Hall to wear #23 in Oakland

Inside the Oakland Raiders has released several comments from today’s interview of head coach Lane Kiffin, and now have released some quotes from two of the Raiders free-agent acquisitions.  First year guys who’ve just cashed in are always going to say the right thing, so it’s hard to believe everything Kwame Harris and DeAngelo Hall said on Thursday, but here are the quotes I felt were worth mentioning. 

"Q: (Hall is wearing No. 23). Is that your new number?Hall: Yep. That’s the number. New and improved. Numbers don’t mean a whole lot. Came out here for a new start so thought it’d be fitting to get a new number, too.Q: Any reservations about coming here with the coaching situation?Hall: Not really because I had a chance to talk to Lane. I know him and I know his dad real well. Had a chance to talk to some of the players here and they never gave me the feel as though there was something bad going on. You can ask anybody last year who was a part of our organization, I think everybody knew what was going on. Even from the other coaches."

I didn’t find much else from the Hall interview worth mentioning, but if you want read the rest of his Q&A, Click here.  I found more quotes I felt were worth discussing in the Harris interview, but mainly because I know what Hall offers the Raiders; Harris has more questions that need answers.

"Q: Are you more comfortable on the left over the right or does it matter?Harris: Right now I am going to play left tackle and I feel very good about it and very confident about it. I really feel coach Cable and I can do a lot there at that position, that is where I have been exclusively working now, on the left side.Q: How many offenisve line coaches did you have with the 49ers?Harris: (laughs) I think, maybe three.Q: Any previous experience with zone blocking?Harris: In San Francisco we did a little bit of zone blocking but we were much more of a power blocking team.Q: Was that part of the pitch … that we have the system that is right for you and this is why?Harris: Yeah. watching the system and also being a major fan of running the ball.Q: Did you talk to Robert Gallery when you got here, compare notes on having different line coaches?Harris: Certainly. I talked to Gallery several times before I even signed with the Raiders. He was somebody I felt we were in similar positions also for a little bit of time. He had a phenomenal year last year too. getting to just talk to him and listen to what he had to say not just about Cable but the system, the fan market and you guys also . . . it really helped me come to a decision that this is a good fit for me. This is someplace I can be successfulQ: Run blocking in a zone system requires more agility and quickness, movement, how is this system different in pass blocking? Harris: The pass blocking system in San Francisco, how do I say this … was much more, I don’t know, like technique driven. very strict in a sense. Here I think one of the great things about coach Cable is that yes, you have a set of fundamentals, techniques and principles you have to work inside of. but also you need to go out and block the guy. Don’t let the guy get to the quarterback. That is the main goal. It’s not to keep your keep your hips square and stay in position. it’s to keep that guy away from JaMarcus. In terms of that I think coach Cable gives you a little more of a chance to own those fundamentals and use them in the way it best suits you as a player. In other places maybe it was more strict . . . this is the way it should be done, this is the way I want it done, this is how it should look. it’s not like a glove where one size fits all."

Click here for the rest of the Harris interview.