Oakland Raiders 2014 Training Camp: Daily Rewind – Day 1
By Brazy
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Greetings Raider Nation, welcome to another NFL Season, as the Raiders have started their 2014 Training Camp in Napa California. Information and happenings from each practice will be reported all over the web. I’ll be scanning the web and recapping what I found here at the end of every day. The facts combined with my two cents equals your Oakland Raiders 2014 Training Camp Daily Rewind.
The biggest news of the day was DJ Hayden starting camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. The Raiders revealed he broke his foot, possibly around the end of May. He didn’t have surgery till late June and is 4 weeks into an expected 8 week rehab. That would put him fully healthy in mid to late August, roughly 3 weeks before the Raiders open their 2014 Season in East Rutherford New Jersey to face the Jets. No matter how you want to try to spin this news, it’s all bad. Sure, I’ve sent my WTF tweet his way, but why cry over spilled milk. Injuries happen (just ask DMC), cheers to you DJ, get well and don’t let the Nation down.
The second biggest news, to me anyway, is that the Raiders are cutting Kevin Burnett. I don’t know if DJ’s injury and his cutting are related. The move saves the Raiders almost $4M in cap space, but I think they lose one heck of a linebacker and veteran leader. They appear to have the depth and talent to absorb his release and hopefully they use the cap space/roster spot on a cornerback.
I think another significant happening on the day was the move to put Safety Osama Young and Rookie Cornerback Keith McGill on the PUP list, after they got hurt doing the conditioning test. Yes, that’s right, they got hurt, running. So you know that’s a quadricep (Young) and a rolled ankle (McGill). The Raiders secondary is hopelessly thin as it was, as I noted in my Defense preview. Now three players (1 starter, 2 reserves) are already on the shelf, for an indefinite amount of time.
Other players to start on the PUP list are Lucas Nix (G – Knee, will be out for a while ), Nick Kasa (TE – reinjured hip flexor in offseason), CJ Wilson (DE – hamstring injured during offseason) and Stacy McGee ( DT – broke his thumb during offseason). Coach Allen hoped Kasa and Wilson would be back sooner than later and said McGee would be out only a week.
When it comes to Day 1’s, not sure it could have gone any worse. You don’t even practice and two guys go down. They obviously knew about DJ for a while, so from the team perspective, that’s not a surprise. From the fan standpoint, it’s three guys you expected to contribute headed to the meat squad before they ever blew the practice horn. Things gotta be better tomorrow right? Right?