What’s Good, notorious Nation!?!? Long time, no write!
Tui’s back on board? Sick, yo.. I just hope he makes the other Quarterbacks work harder. With Andrew Walter also on the roster, we have one of the most youthful and inexperienced QB squads in Oakland Raider history!
I guess the organization is thinking nothing but the best for Mr. JaMarcus Russell. This can only mean the Coaches are seeing something special from JAM during the off season.
Even Coach Kiffin says we’re seeing a different kind of Quarterback in JR from recent practices from this year to last.
I just hope his progression carries over to the 2008 regular season.
I’m sure all eyes will be on our sophomore QB this up and coming Pre Season…the Lord of the Sith can’t wait!!!!
Thank the heavens and the force for the NFL network.

Can some one tell me what the SWARCO Raiders are?
Well, they’re in the playoffs! YEY!!

..and now what you all have been waiting for…
MORE interviews!

Coach Kiffin: It has been exciting to have the rookies back and obviously RB Darren McFadden is a headliner there working with QB JaMarcus Russell. We have a long ways to go working with those two on working them together but it’s been good to have them together and I think they’ve hit it off pretty well. We are just going to keep incorporating Darren as much as we can into our gameplan and keep throwing more stuff at him. He’s doing a phenomenal job mentally being able to handle it and physically it seems to be easy on him.

Q: What have you managed to get accomplished the last three weeks with the rookie mini-camp and two weeks of OTAs?
Coach Kiffin: I think our guys are really coming together, there are so many new pieces especially offensively, there are so many new guys and new spots that we don’t even know who the starters are going to be necessarily. Anytime you have a quarterback who is close to being a rookie, having not played very much last year, you can never have enough practices. I think we are moving in the right direction with the new pieces on defense, the front-liners; they are working really well together.

Q: How is JaMarcus throwing the ball to running backs right now? Does it come natural or does he need to work on that?
Coach Kiffin: Well, that’s where we have to get him, get into that 65 percent completion [percentage] and you don’t get that by throwing the ball all the time downfield. There are times where you need to stretch the field but he has got to know when those are, especially this week, even better than the week before, his completion percentage in using his backs and tight ends instead of forcing things.

Q: I see him talking to players a lot more this year than he was last year at this point. Do you see more of that out of him?
Coach Kiffin: No doubt. In his leadership role, I like that he hasn’t tried to fake it and he has let it come naturally and been smooth into it. He did it before he got on the field, he did it by what he did this off-season. By showing up in shape, his weight the way it is and they way he is working out and lifting with the guys. We all see this (football) out here, but there are hours and hours they spend lifting in the weight room and running together and meetings. You can see the players start to come alive around him as well.

Q: You mentioned before about having two safeties that can [alternate free and strong]. Can you comment on that?
Coach Kiffin: I think anytime that you have guys that can play multiple positions it is going to help you regardless if it is defensive tackles who can play nose or three-technique or running backs who can play both or receivers who can play split end and flanker. That does give you versatility with that. I like where we are at as far as experimenting with them, Michael Huff and Gibril Wilson.

Q: What are you hoping to get done with the upcoming mandatory camp with the full team?
Coach Kiffin: Yeah, it’s not a whole lot different. The practice isn’t much different from what we are doing except that we will have two during the day. We don’t really change a lot except that they will be doing two-a-day practices. This week coming up they have off so it’s very important for them to stay in shape, take care of themselves because you will notice the guys who don’t quickly when it comes to two a days.

Oakland Raiders Safety, Gibril Wilson:
Q: Can your break down for us how often you played free safety with the New York Giants?
Wilson: Nowadays the safety position has to very interchangeable, there were at times where I was at strong and then there was a time I was at free, but the majority of the time last year I played free but in the past I have played both positions.

Q: Can you talk about the wear on the body playing up closer to the line?
Wilson: The strong safety position is just a very physical position, your shoulders and stuff like that, but if you keep those fit everything will be all right.

Q: Does that suit your game well?
Wilson: Yeah, I think what I bring is my physical presence, being in the box, I’m used to being the box so it doesn’t really matter to me.

Q: How much does that help your all around game?
Wilson: I think it helped a lot. They had me playing the middle of the field more, so I think doing both and having experience in both helped me out.

Q: [After being] on a team that had that run, what now can you bring here?
Wilson: Like I was telling some of the guys, being in the Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl is probably the greatest feeling, outside of having your kids, just having that experience being there sharing that with them, I mean this is what we play for. Once everybody realizes the goal and works hard to get there we will be all right.

Q: Did you have to add on any weight?
Wilson: I’m comfortable with what I’m at right now, I’m at like 210. I just want bring that physical presence, whenever I think of the Raiders I always think of a physical, physical football team, and that’s what I’m going to do my best to bring back. All I’m bringing is physicality, I pride myself on being one of those guys that is going to make the difficult tackle and going to get guys down, that is what I’m doing my best to bring.

Q: How does it feel to be home and does that help the transition?
Wilson: It feels good to be home, being 30 minutes from where I grew up is always good. Does it help the situation? A little bit but I got all these people, all these old friends calling me now, so I have to deal with that.

Q: Have you and Michael Huff been able to help each other?
Wilson: Yeah definitely, we’re going to complement each other very nicely, like I was telling him, there is no time, there is not a play where we shouldn’t talk before the actual snap of the ball. We need to be on the same page, we need to know what each other is thinking, and the disguise and everything and not giving away the defense and everything like that so I think we’ll be great together.

have a great week, Raidah fans!!!
-DR