Oakland Raiders Training Camp Notebook: Week 1

Nose Tackle

This was unexpected. The Raiders played quite a bit of 4-3 alignment last season, and when they did, that saw Dan Williams and Justin “Jelly” Ellis on the field together as “meat and potatoes”, two giant space-eating men who go after and devour running backs with the same relish as they do a rack of barbecued short ribs.

Williams played lights-out last season, and was expected to be the entrenched starter coming into this season. However, Jelly has been shaking his way past Williams with some exceptional work effort and play and it seems that when the Raiders use 3-4 or 3-3-5 alignments, which they plan to do this season, Ellis and not Williams will be the first man trotting out to the middle. JBB`s editor-in-chief Chase Ruttig has more in this story here.

As Del Rio told Scott Bair of CSN Bay Area, he’s pleased with Ellis but by no means is diminishing Williams’ role. “Thus far, we as a staff think that (Ellis) is ahead of Dan, but we’re a long way from lining it up in September,” Del Rio said. “‘Jelly’ is off to a great start. Dan’s a good football player. Competition brings out the best. Right now as we’re stacking up our practices, ‘Jelly’ is a little bit ahead of Dan. Like I said, it’s way too early to be worrying about where it ends up.”

The depth continues to build in Oakland.

Next: Playmakers Gonna Make