Oakland Raiders: Five OTA thoughts after Week 2
By Austin Gayle
- Offensive Coordinator Bill Musgrave Admiring Oakland’s Running Back Depth
After leaning on Pro Bowl running back Latavius Murray to carry a majority of the load for the Raiders’ rushing attack last season, Musgrave is looking forward to taking advantage of Oakland’s depth at the running back position in 2016.
“I think we’ve got a really good stable of runners right now,” Musgrave said. “Someone will emerge, and we’ll have different guys that’ll get put in different situations whether it’s [Jamize Olawale], Marcel [Reece], or Taiwan [Jones], and with the other guys that will emerge as well, so we’re looking forward to that component.”
Without a strong backup running back in 2015, the Raiders finished with the 28th ranked rushing offense despite having Murray rush for over 1,000 yards.
Musgrave also praised the rookie running back Deandre Washington, a former Texas-Tech back that could claim and third-down role early because of his receiving ability.
“He’s really worked well for us this far, so we’re putting him different situations, again, to get a feel for his strengths and how we can tailor plays, tailor situations so he can really flash for us,” Musgrave said. “He’s going to be good on first, second, and third down, and I know Brad [Seely] is excited to have him on special teams.”
“Overall, we are looking to do more things that will up our players’ respective alleys and what they can do well,” Musgrave said. “We have a better grasp of that than we did 12 months ago, so we want to do running concepts that our guys can execute, whether it’s the running back or the o-line. We’re always looking to get better, of course, fundamentally and technique wise. We are going to keep working in that direction.”