What a crazy day to be an Oakland Raiders fan. Nnamdi leaves, but not before supplying everyone with a glimmer of hope he may be returning; Jared Gaither is thought to be signed, then he is, and now he almost is, and the Raiders were on the practice field to boot. I planned to write something in-depth and thoughtful about Nnamdi right now, but I am wiped out and unfortunately I do not have the same luxury of time as I had the previous two days. I'll have to get to that later.
In the meantime, I thought I could set the table for the day and start a new thread for y'all to knock yourselves out in.
Most of the following information was gleaned from the wonderfully insightful tweets of Jerry McDonald and Vittorio Tafur.
- Jerry McDonald reported that he heard from a league source that the Raiders were $14.9 million over the cap as late as last week. That means there must be some serious renegotiating going on that we are not hearing about. The only player whose contract cap number dance has been made public is Wimbley.
- The most alarming news of the day was this tweet by McDonald:
- Zach Miller situation still a mystery. Nothing leaking about other teams. Do Raiders have him locked up? Teammate says he's not so sure.
- I'll still be shocked if Miller ends up anywhere, but Oakland, but the way Al Davis was throwing out huge contracts before the lockout I am surprised that it would appear they are playing hardball with Zach a bit. Could it be that that foot injury from last year has teams worried about his long term prognosis? Maybe it is just the infusion of good young tight ends in the league devaluing the tight end position. Still, that position is not devalued on the Raiders. Miller is not just the best tight end by leaps and bounds on the team, but its best receiver.
- Everyone who has covered training camp seems to be remarking on how fast and intense the practices are. Taiwan Jones seems to get the worst of it. Ro' clocked him on Friday. Cooper Carlisle also got a little extra curricular.
- How is it that we have not hear of Lamarr Houston not getting into any fights yet? By his third practice last year he already had been in roughly 27 fights. ...Almost as many as Cable.
- Reports of the passing game didn't sound particularly sharp.
- DHB and Bruce Campbell still are sitting out practice and ol' Bruce had an ice pack on his knee. Odd. I don't think those two need to spend any time together. They underachieverness may multiply.
- Rookie David Ausberry has been playing tight end, and he hasn't looked good yet.
- Richard Gordon has hands made for blocking. At least that's what his pass catching would lead one to believe. His pass catching led to the tweet of the day by Tafur:
- That loud thud you just heard in Oakland was Boller's pass off rookie TE Richard Gordon's hands
- But that tweet didn't make up for this one:
- To be clear, Gaither wouldn't be here if they didn't agree to terms
- Unless he was talking about the terms of a physical, he was wrong.