The NFL’s offseason is almost over. Several free agents have changed teams, and the draft choices have settled in with the respective teams, learning their role on the team.
This is the time of the year that NFL teams put in a tremendous amount of work, focusing on installing their system, coaching philosophies, developing chemistry, and coming together as a team.
The Oakland Raiders will yield several improvements due to this being the second year in the system for the majority of the team.
A solid move by head coach Lane Kiffin was to send the message to everyone on the team that you need to always work hard and practice at game speed. The message that there are no scholarship players so to speak. He made sure that everyone knew that they were all competing for a position.
Every team in the league is working on improving, and the Raiders are no different.
You can’t get away from the basics of the game, which are a strong defensive and offensive line, blocking, tackling, and hitting. These fundamentals never go out of style and are the main areas of improvement.
We’re three weeks away from the start of training camp, and this article will focus on some of the most intriguing positional training-camp battles.
The majority of the major media, when speaking of the Oakland Raiders, has inundated us fans with the same tired drag about how bad the offensive line is, which isn’t exactly true.
Every Raiders fan thought that the draft would yield at least one offensive lineman, and since that didn’t happen, the media went into their “what are the Raiders doing" mode.
The offensive line was able to turn the corner, make several strides, and become one of the bright spots on the team last season. Bringing in offensive line coach Tom Cable, essentially at the 2007 scouting combine, was a huge hire for Kiffin and the Raiders.
They have an excellent working relationship. He previously worked on the same staff as offensive coordinator Greg Knapp.
He is perfect for the two back, run-oriented offense the Kiffin ran. He installed his version of the zone-blocking scheme, which made the offensive line very productive.
This move allowed the Raiders to average 130.4 yards rushing per game, which was sixth in the NFL. The Raiders also were beneficiaries of a 31-sack improvement from the last season.
Robert Gallery and Cooper Carlisle had excellent seasons at the guard positions. You need athletic guards in the zone-blocking scheme and both played well.
Robert Gallery showed a tremendous amount of promise inside, and he is on his way to shedding the title of bust as the No. 2 overall selection in the 2004 draft. The starting guard tandem allowed two combined sacks for a loss of six yards.
Everyone is competing for a spot on the roster and for the starting job. Things can always change during a competition due to the uncertainty of who will win the matchup. Going into training camp, these are the most intriguing training-camp battles, in my opinion.
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