Oakland Raiders Plan to Be 'Cutting Edge' in 2015 Is Step in Right Direction

There are 31 teams in the NFL…and there are the Oakland Raiders.

For nearly 30 years, being the eccentric renegades served the Raiders well on the field. Then something called free agency came along and the game changed, and the Raiders failed to change with it. When owner Al Davis died, the Raiders leaped 20 years into the future. If the last three years are any indication, they are still way behind.

The Raiders took a huge step in the right direction Monday by hiring four people to run their strength and conditioning program—some with reputations as being unorthodox. It was an action that backed up new head coach Jack Del Rio’s statement to Rich Eisen of the NFL Network that the Raiders would be “cutting edge” with how they train the players.

Rod Woodson re-joining the staff overshadowed them, but Woodson won’t affect every player on the roster like the strength and conditioning staff. Best of all, the Raiders now have an opportunity to renew their inner renegade in some small way, but to do so by daring to push forward instead of living in the past.

At one time, Al Davis was an innovator. He pushed AFL teams to sign the best players so the NFL couldn’t put them out of business, scouted predominantly black colleges for talent and helped bring the vertical passing game to prominence.

If the Raiders want to return to their winning ways, they simply can’t be one of the other 31 teams, because that’s not part of the team’s identity. They have to dare to be different to be great, because ultimately that is the Raider way. The best way to honor Al Davis isn’t to do things as he did, but to win football games.

Del Rio seemed keenly aware of this when Eisen asked how he would instill the old-school Raiders mentality in the 21st century the way Al Davis would want him to:

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We respect and honor what came before us. I think in terms of how we put together now it has to make sense for today’s athlete. It has to make sense for operating in the Year 2015, so we will approach it that way. We’re going to be cutting edge in terms of what we are doing with our players and how we are training our players and how we are working at all the different things that are available now to take advantage of preparing your football team to be at its very best on Sundays.

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Hiring four people to spearhead the effort was the first of many changes. The Raiders haven’t had more than two strength and conditioning coaches in recent memory—probably ever—so it’s safe to say they are going to be doing more than spotting players in the weight room.

Head strength and conditioning coach Joe Gomes, assistant strength and conditioning coach Darryl Eto and strength and conditioning assistant Wesley Miller all previously worked at EXOS, a company that operates several training facilities for top athletes and preps many top college players for the NFL combine.

Stanford’s former director of sports performance Brandon Marcello considers Eto his mentor. Alexander Wolff of Sports Illustrated profiled Marcello’s work at Stanford in 2011. Paul Chin of the San Francisco Chronicle did the same about some of his unorthodox methods in 2009.

The Raiders didn’t hire Marcello, but it’s safe to say they have a similar philosophy. Eto actually drew criticism for modern training methods when he was the director of strength and conditioning for the Houston Rockets, according to Patrick Harrel of thedreamshake.com.

The New York Times detailed some of Gomes’ methods in 2007 in which he has a group of individuals at EXOS for a boot camp of sorts alternating between a hot tub and cold plunge. Gomes takes the group through prehab exercises, movement preparation, elasticity drills and recovery. Some of these are just fancy names for elements of an unusual training program.

Like Marcello at Stanford, EXOS is really into nutrition. The Raiders could be preparing for some rather large changes to the menu in their cafeteria. It’s not like the Raiders were serving up fast food last year, but to have the menu specifically tailored to each player based on their performance and recovery needs is likely something new.

The fourth member of the strength and conditioning staff is Kevin Kijowski, who spent a year at Fort Bragg implementing sleep-monitoring systems for military personnel. Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly has his players wear bracelets that monitor sleep, and Raiders new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave spent last year on Kelly’s staff.

Kelly also measures urinate output after practice to measure hydration, has players wear GPS devices during practice and tries to get as many reps into practice as possible because of the limited time NFL players are allowed to be on the field. With lackluster quarterbacks, Kelly is 20-12 in two seasons as head coach, and his offenses have finished fourth and third in points scored.

It’s unconventional, but at least Kelly is doing everything within his power to maximize talent. It’s not like there is zero research to back up his methods, even if it’s not substantial. It’s hard to say that the Raiders have been maximizing talent in recent years, which could be why owner Mark Davis fired Allen, but general manager Reggie McKenzie is still on the job.

The half-hearted warm-ups before an extended stretching session at the start of training camp practices under former head coach Dennis Allen are unlikely to continue. The Raiders will also probably dump the slow, learning-intensive practices that made an episode of Mr. Rogers seem like a Metallica concert and replace them with something grounded in data and not the illusion that the players learn more by doing less.

Time will tell what changes the Raiders are actually able to implement, but even putting in the effort to explore them is a huge step in the right direction. The Raiders have an opportunity to get out in front of the data-driven revolution in the NFL, and it appears as though Del Rio’s staff is willing and capable of doing so.