Raiders training camp practices begin today, pads Sunday

The off-season is over. Day one of Raiders training camp practices is finally here. The Raiders will take the field in Napa for the first time in preparation for the 2014 season.

There is still no contact which means no pads just yet. Coaches will get to see just how much the players have digested the playbooks and how well they have kept themselves in shape over the break.

There is always some rust to shake off for the first couple days. Then on the third day, the pads come on which means contact starts. That's when we can get a much better sense of the abilities of the linebackers and linemen. And with that will probably come some scuffles. It's to be expected with heated competition at most positions.

Quite a few players won't be seen taking the field today. Three of them were done in by Thursday's conditioning test. Kevin Burnett didn't pass his, according to Dennis Allen, and safeties Keith McGill and Usama Young managed to injury themselves during their conditioning test.

Two defensive linemen -- C.J. Wilson and Stacy McGee -- injured themselves during the past month away from football. And several others have lingering injuries from OTA's and/or minicamp. Those players are D.J. Hayden, Nick Kasa, and Lucas Nix.

Practice begins at 3:00pm and will last until 5:40pm followed by a press conference with Dennis Allen.

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