Oakland Raiders: Saturday Minicamp News & Notes
Raiders rookie linebacker Rolando McClain working in camp
Oakland Raiders rookie linebacker Roland McClain is catching the eye of coaches and teammates, quickly solidifying himself as a stout defender, who will only get better on John Marshall’s unit.
“Man, he’s bigger than I thought he was,’’ veteran linebacker Thomas Howard stated of McClain. “He works hard, he’s a smart player and he jumped right in and he was able to control the defense. Like a middle linebacker is supposed to, he has great feet to be such a big guy, humble, hard worker.”
Second round pick Lamarr Houston also is shaking up camp with his aggressive play. He got into it with offensive lineman Langston Walker and veteran running back Rock Cartwright shouted at the rookie for his nasty streak.
Owner Al Davis even made time to view the happenings on the field…
Continuing on the defense, Tom Cable stated, “Oh, I don’t know. I think it depends,’’ regarding the possibilities of mixing up their 4-3, 3-4 alignments.
“We haven’t talked a lot about it. We have a plan for different things that we haven’t done. I think once we see what we can handle, what we can do, I probably could answer that better down the road.”
Hue Jackson is vocal and looks in total control of the offense. There is no doubt that Jackson is going to be in tune with the players, playbook and will have his finger on the pulse of every player the Raiders field on offense. The former Ravens assistant is a stickler for details and has been observed various times during the weekend teaching the fundamentals while emphasizing the expansion of the playbook.
Darrius Heyward-Bey gets deep and hauls in a long touchdown pass. So far, this weekend has shown that he has the ability to grow as a solid target, but they are still lapses. The second year pro does look a lot better though a year later.
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Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist
