Oakland Raiders Training Camp: News and Notes from Day 14

Stuart Kovacs – Aug 16, 2012

On Thursday morning, the Oakland Raiders participated in their fourteenth day of training camp practice. Here are some news and notes as well as what head coach Dennis Allen had to say after the session.

Once again, the team had an abbreviated practiced without pads in its preparation for Friday night’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Also for the second straight day, crowd noise was pumped into the practice, according to Paul Gutierrez’s Twitter page.  This is so the team could get used to the road environment.

On the injury front, defensive lineman Jamie Cumbie returned to practice after missing Wednesday’s session with a foot injury. Both he and fellow defensive lineman Jack Crawford are game time decisions for Friday’s game, according to Allen.

Running back Taiwan Jones (hamstring), punter Shane Lechler (knee), linebacker Aaron Curry (knee), wide receiver Denarius Moore (hamstring), tight end Brandon Myers (shoulder), offensive lineman Ed Wang (shoulder), offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski (calf), fullback Rashawn Jackson (hip), and offensive lineman Zach Hurd (head) all missed practice once again and will not play in Friday’s game, according to Allen.

According to the team, safety Michael Huff will also not play on Friday so that he can attend the birth of his first child.

Jones and Myers were apparently training hard off to the side, according to Gutierrez. This is a positive sign as it appears both will be back sooner rather than later.

Defensive lineman Richard Seymour (knee), who missed Monday’s game against the Cowboys, will play on Friday. Seymour was receiving a lot of reps during today’s walkthrough.

Perhaps the biggest news of the day for the Raiders came off of the practice field.

The team signed linebacker Korey Bosworth to a contract to give them some more depth at the position.

Bosworth, who was with the Detroit Lions during training camp in 2010, 2011, and 2012, is the nephew of Brian Bosworth who is well-known among Raiders’ fans for his history with Bo Jackson.

The former UCLA Bruin stands at 6-foot-1 and weighs 230 pounds. He will wear number 97 with the Silver and Black.

Allen hasn’t seen much of the linebacker play, but knows he can add depth to a position that desperately needs it.

“Not a lot other than I know he spent some time in Detroit’s camp. He’s a guy that we’re bringing in for some depth at linebacker. We’ll give him an opportunity to play some special teams Friday night and see what he can do.”

The signing of Bosworth was likely made due to the injuries of fellow linebackers Mario Kurn and Aaron Curry.

Kurn was waived/injured by the team yesterday after tearing his ACL in practice last week.

Curry, who is currently on the physically unable to perform list, hasn’t practiced once during the training camp period due to a chronic knee injury. He is currently in Los Angeles seeing a specialist and receiving treatment.

Although he is expected to return to the team at some point next week, it is still in question whether or not he’ll be ready for the season opener.

Allen is being carefully optimistic that the former first-round pick could be ready for the season’s start. However, the more time that he misses decreases the likelihood of being ready.

“I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility right now. Obviously every day we get closer to the beginning of the season that becomes less of a possibility. For him to be ready to go he’s going to have to be ready here pretty soon to start getting some work.”

As the team enters its second preseason game, the workload of the starters will greatly increase, Allen said. However, a specific amount of time or number of plays is difficult to predict as the game itself is unpredictable.

“Probably significant more work than we got in the past game. A lot of it depends on how the game plays out. We got a lot of snaps early in the game on offense. They had a couple of penalties that helped us out. Defensively we played from a time frame a little bit longer than we had anticipated last week, but from a play count standpoint we didn’t play that much.”

In terms of the quarterbacks, Allen said that the rotation of Palmer, Leinart, and Pryor will remain the same with Palmer receiving a little more time than the team’s first game.

“Well obviously Carson [Palmer] will play a little longer but I would anticipate the same order.”

With a game already under the team’s belt, Allen is expecting a substantial amount of improvement in terms of execution, tempo, and special teams.

“I think the thing we are looking to do is see is there improvement from week one to week two. We’ve got to be better. Our execution has to be better. Our tempo in and out of the huddle on offense has to be better. Special teams wise we’ve got to do a better job of executing in the return game as well in the operations on field goals. Really what I want to see is significant improvement in those areas that we weren’t quite as good at last week and get better in those areas.”

While many people around the NFL are concerned about the league’s replacement officials, Allen isn’t alarmed. He is paying more attention to the team instead of something that is out of his control.

“I really don’t have a thought on it to be honest with you. My focus is on our football team and how we are going to get better. We are going to play the games when the games come up. That’s all we can control, so that’s all we are really worried about.”

At the tight end position, Richard Gordon continues to receive first-team reps with Brandon Myers being sidelined with a shoulder injury.

Allen reiterated that there is still an open competition at the position. He does, however, like the blocking ability of Gordon who will undoubtedly be a player to watch this Friday.

“We are all in the running to win that job. Nobody has locked that job down. Obviously it has hurt Brandon not being able to be out here with that shoulder. But I have been impressed with what Richard has been able to do. He gives a little better blocking presence on the edge. I’ll be interested to see how he comes out and plays. He was ill a little bit last week going into the game. So he should be good to go this week and we will see how he plays.”

Allen also is glad to have both Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly manning the middle of the defensive line.

He has been impressed with both players but singled out Kelly as someone who he believes can be one of the league’s best defensive tackles.  

“Yeah, they’re both good players. We’re excited about having those guys and Tommy’s one of the—he can be one of the—premier inside players in the league. He’s working on developing a little bit more from a fundamental standpoint and if he does those little things, he’ll begin to get recognized as one of the top interior players like he’s played.”

After speaking to the media, Allen and the team boarded buses and made their way to the airport.

The Raiders play the Arizona Cardinals tomorrow night at 7:00 PM PST.

Raider Nation Times will continue to monitor the team’s progress throughout the entire training camp period.

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