Today, the Raiders hit another milestone on the road to the 2020 season. They don pads for the first time. If this were a normal offseason, they’d have put on pads 17 days ago. They also would have had some kind of on-field work dating back several months.
But instead of that usual full offseason to prepare for training camp, they had nothing for a while before coming together recently. It has been especially hard for those players who are new to the team, in which there are many, both veteran acquisitions and rookies.
“Definitely been nice to finally meet people in person, kind of get an understanding of how things are going to work from here on out, and just being on the field,” linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski said during walk-thrus last week. “In the Zoom meetings you watch film, it’s nothing like actually like getting on the field and doing things. Working on technique, just making those communications in person rather than Zoom. Just being here, it feels great. It’s been very helpful.”
Those walk-thrus gave way to full speed drills last Wednesday, which gave way to offense vs defense Friday. Now, just three days later, it’s time for the next step. It’s time to get the pads on. Which means hitting. Glory Hallelujah.
“Obviously, that’s what football is,” said safety Jeff Heath on putting on the opportunity to finally hit. “You can practice as much as you want without pads, you can simulate as best as you can, situations and going full speed covering and all of that, but it’s a completely different dynamic when the pads are on. The game seems to speed up even another step, so we definitely need a lot of practices in pads before we’re ready to play, for sure.”
Heath’s fellow safety Johnathan Abram became well known for his hitting in practice as a rookie. If Sunday’s practice was any indication, he didn’t grow out of it. On one play, Derek Carr found Nelson Agholor up the left sideline and Abram came flying over — without pads, mind you — and hit him. Both players are lucky to come out of the unscathed.
“I think we’re all anxious for that just because we’ve all been removed from what we get paid to do, what we love to do,” said linebacker Cory Littleton of hitting.
“At least with the preparation, it’s a part of what we do. Playing with pads is a part of the game and it’s something we haven’t been able to do, especially with this type of offseason, which also goes into my transition here. Learning a new defense isn’t always easy, especially harder when you can’t get to practice it all the time, so being here right now this is exactly what we need, myself included.”
Practice begins at 7:30 a.m. So, it’s football bright and early. Real football without players having to slow up or get out of the way to keep from making contact. Well, maybe slow up a bit, these are their own teammates, after all.
[vertical-gallery id=72292]
[lawrence-newsletter]