Full house for Raiders as they open OTA's

With most teams, there are a few players who choose to skip OTA's for various reasons. But this Raiders team isn't in a typical situation. They have more new players than they have returning players and with all the new faces, it's all hands on deck from the jump.

There is one caveat to that as Kyle Padron and Deonte Williams are no allowed to attend OTA's due to their college classes not being complete. Outside of that, everyone was onboard this ship.

Usually those who skip out are veterans whose roster spots are secure and would prefer to work out on their own. For the Raiders, it was guys like Sebastian Janikowski who doesn't typically get much out of OTA's, but even he was here.

It's an exciting time for this team. So many new faces and so much unknown. Even a guy like Janikowski wants to be here to see it begin to take shape.

"I think that just goes to show the type of guys that we're bringing into the program here," said Allen. "These guys have done a great job all the way throughout the offseason program. I think we've had about 98 percent attendance throughout the offseason program for the first five weeks. I think it's important that we're all out here, I think it's important that we're all getting the work and we're doing this thing as a team."

As far as those who were here but not participating, there was just one player - Josh Cribbs -- who came out onto the field halfway through practice and watched as his teammates ran routes and fielded punts. He is still recovering from a torn meniscus he suffered last season. He said as much in conference call after the team acquired him last week.

"We play our first game in September or August and it's barely June," Cribbs said of his injury status. "We're not lining up to play football. If we were lining up to play football in June then it would be a hot topic. I will be ready to play football when it's time to play football and I think that is the important thing."

Others who hurt themselves during practice and couldn't finish were cornerback Tracy Porter (calf), rookie tight end Nick Kasa (hamstring), and linebacker Miles Burris (knee). None are thought to be serious at this time but we'll hopefully know more later.