After one day of non-contact in shells, the Raiders players were back in pads. They had been in pads for three straight days heading into their day off Wednesday and took it easy on their day back.
NFL officials were present at practice for the first time. They threw one flag all practice for a false start (didn't see who it was). After practice they had a conference with the media to explain all the rule changes, including the ousting of the tuck rule. They will be in camp until Sunday.
Sit outs
Dennis Allen said after practice yesterday that he expected Jacoby Ford, Stacy McGee, and Lucas Nix all back soon. Only McGee returned to action today and he wasn't able to finish. He had a visible limp in pass rushing drills and they eventually took him out. Myles Wade also was unable to finish practice and his injury leaves the defensive tackle position thin once again.
The other defensive tackles not practicing are Pat Sims, Johnny Jones, and Brandon Bair. Lamarr Houston was also not practicing after not finishing practice yesterday.
The rest are the usuals. Miles Burris, Menelik Watson, Kaluka Maiava, Alex Parsons, Billy Boyko, Conner Vernon, Brandian Ross, and Latavius Murray.
Standouts
We had a couple interceptions in team sessions today - both off tipped balls. Taiwan Jones had the first one off a balled that was tipped by a linebacker (looked to be Keenan Clayton but unsure) from Tyler Wilson. Suddenly Jones is a ball magnet. He had another interception in one on one drills today and a tipped interception in practice yesterday as well.
Charles Woodson had the other interception in team sessions and it was the catch of the day. Matt Flynn threw too high for David Ausberry who made an attempt at it and tipped it. Woodson was coming in from the safety position and laid out to scoop it off the turf. Even off a tip, that was an impressive catch. Later Woodson was playing at strong safety and came up to nail Andre Holmes as soon as he caught the ball on a quick slant underneath. Not sure there's anything Woodson can't do. Just a complete football player.
As I mentioned, Stacy McGee was back at practice even though he couldn't finish. He was clearly limping around in drills but even though he was in obvious pain, he still looked pretty good in pass rush. At one point he shucked Jason Foster out of the way to get in the backfield. Following the draft in April, Reggie McKenzie mentioned McGee as being able to contribute to the pass rush and I can see what he means.
Matt McGloin has been trotting out with the third team while Tyler Wilson is now relegated to the fourth team. McGloin had one of his more impressive passes this camp when he got Taiwan Jones to bite on a fake underneath to Jamize Olawale and McGloin threw a perfect pass to Olawale who took it for a long gain.
Pass rushing/blocking drills seem to be dominated by the offensive line. Very little pressure is being generated by the pass rushers. The only time I saw a significant rush was when Andre Carter went up against Khalif Barnes. He beat Barnes outside and would have at very least forced the quarterback to have to flee the pocket.
There were a couple of good battles between Sio Moore and Alex Barron in those drills as well. Barron won both battles today but Sio is definitely a handful. He handfights like nobody's business.
The quarterback play between Matt Flynn and Terrelle Pryor has taken a downturn in the past couple days. Pryor continued to make a lot of the bad throws he had in the past and Flynn has responsible for a lot of the turnovers and batted down passes. It is hard to peg exactly why the defense is able to make plays on Flynn's passes. I haven't noticed him staring down his receivers. Most would say it has to be a problem of velocity which is a product of arm strength. That could very well be it. We'll see how it plays out in a week when the team plays their first preseason game.
Immediately following practice, the team announced they had locked up Sebastian Janikowski with a 4-year extension. He spoke with the media afterward about his new deal, saying he couldn't wait to call his friend Shane Lechler, had no intention of retiring after this new contract was up, and was going for breaking the record for 50 plus yard field goals in a career (he's 10 away from tying it).
Back at practice Saturday afternoon at 2:50. As always be sure and click the button below to follow along with my in-practice tweets.
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