The 2017 version of the Oakland Raiders was unveiled at the first day of training camp at the sprawling Marriott Hotel in Napa. And before I talk about the passing game, let me get a little personal. I was the guest of Forever Oakland, the great Oakland Raiders Booster Club fighting to keep the Silver and Black in Oakland. It was this long-time Oaklander’s first time at an Oakland Raiders Training Camp, and with some friends that go back to (in the case of George Atkinson and Ray Chester) the Eighties, and fans of my YouTube Channel Zennie62, it was like being around family – and in two ways.
The first way is that I felt like I personally knew three-quarters of the room: again, there were Oakland Raiders Legends like George Atkinson and Ray Chester. Long-time Oakland Raiders employees like Cheryl Nichols, Marc Badain, and Mike Taylor. And of course, Oakland Raiders Owner Mark Davis, who I have not known for as long, but am still getting to know in the middle of the complicated Las Vegas issue. And then there were fans of my my YouTube Channel Zennie62 – many who I’ve never met or seen before, but were kind enough to come up and introduce themselves or at least give a shout out. Video is a powerful thing.
The second way can be best summed up by the saying there are some family members who you love but hate some of the things they do. That’s where the Las Vegas relocation matter comes into stark focus: the still fractured Raiders Family base was evident in the distance between the table that Forever Oakland had in the Marriott Lobby and where Mr. Davis sat: way in the back of the restaurant next to the lobby, and just within eye-sight of the Forever Oakland table.
According to Greg Jones, AKA “Godfather Griz”, Mark Davis walked around the table but never stopped to say hello: a far cry from the 2017 NFL Owners Meeting, where Davis walked directly to Griz, and after the Las Vegas Relocation Decision, and said “We have to get together.” Well, they did, and then shortly after that, “Godfather Griz”, joined the growing legal effort to keep the Raiders in Oakland. It’s not too hard to figure out why Davis kept his distance.
This whole deal with the Las Vegas Relocation planning is personally sad for me, because the way it was done on the part of the Raiders and the NFL has caused strains in relationships that could have been avoided in one simple way. Davis should have been direct and open with the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda, and given the entities a ‘clock’ if you will: a date and time by which the City had to have a complete, financed stadium plan done, and then during that planning time the Raiders should have committed to working only with the City of Oakland and not even giving any other city representative the time of day.
Instead, what we have is a whole slew of examples of the Raiders acting in bad faith since 2011.
But I digress.
While the spectre of relocation was in the air, it did not detract from the fun times of people all gathered together to express their interest in, and love for, the football team that is the Oakland Raiders. Fans who are season ticket holders came and braved the Napa heat to watch the team practice, and they were not disappointed.
The 2017 Oakland Raiders showed a passing attack that was more Bill Walsh than in recent years. In 2015 and 2016, then-Offensive Coordinator Bill Musgrave was experimenting with adding elements of former Oregon / Philadelphia Eagles / San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Chip Kelly’s style of read-option offense; the 2017 Raiders under new “OC” Todd Downing had none of that. Instead, what I saw was a base passing offense that (and for the first time) featured short, weakside passing and the use of motion to actually pull a defender out of a zone, and then throw where that backer would have been.
Overall, that approach is far from new, but for the Raiders under Jack Del Rio, it’s arrival is welcome.
That was combined with a use of the short crossing route by the tight end, and where Clive Walford (number 88) picked up notable yards-after-the-catch yesterday.
The only play I saw that bugged me was the wide receiver bubble screen that so many teams are now so used to defending that the pass occasionally gets picked off and returned for a touchdown.
The Raiders under Bill Musgrave were rich in plays with fly patterns, but strangely short on the use of plays featuring complementary use of motion and complementary patterns.
Having said all that, I will remark that it was nothing you would not see in a high-school offense today. That’s not to be insulting, but to give you an idea of how much football strategy has little to do with levels of play today. As Jay Gruden, the Washington Redskins Head Coach, would agree, high schools and colleges are coming up with innovative schemes at a more rapid rate than ever before – they’ve set the tone for the NFL, and many pro teams are slow to catch up. Getting a quarterback who can run a read-option or a spread offense, like Derek Carr and E.J. Manuel, helps a lot in installing such approaches.
Which brings me to the Raiders backup to Carr, E.J. Manuel. He throws a better ball that Carr. It comes out of his release, the ball does, like it’s shot out of a cannon. I’m not afraid to say he’s going to push Carr to play better as the season goes on. That’s more than I can dream of saying for last year’s rookie Connor Cook – with his sad combination of throws, some missed timed and one just driven into the turf, Cook needs more work before he can be considered ready to play. But that’s what training camp’s all about, getting ready for the regular season.
Stay tuned.