. I never wanted to look into a mirror. Weights that I previously crushed in the gym became immovable objects. There were times when I felt as if I made a mistake because my career growth wasn’t happening as fast as I wanted it to. I almost gave up on the dream and accepted a corporate job, but I decided to give myself more time.

One day, one of my followers pitched to Tafur that he should take me to Raiders training camp to help him with coverage there. To my surprise, he thought it was a good idea and followed through. There I was introduced to media members like Jimmy Durkin, who would eventually become an editor with The Athletic Bay Area. Going to my first training camp was an awesome experience, but I didn’t think anything else would come of it.

Back to my regular routine. One hundred chews per bite. Wait till it slowly crawled down to where it needs to go. Watch film. Write. Eating was slowly becoming easier and faster. My weight room numbers started increasing. More people were reading my work. More websites asked me to write for them.

Slowly but surely, I was making progress. Then one day, I got a call from Jimmy. The Athletic wanted to me to do some freelance work for them covering the Raiders and 49ers. Sheil Kapadia from the soon-to-launch The Athletic Philadelphia site was in the San Francisco office and brought my name up in a meeting with Tim Kawakami. I jumped at the opportunity.

Though I was freelancing, I didn’t have experience working full time with any major publication. Jimmy, Tim and The Athletic founders Adam Hansmann and Alex Mather took a chance on me and eventually hired me as a full-time NFL staff writer. I believe in their vision of putting writers first and not focusing on click-bait types of articles. Film study and strategic breakdowns aren’t flashy or traditional, so they need a publication that values in-depth analysis over headlines.

Finding out you have to have major surgery at age 27 wasn’t part of my game plan, but I’ve made my decisions and adjustments, and so far they’ve worked out. My doctors dissected my dismembered stomach and found cancer in there after surgery. So I got the surgery done just at the right time and the levels were small enough to where I didn’t have to do chemotherapy. Whew … that was a close call.

Usually, writers write their “Why I joined The Athletic” pieces immediately after joining The Athletic, but I never did because I was entrenched in the NFL Draft at the time I was hired full time. Last week was my two-year anniversary for my total gastrectomy surgery, so this week the timing just felt appropriate.

I joined The Athletic because this came at the right time, and I don’t believe there is a better place to work and better people to work with. In the days leading to my surgery, I had no idea how my life was going to change. Two years later, I feel as healthy as ever and at times, I’m still in disbelief that I get to write about football for a place that values my niche analysis.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Game day: Five things to watch in the Raiders’ preseason opener, starting with Kolton Miller’s debut

By Vic Tafur 5h ago

6

The first preseason game. It’s exciting for a few minutes, the first look at the Raiders’ new players under lights, and then things slow down a lot until the third or fourth quarter, when the unknown players start fighting for roster spots like junkyard dogs.

Only this year, when the Raiders open at the Coliseum tonight against the Lions, there aren’t as many scraps to fight over. Very few no-names have a chance to make the regular-season roster.

“No sleepers this year,” one veteran player, smiling, said this week. “The veterans took this mother over.”

Last season, the Raiders kept eight of their nine draft picks plus undrafted rookie linebacker Nicholas Morrow. Two years ago, four undrafted rookies made the 53-man roster.

But there are new wrinkles this season, as Jon Gruden brought in 24 veterans after he took over as coach.

“We brought in so many vets,” tight end Lee Smith said. “Established pros. There is competition at every spot, but a lot of guys have their role established already. There will be draft picks getting cut this year, which is the way it should be in the NFL.

“That’s the point where you want your team to be at.”

So, enjoy undrafted bull Chris Warren III, and linebacker Jason Cabinda should be on your radar as well, but otherwise you will need some non-sleeper things to watch Friday night.

Kolton Miller facing live action
The Raiders have asked veteran left tackle Donald Penn, almost back from offseason foot surgery, to take a pay cut. The implication there is that first-round pick Miller is ready to take over if Penn says no and is cut.

Not so fast, as the great comedian Lee Corso would say.

Miller has had some growing pains at training camp going against Raiders pass rushers Bruce Irvin and Arden Key, and was pancaked in the joint practice against the Lions. Gruden and offensive line coach Tom Cable love talking Miller up, and there is no question he would win an offensive line broad jump competition, but I am not sure he is physically strong enough yet to hold up as a starting left tackle in the NFL.

Tonight will be a good first, real test.

Have Raiders really improved at linebacker?
Right now it looks like Marquel Lee will start inside, flanked by newcomers Tahir Whitehead and Emmanuel Lamur, with veteran Derrick Johnson trying to hold off Morrow and Cabinda for a role on passing downs. That list of names doesn’t really do much to calm Raiders fans down, does it? Especially all those fans who scream, cry and hold up picket signs for a linebacker every draft.

Whitehead has a great motor, and both he and Lamur made some plays up the field against the Lions in the practices this week, but there were also times when they looked like Curtis Lofton, Miles Burris or Malcolm Smith chasing behind running backs and tight ends after a catch.

Lamur is defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s guy from Cincinnati, and any faith you have in this unit goes back to Guenther. So, hold out hope.

The new (or old?) Doug Martin
Skeptics rolled their eyes when Gruden talked up the former Bucs running back. And then they spit up their coffee when I reported early this summer that Martin would share carries with Marshawn Lynch.

Well, if those skeptics showed up at training camp in Napa, they had to be impressed with Martin, He has shown some juice, with explosive moves and more power than a 5-foot-9, 223-pound guy should have.

Martin should even catch some balls out of the backfield this season.

Is he the guy that averaged 4.9 yards a carry and ran for 1,400 yards in 2015? Probably not. But he sure doesn’t look like the human target that was only good for 2.9 yards a carry each of the past two years.

Rookie defensive linemen
Key has not only routinely beat Miller with a spin move in drills, he even beat Pro Bowl guard Kelechi Osemele with an inside move. Some guys just have a nose for the quarterback, and Key has already unlocked a role for himself backing up ends Irvin and Khalil Mack, whenever Mack ends his holdout.

Fifth-round pick Maurice Hurst has a great first step inside and was overshadowing second-round pick P.J. Hall — until the last week or so. Hall plays lower to the ground, but the defensive tackle has some real power.

“He’s a hard guy to block,” Gruden said this week of Hall. “He’s what we thought he was. He’s a powerful guy. He doesn’t look like the biggest defensive tackle in the league, but he’s a powerful, stout, quick, penetrating inside presence that we need here.”

Is something really Cooking?
EJ Manuel has been taking the second-team snaps at quarterback for a good week now, after Connor Cook did at the offseason workouts and the start of camp. But Connor Cook is listed as No. 2 on the depth chart, which Gruden doesn’t care about but does sign off on before it’s typed up and put in the press release.

I thought Manuel was solid as the No. 2 quarterback last season and I have never seen it with Cook. But Gruden is pushing the third-year player hard, and it’s possible Manuel opened the door again with a three-interception day against the Lions in Tuesday’s practice.

Cook continues to throw late, but he doesn’t have any interceptions yet this camp, so there is that.

“He’s made great strides,” Gruden said of Cook after practice on Wednesday. “Since he stepped foot here in Napa, he hasn’t turned the ball over. He’s made good decisions. He audibled two or three times today to big plays. He’s throwing the ball short, medium and deep accurately and he’s showed really good command, and this will be a really good test for him Friday night. He’ll get a good amount of playing time.”

 

[ThePeoplesChamp_]

He’s a good follow on Twitter as well

 

[sohi 23]

Anybody at the game tonight?

 

[ThePeoplesChamp_]

My seats for this season

 

[kayzeezay]

Kolton already a bust

 

[raider5]

Kolton already a bust

Penn like: “what paycut?”

Learning moment for Kolton. Hope he can bounce back.

 

[HNL HI]

Marshawn still got speed

 

[raider5]

Marshawn still got speed

Where you been at my dude? Hope life’s treating you straight.

 

[raider5]

I wanna see more of Pineiro. I don’t wanna score TD’s

 

[laker4lifeman]

Really impressed with Cook. He looked real bad in the past maybe he can be an ok backup now.

 

[raider5]

Really impressed with Cook. He looked real bad in the past maybe he can be an ok backup now.

I hope so. Maybe Gruden can max out his ability.

 

[raider5]

Karl Joseph doing the LBJ/KMack sack celebration