What will Raiders players be doing to begin off-season workouts?

In a nut shell, what the Raiders players will be doing is hitting the weight room. They will, for the first time this off-season, be able to access the Raiders' facility and have the expertise and guidance of the team's strength and conditioning staff.

Each NFL team's strength and conditioning coach does things a little differently. While most players have been working out on their own (or they should be), strength and conditioning coach Al Miller and assistant strength and conditioning coach John Greico have a structured program put in place to maximize strength and proper preparation while minimizing injury.

"First thing is to get the base laid," Coach Miller told Rebecca Corman of Raiders.com. "What we've got to be able to do is what we call work-capacity phase. So if we get that done with everybody, then that's the first big step that we've got to do. Hopefully they should have done that already in the programs we've given them to start doing, but if not, that is the first step that we've got to do - see exactly where we are. Hopefully we'll get that done the first of this next week. We'll ascertain exactly what they have been doing and go from there.

"We basically test them on the two ingredients that are going to make up the whole big nut of exactly of what we do and that's going to be a complex exercise, or six exercises they do in succession with a percentage of their body weight. That'll tell us their strength levels and any joint impediments they may have and any deficiencies they may have and the ability to be able to have a work capacity. The other thing is the running and we just run tempo runs. They're just 100 yards, pretty much the same of what we've done at other times. Seeing where they are because turn around real quick and what, five, six, seven weeks, somewhere like that, and we're starting OTAs."

To see more of what Al Miller had to say, click here

As exciting as it is for the fans and the players to see the team officially beginning to prepare for the next season, it is also exciting for the coaches. It has been nearly four months since these players have gotten together. For some of them, they will meet their new teammates for the first time. It is a pretty exciting time.

"Here I am, been in this thing since 1970, and it's still Christmas to a kid," Said Miller. "It's still exciting. I enjoy the [players]. I enjoy the work, the camaraderie between the [players] and watching what they can do. And just seeing the different personalities that we have in there and watching them get a little better, watching them try hard and knowing full well what it's going to bring forth if they do it right and do what we ask."

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