Schilens to the rescue _ next week
By Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 12:43 pm in Oakland Raiders.
If all goes according to plan, Chaz Schilens hopes to return to face the Houston Texans on Oct. 4, approximately six weeks after breaking a bone in his left foot while running a pass pattern during training camp.
“Myself, I’d probably like to push it a little faster than it should be,” Schilens said. “But they’ve done a good, kind of making sure that I’m where I need to be at and taking the right time and the proper right steps to make sure that I don’t hurt it again.”
Schilens had developed a chemistry with JaMarcus Russell that hasn’t been replaced by another wide receiver. He caught all five passes thrown his way in the preseason opener against Dallas (for 52 yards) in a little over a quarter and put together more good practices than any skill position player until the time of his injury.
Schilens said expects that connection to remain six weeks later.
“Shoot, once I get my legs back and everything’s good, and run a couple routes, I’m sure after a couple days I’ll be right back to where I need to be at,” Schilens said. “It might take a few practices, but I don’t see anything being a real problem. I’ve stayed watching the offense, and I’ve been studying, paying attention as well as I can, so I really don’t feel like I should have too much of a dropoff.”
In the Raiders scheme, Schilens plays the “Z” receiver as does Louis Murphy, with Darrius Heyward-Bey as the “X.”
Murphy has six catches for 113 yards and a touchdown, Heyward-Bey one reception for 17 yards.
Regardless of letters of the alphabet, Schilens figures the most productive receivers will play.
“They’ll put the best guys out there. I really don’t know,” Schilens said. “Louis is a great player, he deserves to be out there. So we’ll see. Don’t really know. Feel like the best receivers will be out there, though.”
Schilens started his career as an “X” before moving to a “Z” when his rookie season started.
“I can do enough to be effective at both,” Schilens said.
Murphy said he didn’t think changing sides would be a big deal.
“Our offense is a concept offense,” Murphy said. “It wouldn’t be a big deal to change positions. I’ll leave that to the coaches and how they want to handle it. However the coaches want to go about it when Schilens gets back.”
Passing game coordinator Ted Tollner said the positons are interchangable enough so getting the most productive receivers on the field shouldn’t be a problem.
“It’s very easy, and to ask one of them to do more than one position – like we’ve already asked Louis to start being the inside guy on our three wide-receiver package so that he can flip from an outside, strong, flanker ‘Z’ position to an inside, what we call a ‘Zebra’ slot position,” Tollner said. “ And again, you’ve got to be careful how much you give a rookie because then they overload and they’re not productive, because they don’t know what to do. That issue is a good one. We have to figure out a way to make sure the best players get on the field.”
More to come later . . .
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September 24th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
CHAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
September 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Living large in Raiderworld
September 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
sorry Plunketthead…
Dakota will come and take it now!!! =)
September 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
fix the blog jerry
September 24th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Schilens should be the Z and Murphy the Y DHB the X
September 24th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I’ve learn to copy before I send. Still it’s frustrating.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Walker should be the U receiver ……….as in unemployed
September 24th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I bet you get it fixed the first time it eats 2 hours of your work when you hit send. But something tells me you are able to bypass wordpress=turdpress
September 24th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
unintentionally I;m sure just like all us
September 24th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I have stolen it before myself.
Karmas a wordpress
September 24th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Schilens won’t be 100 percent next week. there is no way he’ll start against the Texans if he’s not even able to run yet. he got the boot off like 4 days ago, right?
Russell needs to improve his game, with or without Chaz. I don’t expect him to contribute much until after the bye week. Let’s hope they don’t rush him on the field too quickly, which results in a more devastating injury.
Russell needs to spend some time after practice with Heyward-Bey, Murphy, Watkins and even Walker. If timing and chemistry is the biggest reason Russell was garbage in the first 2 games this year, he needs to “put the work in” as Cable suggests. Show some friggin leadership. Whether he likes it or not, he’s the face of the franchise and this team is basically on his shoulders. the coaching, o-line, defense and special teams are all doing thier part. where is the pass offense? this is not a conservative offense like Kiffin & Knapp wanted. we have plenty of chances to take shots down the field. accuracy has been the problem.
September 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
tollner also said
“There isn’t time to spend all day out here on footwork. Paul gets five minutes on that now, where he was getting a couple of hours before.”
3rd year in the league number one over all pick they shouldnt even need to think about footwork. man jawalruss ticks me off.
that said we will beat the donkeys goooooooooo raidaz
September 24th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Has anyone ever seen him actually take control of his offense.
“don’t worry guys we got this”
“come one guys this team can’t hang with us”
That kinda stuff? I know we can’t hear in the huddle but you can still see the QBs in the league handle themselves like that and I don’t see it from Russel.
If he can put together a couple of break out games its going to be good for him I just hope that he can get to that point.
September 24th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Interesting the Raiders let Tollner speak. I thought he and Hackett had become mutes.
JERRY~~~> DID YOU ASK THE OBVIOUS QUESTION? WHEN WILL SOUTHWICK BE READY?
September 24th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
hey rockstar
hes probably in too much of a rush to get home and play ps3 these guys are just rich kids.
September 24th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
LMMFAO Jombus1
September 24th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
new post Barack worshippers!
September 24th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
#17 = concise truth
September 24th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
[...] to the rescue…..next week Full Article: Schilens to the rescue _ next week – Inside the Oakland Raiders – A look inside the world of the hig… [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
#17 Amen, brother.
Schilens and Murphy and Miller with Bush in the backfield.
Lots of great targets for Jamarcus to miss!
September 24th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
[...] SOURCE: OAKLAND TRIBUNE [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
[...] Read more. [...]
September 25th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Schilens and Murphy deserve to start. Murphy as the X and Chaz as the Z.
Maybe when 3 are out there, DHB can be the X,Murphy the slot receiver and Schilens the Z.
JLH should be the 4th receiver and run short routes he can turn in big gains with his speed.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:04 am
[...] McD: Schilens to the rescue _ next week Schilens to the rescue _ next week Schilens to the rescue _ next week – Inside the Oakland Raiders – A look inside the world of the hig… __________________ RaideroftheSith aka [...]