Hey Silver and Black boys. I know it's been a while since my last post (or should I say my last full post) but I'm back in business. I've noticed you guys are caught up with camp, but I have a few thoughts to share on training camp thus far.

- 49ers practice: I can't believe we got the 49ers to have a joint practice with us. Last time I checked we had bad relations with them, but I'm glad to hear we'll be practicing against a team other than our own. Playing, or should I say practicing, with the niners is supposed to be uncompetitive. There's a laugh. In all reality, both Oakland and San Fran-sissy-co are going to be "practicing" with intensity out there. They're teams with a beef against each other which will lead to some hard contact, trash talk, and some mild swinging of the fists. Everyone will be treating this like it's a game.

But to the positives of the "practice". It'll give us (and the niners) some insight on the preseason game. I'd be more excited about this if it was a better team. I have no doubt that our defense will dismantle their offense. Whether Smith or Hill plays our starting D doesn't matter. They lack receiver talent (even with Isacc Bruce) which will give Asomugha some more camp interceptions. This will however give our run D a test against frank Gore. We also get to see how our offense fairs against one of the more highly rated defenses in the league. I guarantee Kiffin will be keeping an imaginary score in his head for which team is doing better.

-Ricky Brown: Ricky Brown has been opening eyes around camp. No one expected special teams man Ricky brown to be outperforming Williams, Thomas, and Hartwell. He's beating them not only in the pass game, but in the run game. He's been playing outside runs well and has even clogged some inside runs. What's even more astonishing, he's doing it with the first team defense. Could Brown be the missing third member of the Law Firm. To me the Law Firm is a speedy group of coverage savvy LB.  Williams wasn't the third member because of injury and Thomas wasn't because of lack luster performance. Brown is looking more and more like the third man. We'll get to see how Brown performs in a real game against the niners on the 6th.

-Dual position defender: Probably the third most astonishing piece of camp news is that Burgess is playing both end and outside LB. I know he's very capable of being a DE/LB hybrid, but he's always been a DE and is elite at it. Rob Ryan may be trying to work in trickery just like the offense is. The defense can do this in certain situations this year. With pass rushers Edwards and Spires (though he's having a weak camp) playing end, you can throw Burgess in at LB to add an effective blitz to a play. With three pass rushers coming at the QB, expect rushed throws to our pass heavy defense. Burgess has also been working in coverage. I'm not crossing my fingers, but if he does well enough in coverage, Burgess could throw offenses off. They may use an extra blocker if he lines up at LB. Meaning there's one less receiver and an extra defender to play the pass.

Since I'm talking about Burgess, I may as well talk about his progress as an end. Burgess is still having one of the best camps of anybody on this roster. He's been consistently getting through the blockers (even though one of them is Harris) and is doing well against the run. If Burgess stays healthy, he'll be a top-10 end this year.

-Offensive line: Don't worry this section will get to Grove, but not now. For now, I have to talk about the poor play of our tackles in camp. Harris is a consistent blocker. As in he consistently gets pushed away. If Isaiah Ekejiuba can push him two yards back, we're in trouble. He's been getting better in the pass, but Edwards and Burgess are still gliding past him. What's worse is that his backup Henderson is getting demolished. Kiffin is very disappointed in him. He lacks passion and conviction, has poor form, and needs to work on his footing. Maybe we shouldn't be asking McQuistan to take Green's job, but take Harris's job.

Now for the good news about our O-line. Grove is finally proving why the Raiders drafted him. He actually should beat out Wade. But, how long will his excellent play last? Grove is injury prone, and i don't expect him to go a whole year. Wade will be kept on roster for when the day he goes down. Morris will also stay on roster because he's the leading long-snapper and can play both guard and center. The inside of the O-Line will be just fine, but we'll be torn apart by outside rushes.

-Wide Receiver upsets: You know the receivers are working hard when Jonathan Holland is outperforming Schilens and Shields. You know they're working hard when Todd Watkins has been credited for being able to "catch everything thrown his way". You know they're working hard when Carter is outperforming Walker. You know they're working hard when Higgins is being kept around for more than punt returns. Point is, Russell is surrounded by weapons. Kiffin will have a hard time cutting any of the receivers mentioned. Shields's injury hasn't hampered him any in camp. There was word that he might not make roster because of Schilens's performance. But it seems both Shields and Schilens will be around. The receiving corps for Oakland is easily the most interesting position battle. I can't even really tell you to expect to make the roster other than the obvious Walker, Curry, Carter, and Higgins.

-Terdell Sands: Sands is the team favorite. Everyone cheered him when he passed his physical. People are giving him encouragement every time he does something good. Sands has been working hard to bring down his weight and bring up his muscle tone. He's been doing a good job getting some push on the O-Line. Sands has addressed the media on his work ethic and of his problems last season. I'm sorry about the short section about him, but I just feel he deserves mention.

-William Joesph: I've always thought the Joesph move seemed a bit fishy. After all he never saw much action with the Giants, and he was labeled a first-round bust. But hey, that's what they said about Robert Gallery. In Day 9 of camp (as I'm sure you've heard from raider76's consistent posts on training camp) Joesph showed some potential. He got behind the line to break up a run play. Kiffin was very excited about his performance on Day 9.

So, what can we expect of Joesph this season? Well, don't expect much. Joesph is a backup, nothing more. If one of the DT's needs a break, he could come in as part of the rotation. If you rotate Sands with him, you won't lose much of a beat. William can play the run just because he has some strength. Don't expect sacks from him, he's just not a pass rusher. We'll just have to watch preseason to see what he can really do.

-Nnamdi Asomugha: I have to mention Asomugha's amazing camp. It's Day 10 and I think he's had at least 1 INT per day. That's very impressive. Most of them would have went back for TD. So, maybe Hall isn't the only def. TD threat. Nnamdi's guaranteed to see more pass attempts his way this year. If his cap prowess holds up, he'll be getting a lot of INT on those few extra attempts.

-What to grasp from the niners joint-practice: Well the niners-raiders practice is over. Like I said there would be, there were a few scuffles. I counted three. Overall, we have some work to do. Hall was being beaten often by 49er receivers. He got beaten for two touchdowns. We can't have that happen come regular season. Otherwise, we'll have a new Fabian Washington. If he doesn't step it up, Nnamdi won't see any passes thrown to him.

Gerard Warren got a pick off a tipped Thomas Howard ball. Sam Williams showed some success against the run even though Robert Thomas is back to working with the first team. Huff seemed a little slow but is, nevertheless, having a good camp. Wilson didn't get much mention. Trevor Scott had a good practice. There were several times where he would have gotten sacks. Unfortunately, they were against a reserve tackle.

I'd like to speak of some offensive woes. The O-line continues to struggle. The line had trouble reading the blitzes of the 3-4 defense. Russell was under constant pressure and threw some bad passes because of it. I'd be willing to say that we could have another 06 line on hand this year.

There was some good offensive news. Javon played better getting open frequently. The problem was that Russell was under so much pressure, he never got many passes to him. McFadden tore away from Patrick Willis (defensive rookie of the year) on a very impressive run.

So what should we take from this joint practice session? The o-line needs a lot of work especially against aggressive 3-4's. Hall needs to work on his technique. Russell quickly needs to learn how to play under pressure.

Just some interesting news from camp. Expect some occasional updates and stuff.

This KA1Z3R saying it's great to be back and rocking the blog.