Tag: Raiders training camp 2023

Raiders, Rams joint practice day two: Deep ball struggles for Jimmy Garoppolo

Deep ball struggles for Jimmy Garoppolo with joint practices wrapping up.

Team sessions were more extensive on day two of the Raiders and Rams joint practices. And with the starters not expected to play in the preseason, it was their last opportunity to face an outside opponent before the start of the regular season.

Jimmy Garoppolo has one of the best receivers in the game in Davante Adams. Adams can stretch the field and make all the catches to make a quarterback look good. But not if the ball doesn’t get to him.

Twice in team sessions the Raiders sent Adams on a deep route, and both times, it fell incomplete.

The first was a pass up the left sideline from Garoppolo which was short, allowing Ahkello Witherspoon to knock it down.

The second saw Adams go deep on a post route, and the pass was thrown too far ahead of Adams, who was also in double coverage with Witherspoon and a safety coming over. That one was lucky to not be intercepted as the defensive backs had a better shot at it than Adams did.

Garoppolo shrugged it off as getting his timing down with his receivers.

“Yeah. I mean that’s why we’re out here,” said Garoppolo. “You want to try different things. Game time comes, it’s a bit different. Bullets are flying, you know what you want to do, know who you want to go to, but out here you can try different things. It’s always nice to mix it up, try and mix in a deep ball here and there and see what the guys can do.”

These issues can be written off as timing if you’d like. However, Garoppolo’s ability to take advantage of Adams on the deep routes has long been a question. One that has yet to be answered with an affirmative.

Where Garoppolo has done well is in his short and intermediate throws, especially in the middle of the field.

He was enjoying having Hunter Renfrow back in the mix today and seemed on the same page with the savvy slot receiver early in practice.

“Hunt’s been awesome, man. He sees the field very well, makes it easy on me. Very decisive in his routes,” Garoppolo said of Renfrow. “But all those guys. I mean, him, DC (DeAndre Carter), tight ends even that work the slot. All those guys have done a good job. They give me easy targets, so it makes my job a lot easier.”

Garoppolo didn’t mention Jakobi Meyers, but the two of them finished a late session in the two-minute drill with three straight completions, two on slants and one on a comeback route.

Practice concluded with both team throwing for the end zone.

One the side with the Rams offense, Matt Stafford had his first throw for the end zone knocked down by a leaping Nate Hobbs. But his next shot was complete to Tutu Atwell for the TD crossing along the back of the end zone with Marcus Epps the closest to him.

The Raiders side saw Adams streak to the right side of the end zone and Garoppolo find him. What looked like a catch was ruled out of bounds and thus ended the joint practices with the Raiders offense doing pushups.

Though Garoppolo disagreed. He insisted it was a catch and replay would have proven it.

“[It was a] catch. I think we have video footage too,” Garoppolo said confidently. “We just needed a red flag to be thrown.”

So, once again, it would appear his timing with most his receivers on most routes is on point. Just those deep balls that still need work.

Raiders slow start to joint practices with Rams ‘unacceptable’ by their standards

Raiders first day of joint practices with Rams was ‘unacceptable’ by their standards (and pretty much any standard)

If the Raiders are to have a joint practice session with the Rams that looks anywhere near as good as the ones they had against the 49ers, they’re really going to have to pick it up. Because the first day was considerably disappointing by that standard.

Teams sessions were lacking on both sides of the ball for the Raiders.

Last week in joint practices, the story was interceptions. The Raiders had four in team sessions and another four in seven-on-sevens. Today the only turnover was an interception by Sam Webb off a deflection of a bad Stetson Bennett pass. A very similar play to the one Webb had in the game against the 49ers last Sunday from Brandon Allen.

But whenever Matt Stafford stepped on the field, he was carving up the Raiders secondary. It was pretty if you were the Rams offense. Not so much if you were the Raiders defense.

“As practice goes on, everybody’s watching the same thing that’s going on on the field. We can all feel it,” said safety Roderic Teamer. “We know as a team that we can perform better. And we always expect to dominate no matter what, so if we don’t do that then after practice we know we got more work to do.”

The Raiders’ battery is Maxx Crosby. He was not happy with what he saw at all.

“The standard is you show up and get better. For me as a leader it’s unacceptable,” said Crosby.

“Some days you’re going to feel like shit, some days you’re going to feel great. It is what it is. You got to get better and find ways to improve. Those are the days you get better; when you don’t feel like you want to go. When you’re feeling bad for yourself. That’s when you really got to go to that dark place. So, for me, no matter what it is, I’m trying to get to that place. No matter what and just bring my teammates with me.”

Late in practice, Maxx’s aggressive practice tendencies weren’t well received by Cam Akers. Akers lowered his helmet into him on a run, then Crosby chased Akers down and swatted the ball out of his hands. This led to a mad fury of Akers swinging on Crosby and the fight was on.

Said Crosby of the altercation “I was just doing what I do and he didn’t like that, so he got what he got. It is what it is.”

What Akers got was in a fight with a much bigger dude and then thrown out of practice for throwing the first punch, not to mention full on coming to blows.

For Maxx, it meant being relegated to the sideline for the rest of team sessions. He was replaced in the lineup by Jordan Willis.

And that was just the defense. The offense wasn’t exactly on point either.

It was good to see Davante Adams out there looking like 100% for the first time since he left practice with a right leg injury a week ago. And he did catch a few passes in team sessions.

But the drives rarely ended in a score and at the end of one session, several attempts at touchdowns fades — including to Adams — all ended with incompletions. Some were not on target, and some were knocked down by the DB. These same fades were successful against the 49ers last week.

“We have a lot to learn from the tape and that’s kind of the point of these,” said guard Greg Van Roten.

“You’re seeing a different front, different personnel, we’re running different plays than we have against a different team, so it’s kind of like this is what training camp is and this is what joint practice is for, it’s to get a different look and work on new techniques.”

Sunday’s hero in the preseason opener struggled as well. Aidan O’Connell came in at QB to close out practice with a drive in which he completed just one pass. All others were either dropped, defended, or off target.

Clearly, the Raiders will have to regroup, study the tape from today, and put in the work to try and put together a better practice tomorrow. It’s their final joint practice, and if last preseason is any indication, many starters’ last chance to go against an opponent prior to the start of the regular season.

Raiders T Brandon Parker again lost for season with camp injury

For second straight year, Brandon Parker’s season is over before it began

Just a few days ago, Brandon Parker stood in front of us to talk about his hopes for making a comeback this year after an injury suffered in training camp cost him last season.

It was just prior to the start of joint practices and I asked him about the open competition last year and how it has changed in this year’s camp.

“It’s still a tough competition,” said Parker. “Jermaine Eluemunor played really great last year, Thayer [Munford Jr.] played really great as well. So, in order for me to even be in the mix, I have to step my game up because they both have evolved in the following year. So, every time I see them kind of do it right, I’m trying to get right up there with them because competition breeds excellence. So, it doesn’t do anything but help us all if everybody else is getting better.”

Now he has been placed on injured reserve, which means he is again lost for the season and thus the competition at right tackle.

A third round pick by the Raiders in 2018, he was one of the longest tenured Raiders players. After starting 13 games in 2021, the team brought him back on a one year deal. He entered into an open competition at the right tackle spot and would never really get that shot after an injury suffered in the Hall of Fame Game would end his season before it began.

The team brought him back again this offseason, giving him another shot at competing for the job, or at least competing for the jumbo package and reserve swing tackle spot.

But, once again, it was not to be. This time he was lost even before the first preseason game, suffering the injury last week in joint practices with the 49ers.

In a corresponding move, the Raiders brought back wide receiver Isaiah Zuber.

Raiders standouts on Day 2 of joint practices with 49ers

Raiders standouts on Day 2 of joint practices with 49ers

That’s a wrap for Raiders joint practices with the 49ers. It was an eventful couple days in some way. If by those ways you mean the Raiders defense which was getting their hands on the ball several times.

Here are the standouts from today’s practice:

LB Robert Spillane

The linebacker who has had all of one takeaway in his career, had a couple interceptions today. One came in 11-on-11s, the other in 7-on-7s.

CB Marcus Peters

The veteran former All Pro had interceptions on both days of the joint practices and his swagger is clearly rubbing off on the rest of the secondary.

WR Jakobi Meyers

With Hunter Renfrow not practicing, and Davante Adams going down injured on the first play of team sessions, Meyers was the only starter left. He had a touchdown on a slant to finish off the first drive of team sessions.

All QB’s

All three Raiders quarterbacks showed well today. Jimmy Garoppollo led the first team to a touchdown to Jakobi Meyers and two-point conversion to DeAndre Carter. Then Brian Hoyer nearly had a three-play touchdown drive which began with consecutive long completions to Keelan Cole and ended with a deep ball to Phillip Dorsett who wasn’t able to keep both feet inbounds in the back of the end zone. Aidan O’Connell had the best long ball completion of the day to fellow rookie Tre Tucker.

DE Issac Rochell

On more than one rep in DL vs OL drills, Rochell got through to the QB. First, driving his man back and then putting on a swim move to get into the pocket. Then getting his man off balance and shucking him aside to get pressure.

DE Maxx Crosby

Crosby was lined up across from the 49ers right tackle Colton McKivitz for a rep in drills. He made mincemeat of him, first leading him upfield before spinning inside to crash the pocket.

DT Adam Butler

The best spin move from the inside came from Butler who was able to leave his man flat footed with the move to get pressure.

Kyle Shanahan apologized to Maxx Crosby for treatment of him in 49ers pre-draft interview

Maxx Crosby got an apology from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan today for how they treated him in a pre-draft interview

A lot of teams are kicking themselves these days for passing on Maxx Crosby in the 2019 draft. The Eastern Michigan product fell into the fourth round before the Raiders pulled the trigger on him.

Among the many teams who took a close look at Crosby was the 49ers. And apparently they weren’t all that nice or respectful to Crosby.

Enough so, apparently, that with the 49ers at the Raiders facility today for joint practices, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan took the opportunity to apologize for their behavior toward Crosby in that meeting.

“That’s actually funny. I talked to him on the field,” Crosby said of Shanahan “It was after one of the plays. I made a play and I was hyped and talking shit to Kyle and he’s laughing at me. I went up to him after the play and he was like ‘yeah, man, I feel like an a–hole about our interview we had in 2019.’ And I remember it because [Kris] Kocurek was in there, John Lynch, and Shanahan. And I feel like, it’s nothing against them, I feel like every single team that I interviewed with didn’t take me seriously. I could name every damn team if I want, but I’m not going to do that.”

Shanahan said he apologized to Crosby for being “jerks” to him that day. And Crosby mentioned only that there was a lot of yelling, which Shanahan said was pretty much out of line.

“It was Kocurek’s first interview, and he’d been in other places where they liked to kind of attack the guys a little bit, see if you can rattle them,” said Shanahan. “That’s not totally our style. That was the first one up. John (Lynch) was trying to touch his leg, like: ‘Kris, chill out a little bit.’ Afterward, he was, ‘What, what did I do? Sorry. My last coach really wanted me to do it that way.’ And he did it to like the coolest dude. So we tell him that was all Kris, not us.”

Crosby laughed off the specific details of what was said in the meeting, even the yelling, noting that it was not angry yelling. While at the same time, he carries moments like that with him to this day.

“That’s the past, but I remember everything, trust me,” Crosby added. “I remember all those interviews, but that’s what makes me who I am today because at the end of the day, I carry every little scar. I won’t talk about a lot of it, but I keep everything noted. Literally everything.”

Crosby took the high road about it, going on to talk about how great of a coach Shanahan is and how much respect he has for the coach and the 49ers as a team. Which, I’m sure, is pretty easy when you’re in Crosby’s position having outplayed all of their expectations and became one of the league’s top edge rushers.

Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo has good day ahead of facing former 49ers mates

Calm before the storm. Jimmy G has good day ahead of facing former team in joint practices

It was a light day for the Raiders. Coming off two days off, they took the field of their indoor facility without pads.

Maxx Crosby was on the field for the stretching period but left when they started drills and didn’t return. Without any other details, it’s possible it was just a day off.

Jimmy Garoppolo looked smooth today. Certainly more so than he did last weekend when he was picked off at least six times in two days.

Garoppolo started things off with a couple off-target throws — one that was behind Davante Adams and another that was too high for Hunter Renfrow — but settled in and had a nice day.

He finished out the first team session with touchdown passes to his top three receivers. First a goal line pass to Renfrow, then touchdowns in the back corners of the end zone, first to Jakobi Meyers on the left side with Jakorian Bennett in tow and then to Davante Adams who shook Marcus Peters on the right side.

The trio of Adams, Meyers, and Renfrow had several catches each form Garoppolo on the day, so there was good distribution. Most important of all Jimmy G had no picks ahead of facing his former team.

But, again, the conditions were ideal indoors with no pads.

Basically, you can’t glean much from what we saw today. It’s the calm before the storm.

The storm arrives Thursday when the 49ers come to town for joint practices.

“It’s just an opportunity to, number one, compete,” Josh McDaniels said of the joint practices. “That’s an important part of this because I think that makes everybody better and you see some competitive fire out of everybody.

“Two, I think it’s an opportunity for you to really test your fundamentals, your discipline, the details and techniques that you’ve been working on for months against yourself, against bags and shells and all those things, and now you have an opportunity to go out there and kind of see where you’re at. And your rules have to kind of lead the way because you never know what you’re going to see necessarily.”

Just as the players were looking forward to the start of camp, then the first day in pads, they are looking forward to this next step of facing someone other than their teammates.

If this year is anything like last year, these practices are the only time the entrenched starters will see an outside opponent. Last year most of the core guys didn’t play in the actual preseason games. Making these joint practices all the more important for regular season prep.

Another 3 interception day for Jimmy Garoppolo vs Raiders ‘hungry’ defense

Second straight rough day for Jimmy Garoppolo. And Raiders ‘hungry’ defense taking advantage.

Friday Jimmy Garoppolo put the ball in the hands of the defense three times according to media present. But in case you were wondering if that was a one-off, it happened again on Saturday.

There have been six different defensive recipients of Garoppolo passes over the past two days — cornerbacks Jakorian Bennett, Marcus Peters, and Amik Robertson, safeties Isaiah Pola-Mao and Tre’von Moehrig, and linebacker Robert Spillane.

And those are just the interceptions, Jimmy G reportedly had three other dropped picks with just one completion on the final drive of the day.

Some who covered Garoppolo with the 49ers recalled today of a camp practice in which he threw five straight interceptions. Then went on to quarterback the 49ers to the Super Bowl that year.

Clearly not a great day for Garoppolo. Even still, the question whenever this kind of thing happens is how much of the fault lies on the QB and how much credit should the defense get.

Camp performances against your teammates is not a time to make sweeping judgments and predictions about how the season will go. We don’t know enough about what is going on with those plays. And camp is when you take these risks and work out timing issues and tendencies.

The concern would be more if the defense was getting picked apart every day and never got their hands on the ball. So, potentially, there is good news here from a defensive standpoint. Especially with as little has been expected from this defensive unit.

“We’re hungry,” said Marcus Peters, who had one of the three picks Saturday.

“I want to get the ball, and when the ball is in the air, you’ve got to have a will and want to go get it. And I want to go get it more than everybody else. You’ve got to just make sure that infects the whole locker room and we all just do it as one unit, you feel me, and it’s going to pay off for us.”

It’s been paying off the past couple days.

They will have one more chance on Sunday to do it again before being off Monday and Tuesday.

Watch: Maxx Crosby mic’d up on Raiders first padded practice

Anytime you put a mic on Maxx Crosby it’s must see TV. Well, that’s what the Raiders did on day one in pads.

The first day in pads in special. It’s a big step in every team’s progress toward next season. Few players look forward to that day than Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby. So, the team mic’d him up. Enjoy.

What comes through the most in this is just how much of a leader Maxx is for this defense. He’s supportive, encouraging and keeps it light while putting in maximum effort. Most importantly; it’s clearly genuine. And his teammates respect the hell out of him for it.

His energy is contagious and the kinship he has with his teammates is palpable. This defense will go as far as he can take them. That’s not to say he can do it alone, but in terms of following a leader, you won’t find a better one than the Raiders have in Crosby.

Anytime he’s mic’d up it’s a must watch. His interaction with Patrick Mahomes that was featured in a recent docuseries was the most talked about moment of the entire show. And it’s not hard to see why.

Which Raiders are locks to make 53-man roster?

Of the 90 players in camp for the Raiders, there is a contingent of them who are locks to make the final 53.

Long before making any bold predictions on the 53-man roster, there are a certain number of players who — barring injury, of course — are guaranteed to be on that final roster. For the Raiders, it’s about half (26) of the final 53. These are those players.

Pads go on today for Raiders and Jakob Johnson is here for it

Today is “the most important day of the year” for Jakob Johnson

It’s been a little over a week now since the Raiders began training camp. And finally the pads are going on.

There are always a few players who look forward to pads more than most. One of those is full-back Jakob Johnson who makes his living hitting people.

“It’s the main part that I wait on every offseason,” Johnson said following Monday’s practice, adding that he’s “looking forward to it.”

“I mean, it’s the most important day of the year, right? The first day of pads, real football starts. All the stuff that we X-ed and O-ed out all year, we’re finally putting the metal to the floor and getting in there. So, yeah, for me, that’s the most exciting part about training camp. And once we cross that we can get back to the third down passes and all that stuff. But the first day of pads is important.”

Things got a bit “chippy” on Monday as Johnson put it. With players talking trash with those on the other side of the ball and getting in each others’ faces. Those chippy moments often boil over into more once pads go on.

And no one talks more than Maxx Crosby.

“I mean, I think we all know our front man trash talker here on the team, right? The Condor,” Johnson said of Crosby. “I mean, he’s going to always do his thing. So, we’ll see how that goes.”

Let the hitting and trash-talking commence. Though hopefully the scraps are kept to a minimum. Maybe save them for next week when the 49ers arrive for joint practices.

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