Oakland Raiders: Five OTA thoughts after Week 2
By Austin Gayle
Five takeaways from the Oakland Raiders second week of OTA’s in Alameda.
With six of their scheduled 10 OTA’s in the books, the Oakland Raiders have pulled to the surface some of the rust and frustration that had built up over the offseason, but as they inch closer towards mandatory minicamp, the Silver and Black should continue to improve in an effort to meet the expectations that have been set for the 2016 season.
After wrapping up this week’s last practice, several members of the Raiders organization hinted at the progress the team has made over the past two weeks of OTAs, including head coach Jack Del Rio, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, and quarterback Derek Carr.
Here are five takeaways from the Raiders’ second week of OTAs.
- Head Coach Jack Del Rio Sets Guidelines after Skirmishes
As Oakland continues to shape their roster in preparation for the season ahead, both veterans and rookies are already competing for spots on the Raiders’ roster just two weeks into OTAs, and with that being said, that competitive fire has fueled several altercations amongst some of Oakland’s newest additions.
According to Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com, three different pairs of players were involved in unwarranted physical activity post-play. Seventh-round pick Vadal Alexander and free agent addition Damontre Moore ‘tussled’ towards the end of Tuesday’s second OTA session, and former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele and second-round pick Jihad Ward exchanged punches. Also, second-year players Jon Feliciano and Leon Orr engaged in some extracurricular activity that led to the two shoving each other.
With a majority of the skirmishes involving rookies or recent free agent additions, Del Rio made it clear both to his team and to the media that the aggressive post-play activity wouldn’t continue.
“I think there was a great opportunity to teach for us today with some of the spats going on,” Del Rio said, via Raiders.com. “They’re really not part of what we do. You guys watched us all last year in camp, it’s not a big part of what happens with the way we work, and the way we have respect for each other. In just about every case it was a new guy; I pretty much take that on myself. I say, ‘Okay, these guys have not been told, now is a great opportunity’, so I laid it out for them, what it looks like here, how we treat each other, what the Raider way looks like. Hopefully we won’t waste our time doing things like that. Raiders want to take care of Raiders.”
Carr reiterated Del Rio’s comments during his press conference; he noted that the actions that took place aren’t tolerated in Oakland, while he also highlighted the fact that the skirmishes are clearly a byproduct of the level of competition present in camp.