Category: Oakland Raiders

That’s Amaury’s Podcast, News and Commentary: The two sport stadium will be decided soon and the Raiders most likely will blink first

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez and Jerry Feitelberg

(photo credit Joe Salvatore CBS Radio)

OAKLAND–A couple of hours before the LA Angels-Oakland A’s game Monday night at the Oakland Coliseum the grounds crew spray painted the huge brown patch in centerfield green that was once was the bleachers that came out into centerfield and killed the natural grass that was once there.
It signified the start of the NFL season for the Oakland Raiders and pre season.

It also had Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis saying what he’s said time and again each time this year that something has to be done about the Oakland Raiders stadium issues. The grounds crew took to centerfield and sprayed it all green, the patch extended out from center toward rightfield a spot that former A’s centerfielder Dwayne Murphy once roamed and probably can tell you about. Yes the same brown patch to green spray experience during his days with the A’s in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

This look resembles grass but it’s a really a bad look because the stands cover the field during Raiders games. That’s where the temporary stands go out there. For the fans there’s a little wear and tear for that section of the outfield. You have to give the Coliseum grounds keepers as much credit as they do. They do as good of a job as they can keeping centerfield tidy.

This is the only facility in the country that is shared by a MLB club and an NFL team everybody has to live with it. MLB figured it out in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cincinnati and others that they can make a duel stadium venture work and shared stadiums just don’t work and they can’t figure it out in Oakland. Oakland business man Floyd Kephart had submitted his final plans for a Oakland Raiders stadium.

This was at the Oakland Coliseum City project meeting which nobody attended. Their was nobody at the meeting that was of any importance other than members of the media and Kephart ended up virtually talking to himself at the meeting for 20 minutes. Amaury had the chance to talk with some former Oakland mayors like the late Lionel Wilson and former mayor Jerry Brown. Brown was not a sports guy and discussing public monies for saving the A’s was not even on his radar. Wilson talked to Amaury about a new stadium for the A’s.

At the time that Wilson was mayor of Oakland the A’s were winning in the mid 80s with the A’s owners the Haas Family as team owners. Nobody during that time cared where you played all they cared about is if you were winning World Series and winning pennants and now it’s a different story. In terms of the Raiders if you looked at the places they played in Northern and Southern California there were so many different things people could do during those days. The question is if they don’t win their not coming out to the park.

This week Amaury is torn as the Angels visit the A’s, Amaury is the TV Spanish voice for the Angels, the radio Spanish voice for the A’s, and does News and Commentary each week and Jerry Feitelberg is an Oakland A’s beat reporter at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders lose Menelik Watson, fall late to Cardinals 30-23

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND, Calif — Marion Grice hauled in a 11-yard touchdown pass from Logan Thomas with 31 seconds left in the fourth quarter as the Arizona Cardinals dropped the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum, 30-23 on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

The Cardinals took a 23-15 lead earlier in the fourth quarter behind a 10-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Drew Stanton to running back Kerwynn William, before Oakland tied the game when backup quarterback Matt McGloin connected with wide receiver Kris Durham for a 4-yard touchdown.

Oakland (1-2) just couldn’t get their offense together as Sebastian Janikowski booted five first half field goals that gave the Raiders a 15-3 halftime lead.

Raiders starting quarterback Derek Carr finished 18-of-34 for 213 yards passing, but threw an interception (that Carr did a poor job in throwing the ball away) to cornerback Cariel Brooks who took it 81 yards for a touchdown that cut Oakland’s lead to 15-10 in the third quarter.

Carr and the Raiders’ first-team offense looked inconsistent and unsure of themselves while playing nine series (or the entire first half).

“As an offense we’re pretty upset right now,” Carr said. “We want to score a lot of points. We felt like we left a lot out there and we did.”

Rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper lead Oakland with four catches for 62 yards, but it was his 39-yard catch over Cardinals Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson, who had great coverage on Cooper.

Cooper and Carr had chances to put the ball in the end zone, but Oakland had to settle for a field goal.

Arizona bottled up Oakland’s ground game, limiting the Raiders to just 37 rushing yards. Trent Richardson, who is definitely on the roster bubble, led Oakland with 19 rushing yards on five carries. Slated started Latavius Murray was stuffed by the Cardinals, mustering just one yard on seven carries.

Defensively, Oakland’s first-team defense harassed and made life difficult for Cardinals quarterback, Carson Palmer led by second-year stud linebacker, Khalil Mack.

Mack tallied two of Oakland’s three sacks on Palmer, and a forced fumble (which Arizona recovered). Arizona’s offensive line didn’t have an answer for Mack, who was in Palmer’s face almost the entire first half.

Safety Nate Allen was a ball-hawk, intercepting Palmer twice as Palmer finished 8-of-22 for 103 passing yards, as Arizona’s first-team offense struggled on their first four possessions: interception, three-and-out, missed 54-yard field goal, and three-and-out.

Not only did the Silver & Black lose the game, but may have suffered a bigger loss on its offensive line when right tackle Menelik Watson ruptured his Achilles’ tendon and is expected to miss the entire season.

Watson announced the injury via his Twitter account shortly before the conclusion of the game.

“Ruptured Achilles’ tendon…I Will be back stronger than ever that’s a promise. Main thing is supporting the team right now. #RaiderNation.” – @MenelikWatson

“That’s a tough break for us,” Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio said. “It’s really unfortunate. He was having a great camp for us.”

Running back Andre Ellington led Arizona with 19 rushing yards on nine carries, while tight end Ifeanyi Momah led all Cardinals receivers with 61 yards, including the 38-yard catch from second-year quarterback Logan Thomas that would setup the go-ahead score for Arizona.

Arizona (1-2) picked up its first win of the preseason.

Both teams have some tough decisions to make in the next 24 to 48 hours as rosters must be trimmed to 75 players by Tuesday afternoon and 53 by Saturday.

Oakland and Arizona conclude their preseason on a short week on the road Thursday, with the Silver & Black playing in Seattle and Arizona wrapping up in Denver.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Vin Scully will return for 67th season in Dodgers booth

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–Nobody is better calling a baseball game than Vin Scully. Last night at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles a crowd of 44,874 (Dodgers are #1 in attendance in Major League Baseball) rendered Scully a standing ovation. In a business much driven by egos, Vin Scully is the best and one of the most humble people you could ever meet. Nobody can broadcast a game(without missing a play on the field)while telling you what happened to Don Newcomb during a road trip with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 when he won 27 games, “…and the pitch…”

Vin Scully is not going to pest you with Twitters, or StatCast or any of the silly new things in today’s baseball, because he comes into the booth to tell you about the game to entertain you, to educate you about the game, to bring you history capsules with anecdotes that only he can, he doesn’t have to go crazy when a Dodger hits a 450 foot homer, he calls it, it is part of the game.

During the past five seasons when the Dodgers came to Angel Stadium in Anaheim during an inter-league series, Vin sits to the broadcast booth immediately to my left, just across the glass. Early before a game I greet him and speak with him for a few minutes, as graceful as anybody I know, he treats everybody with respect and professionalism. I am truly looking forward to the series at Angel Stadium this September 7th to the 9th when Vin Scully will visit the Halos.

I know here in the Bay Area people grow up with that innate Dodger hate, but if you are a real baseball aficionado there is no way you can hate this man. He is as objective as anybody has ever been on the air doing baseball, and by no means a “homer”, he enjoys when the Dodgers win, and that is understandable when you broadcast for a team way over a half a century, but he is honest and straight forward, if the team playing the Dodgers makes a great play, he will give credit where credit is due.

One thing that is perfect for Vin Scully is the new “replay” rule in baseball, while a play is reviewed for a few minutes, and three umpires are wearing headsets, and are waiting for the decision from New York, Vin would tell you an anecdote of 50 years ago, like it happened the last weekend.

Congratulations Vin, and Best Wishes on your new year.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland to host Arizona Sunday in third preseason “dress rehearsal” game

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — The third preseason game is usually the “dress rehearsal” for most teams. It gives the fans, and the rest of the league, a good look at what first-team offenses and defenses for each NFL franchise.

When Oakland hosts Arizona Sunday at O.co Coliseum before a national television audience (the game can be seen on NBC) at 6:00 P.M. PDT, we should expect to see both the Raiders and Cardinals play their first-team offenses and defenses into the third quarter.

But maybe the string of season-ending injuries to stars like Green Bay’s wide receiver Jordy Nelson, has Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio rethinking playing time for both the first-team offense and defense.

“There are certain things you kind of expect about what you’re going to do and try to do (in preseason game No. 3), but I think you do have to take pause and make sure you think about it,” Del Rio said. “We’ll do that. We’ll see what is appropriate.

Oakland can clean up some things in this game against the Cardinals, most notably penalties.

In Oakland’s 18-3 victory against the St. Louis Rams in the preseason home opener, the Raiders committed just two penalties for 22 yards. In last week’s 20-12 loss on the road in Minnesota against the Vikings, Oakland committed a mind-boggling 13 penalties for 106 yards.

The Raiders had a whole football field’s worth (and then some) of penalties that it became ridiculous to even watch the game.

We already know that Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and fourth overall draft pick in this year’s draft, Alabama’s Amari Cooper appear to be on the same page (Cooper has four catches for 62 yards in two preseason games), but former San Francisco 49ers still needs to be heard from this preseason (two catches for 15 yards in two preseason games).

If Cooper is going to be the No. 1 guy where defenses are going to have to game plan for this season, Crabtree needs to be the reliable No. 2 wide receiver that will consistently move the chains.

Seriously, Oakland can have a legitimate offense this season and Sunday night against the Cardinals, Carr and the first-team offense should be showcased.

Running back Latavius Murray appears to be the bell-cow for Oakland and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave thinks that Murray will be vital piece to Oakland’s offense success, as Musgrave recently told Raiders Insider CSN Bay Area’s Scott Bair.

“He has been working a lot on his hands so he can be a good receiver out of the backfield, because we don’t want a guy that’s going to be a liability when we go to throw the ball. He’s really been working on that. Of course, he’s got the body and the ability to really be a good player at this level.”

“He’s got great vision,” Musgrave said. “Not just because he’s tall, even if he was 5-8. I think he’d have really good vision. He can anticipate things and jump through those cracks, almost before they open.”

Mix in former Auburn running back Jonathan Dwyer and maybe Trent Richardson, the Raiders will have the makings of competitive backfield.

Defensively for Oakland, you want to see who will line up in the secondary with future Hall of Famer Charles Woodson.

D.J. Hayden and T.J. Carrie have struggled at both starting cornerback spots this preseason. Hayden was getting abused by Minnesota wide receiver Charles Johnson for most of the first half, even giving up a 10-yard touchdown. The coverage appeared decent, but Hayden never looked back at Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and Minnesota took full advantage.

Will we see recently signed safety Taylor Mays hit the field Sunday and try to make an impression on his new team? Mays reunites with new Raiders defensive coordinator Ken Norton, who coached Mays when the two were at Southern California.

But the one guy that I’ve been really intrigued with has been rookie inside linebacker Ben Heeney.

Heeney has jumped off my television screen with so much energy and toughness that with questions about linebacker Sio Moore’s future in the Silver & Black, Heeney has a shot to make the team.

This preseason, the former Kansas Jayhawk leads the Raiders with 15 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

The Cardinals are coming off a 22-19 home loss to the San Diego Chargers last Saturday and have questions at running back.

Former 2,000-yard rusher Chris Johnson was signed recently to compete with a ho-hum backfield headlined by would-be starter Andre Ellington.

Last season, Johnson averaged 4.3 yards per carry (and a career-low 663 rushing yards and one touchdown) on 155 carries in 16 games (six starts) for the New York Jets.

Keep an eye on Johnson’s health throughout the game Sunday night after Johnson suffered a hamstring injury last week.

Ellington finished with 660 rushing yards and three touchdowns in 201 carries in 12 games for the Cardinals last season, but averaged a pedestrian 3.3 yards per carry. In the NFL, you always need two running backs and Arizona believes that the Ellington/Johnson tandem can be a lethal combo this season, if both are healthy.

Former Raiders and current Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer should see extensive action, but I’d be surprise if he plays five plays in the third quarter. Maybe only two.

Future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is always box office, even in a preseason game.

It would’ve been nice to see Fitzgerald’s heir apparent, wide receiver Michael Floyd Sunday, but Floyd is recovering from surgery after dislocating three of his fingers early in training camp.

Overall, the “dress rehearsal” game will be the last time that the fans will get to see the potential starters on both sides of the ball play.

By the fourth and final preseason game (Arizona at Denver, Oakland at Seattle respectively), Raider fans or Cardinal fans should not expect to see Carr or Palmer in the game, respectively.

Oakland Raiders podcast with Jeremy Kahn: Starters to get lots of looks this Sunday against Cardinals

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by Jeremy Kahn

ALAMEDA–The third game of the pre season with the Arizona Cardinals will be the Raiders showing off their starters and see what they can do this Sunday night. In this game the starters will get more time. This game is basically the showdown for them to see who wants to play come play the most on opening day September 13th against Cincinnati.

The offensive line looks impressive and quarterback Derek Carr he’s the leader of that team and they need to protect him and if he goes down their going to be in trouble because they really don’t have a good back up and and they need him to be healthy when the season starts.

Marcel Reece is an all pro at fullback he’s a proven leader and he knows how to win and he’s knows how to play all pro ball all season long and that’s the reason why they picked him to go to the all pro team. At wide receiver Michael Crabtree who came over from San Francisco and there’s Amari Cooper that’s going to be a really nice duel.

John Madden former Raider coach says the Raider tradition truly is “pride and poise” which was originally said by the late Raiders owner Al Davis: Pride and Poise, Just win baby, Commitment to excellence, and team of the decades. It’s the same statement that was made at Michigan “those who stay will be champions” and “a team’s a team is a team.”

That’s what Madden said about the Raider tradition and these kids on the Raiders don’t understand what it was like to be a Raider in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, all the way up to the time when former head coach Jon Gruden was in Oakland. They don’t know what it’s like they need to bring that winning mentality back to Oakland.

Jeremy Kahn does the Oakland Raiders podcasts each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NFL Podcast with Tony Renteria: Jonathan Martin writes about suicide; players and media talk about double murder case of TV crew

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by Tony Renteria

ALAMEDA–Former Miami Dolphin and San Francisco 49er Jonathan Martin wrote about suicide and bullying in the NFL and the kind of kidding around that happens in the locker room. The things that went on with Martin in Miami went too far but I don’t know what happened there that could force a strong willed person to want to hurt themselves. Someone whose trying to succeed in that level of competition would have a strong mental edge just through the years of discipline to play in the league and in the upper levels of professional football.

The WDBJ-TV double murder of reporter Alison Parker and TV cameraman Adam Ward and we just got done talking about Jonathan Martin and someone who has a mental illness and go to a story like this. The shooter in the case Bryce Williams whose legal name is Vester Lee Flanagan II is a former KPIX CBS 5 employee. The recording of the shooting from a first person of the shooting on his facebook page is beyond deplorable. It has sports media and players taking to twitter commenting on that story.

Flanagan apparently had a Go-Pro camera on when he did the shooting and downloaded the recording of the double slaying on his Facebook page before taking his life later. It’s not something that a normal person would do and then go to a park somewhere and end his own life in such a cowardly way. It’s a horrible story but I’m glad that there was some kind of resolution that ended quickly and this person couldn’t hurt anyone else.

Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck is back for the Raiders after watching the game in street clothes last Saturday in the rain in Minnesota. The Raiders host the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday for what is the final dress rehearsal for the Raiders. The Raiders have a game Thursday in Seattle. This is going to be the game where they put everything together and this is going to be the game where the starters play mid way through the third quarter and we get a look at the Raiders can do.

So this will be an opportunity to take a look at where the Raiders strength and weaknesses are going to be, they picked up safety Taylor Mays today who played in Cincinnati and was at USC and has ties with Ken Norton Jr and so it’s something to look forward to with Mays on the squad and it’s going to be interesting to see who the Raiders have for the first week of the NFL season.

Also the Raiders running back Roy Helu Jr is back from his hamstring injury as well as linebacker Sio Moore who returned from an undisclosed injury they should be a huge help for Oakland. It’s curious if these injuries were training camp injuries and it gives the Raiders time to get these guys rested for later in the pre season.

Tony Renteria does the NFL podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders, Mays come to terms

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — With the NFL becoming more and more a passing league, the Raiders added veteran safety Taylor Mays, a league source confirmed via Raiders Insider CSNCalifornia.com’s Scott Bair.

Mays was drafted in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers out of Southern California. The hard-hitting safety spent just one season with the 49ers before being traded in August 2011 to Cincinnati for a 2013 seventh-round draft pick where he spent the past four seasons.

Mays, will reunite with new Raiders defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., who coached Mays at Southern California.

The 27-year-old Mays signed with Minnesota during the offseason, but was released by the Vikings in March. Mays signed with Detroit, before the Lions released him on Aug. 20.

Mays has never lived up to the hype that he had coming out of Southern California. His rookie year was his best, as Mays registered 38 tackles and a force fumble in six starts.

In 16 games last season for the Bengals, Mays finished with just nine tackles (seven solo), and a sack.

Mays will join a crowded Raiders’ safety corps with Charles Woodson, Nate Allen, Larry Asante, Brandian Ross, and Jonathan Dowling.

Oakland Raiders podcast with David Zizmor: Amari Cooper says he’s got this; vets tell rookie Oak offense looking good

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–Week two of the preseason in Minnesota veteran and players alike are telling the Oakland Raiders rookie Amari Cooper that the offense looks good. Right now everybody really need to temper their enthusiasm the Raiders have played only one game of pre season last week on Aug 14 at the Coliseum against the Rams.

There’s nothing to get excited about in terms of what you saw on the field against the Rams. The simple fact of the matter is in the first pre season game and frankly in every pre season game you do not see lot of complex defenses out there it just doesn’t happen and teams just don’t want to reveal anything for their opponents in the regular season.

It’s more important to see the second and third stringers in the base defense just to see the starters playing in the more complicated depth that they throw out during the regular season. The Raiders might have looked decent against a base defense against some of the second and third stringers and a little bit for the first stringers.

Their not facing the same level of competition as you are in the regular season. Even when you see the first stringers a lot of key guys won’t be in there who are veterans and who are really proven players and who only play in the pre season seldomly or not at all. They have earned the right to take those games off and in the best interest of the team to avoid any kind of injuries to those key guys.

Comparing the Raiders in 2015 to the Raiders exactly a year ago in 2014 Raiders fans have a reason to be optimistic but you can’t look at them and say their going to make the playoffs. You could look at the team and feel better about them and that they’ve improved year after year. On offense quarterback Derek Carr isn’t a rookie anymore and we kind of know about his skillset and what Carr is able to do.

Carr is still a work in progress because he’s still in his second year but you could look at him and say he looks like he could be a decent quarterback. You look around the rest of the skill positions and you say Latavius Murray looks like he could be a really skilled running back. Cooper their first round pick looks really, really good. Michael Crabtree didn’t have a great year with the 49ers but at least in camp so far he’s been strong and certainly an improvement than some of the guys the Raiders ran out their at wide receiver last year.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

Carr, Raiders roll into the Twin Cities

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — The Raiders’ 18-3 victory over the St. Louis Rams in both team’s preseason debut last Friday night at O.co Coliseum, showed that Oakland and new head coach Jack Del Rio are definitely heading in the right track.

Oh and did I mention that with the win, Del Rio became the first Raiders’ head coach to win his preseason debut since Lane Kiffin in 2007?

Heading into Minnesota Saturday, Oakland looks to build off the momentum that it garnered in their win against St. Louis.

Outside of Derek Carr’s red zone interception that appeared to be miscommunication between Carr and fourth overall pick Amari Cooper, Oakland played clean football committing just two penalties.

Carr found Cooper early and often completing three passes to Oakland’s project No. 1 wide receiver for 22 yards. Cooper also added a 3-yard run on an end-around.

Carr led Oakland’s first-team on two drive before heading to the sidelines for the night.

“We’re heading the right way,” Carr said after the game. “Is there’s stuff to clean up, just like every game? Yes. But I’d say we’re heading in the right direction. All the hard work is paying off, but we have to continue to grind and we can’t just think one preseason game means everything. It’s a good start but we have a long way to go.”

The battle to be Carr’s backup will be an interesting one for Raiders fans to pay close attention for the remainder of camp between former Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder and Matt McGloin.

Both players showed promised against the Rams second and third-teamers.

Ponder finished 6-of-8 for 59 yards and an interception, but connected with wide receiver Andre Holmes for a 3-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

According to a report by ESPN‘s Adam Schefter, Holmes suffered a broken hand in Sunday’s practice and will be out 3-4 weeks.  Holmes, who is battling for Oakland’s No. 3 wide receiver position, will almost certainly slip down on the team’s depth chart.

McGloin completed 10-of-11 passes for 104 yards, with a 16-yard touchdown toss to wide receiver Brice Butler in the fourth quarter.

Butler finished with six catches for 57 yards.

“As coaches, there’s so much we’re going to go back and agonize over,” Del Rio said. “How are we going to make this better? It was an excellent night. It was a clean night. We came out relatively healthy and got some good work so all and all I was pleased with the effort.”

Minnesota is coming off a 14-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL’s annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger were among the notable players who watched the game from the sidelines.

Vikings starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater completed 5-of-6 passes for 44 yards on his one series of the game. Vikings backup quarterback Mike Kafka threw a touchdown pass, while running back Joe Banyard ran for another score.

NFL Podcast with Tony Renteria: Jerome Simpson suspension just the latest in 49er dysfunction

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by Tony Renteria

SANTA CLARA–San Francisco 49er wideout Jerome Simpson will have to sit down for the first six games of the NFL season due to testing positive for substance abuse. This past off season has been atrocious for San Francisco for the players who retired, the players who left due to legal issues and those players who were released. It’s going to be a pivotal first season for head coach Jim Tomsula.

With this team how do you keep saying this is another thing that’s going wrong, this is another thing that’s going wrong and the Niners are starting only their second year in their new stadium. The team has season tickets to sell, they have money that has to be paid off. You have to keep a good spin on the marketing skills. I believe that the 49ers organization flagship is sinking holes left and right in the 49ers harbor.

Injuries in the NFL: Taking a look at recent injuries in camp with the Panther wide receiver Kevin Benjamin who had an MRI on his left knee in scrimmage and the Dolphins safety Louis Delmas has reinjured his right knee in scrimmage the Panthers and Dolphins are going to miss those guys. Every season there are going to be some injuries that go on and these guys are playing 12 months around the year.

These guys could have injuries in OTAs and their own personal workouts these kinds of injuries are going to happen in the NFL. The one concern I have for Carolina is they lost Benjamin at wide receiver who’ll they’ll miss in his yards and scoring. It’s going to be hard for them to fill that hole up. A defensive guy in the secondary is not going to be that important as the number one wideout so Carolina is in a much worst situation.

Raiders in their first pre season game looked impressive last Friday against Minnesota in their 18-3 win. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr had a great outing no matter short going 6-9 for 43 yards, and one interception. All four quarterbacks who threw for the Raiders look really good. That’s something that you haven’t heard not only did the starter look good but the back ups looked good.

The quarterback position for the Raiders looks pretty good, Matt McGloin who has seven or eight NFL starts under his belt and he looked on going 10-11 for 104 yards, and a touchdown. McGloin is a very accurate passer. The coaches had McGloin moving around in the pocket and he did very well on Friday night. McGloin might end up being a good second quarterback for somebody but it’s unlikely he’ll end up with Oakland for the regular season.

Tony Renteria does the NFL Podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com