Richie Incognito has had his ups and downs throughout his career, but with the Oakland Raiders taking a flyer on the 11-year veteran, he’s focused on a bounce back season.
Throughout the initial stages of the Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock era, they’ve made it their focus to ‘change the culture’ of the organization. Having three first-round picks and an enormous amount of cap space will definitely help accomplish just that.
Among the new free-agents that the Raiders brought aboard, Richie Incognito was one of the more surprising offseason moves. Meanwhile, throughout the draft process, Mayock continuously stated that he wants “high character football players”.
Incognito is a high level player on the field, but his off the field track record is nothing to brag about. It looks as if Mayock and Gruden were comfortable enough in bringing him into the locker room that they spent the entire offseason recreating. It also shows, they were more worried about the left guard situation than they were leading onto in the early stages of free-agency.
With training camp getting underway Incognito has seen reps with the first team. He’ll help fill the hole that was left at left guard after the Raiders traded away Kelechi Osemele to the New York Jets. Incognito will face a two game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, which didn’t come by any surprise as the Raiders were well aware of the issue before the official signing.
Incognito spoke to the media for the first time since his signing after Saturday’s training camp practice.
"“It’s about redemption,” said Incognito. “It’s about Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden and the entire Raiders organization giving me an opportunity, and I want to make it right. I want to make it positive for everybody. I want to contribute and be a team leader and I want to re-write the ending.”"
Last season Incognito didn’t play in the NFL, as he received no interest from NFL teams. Although, he kept training all of last season on his own, waiting for someone to give him another shot at playing in the NFL.
But at the end of the day, his reputation had been among some of the leagues worst. Such as being involved in a bullying scandal during his time with the Miami Dolphins, as well as, struggling with mental health issues, causing him to do unprecedented things while being away from the game of football.
Despite the baggage he brings along with him, it appears Incognito is ready to flip the script and change the viewpoint that many label him with. Only time will tell what he does in order to do so, but his main goal this season is to play for ‘redemption’.