Kelly Trims Down

 Posted by at 3:06 PM  No Responses »
Aug 172010
 

In 2008, the Raiders gave Tommy Kelly a monster contract in the form of $18.125 million in guarantees with $25.125 million total in the first three years.

It is worth noting, Kelly stands to make about $4.5 million in 2010, having already collected all but $300,000 in bonus money. He will also now be bound to the Raiders until 2014 with only base salaries. He could be easily cut in future seasons.

The Raiders get much for those millions they paid Kelly as he recorded just 5.5 sacks in the two years since signing the deal.

All of this adds up to Tommy Kelly being a lightning rod for criticism. Some of the criticism merited and some not.

Instead of waste away as another member of Al Davis’ 2008 spending spree, Kelly has remained a professional. After playing the season at nearly 350 pounds, Kelly has trimmed down to 315.

Kelly looked quick and punishing as a 295 pound defensive end. Moving him inside to the pass rushing three-technique tackle position was logical, but after two seasons the Raiders are pulling the plug.

Kelly will move to the nose tackle position vacated by the release of Gerard Warren. Warren was much like Kelly in that he was much better rushing the passer than stopping the run.

Desmond Bryant, who played nose tackle last season, will see time as the backup at the three-technique to Richard Seymour and newly acquired John Henderson will backup Kelly at the nose.

Typically the nose tackle position is played by players upwards of 330 pounds. Henderson fits that mold perfectly, yet it is Kelly getting first team reps.

What is clear, the defensive tackle spots will be an ongoing rotation of players in 2010. Perhaps keeping the lineman fresh is just what the doctor ordered for the Raiders sickly run defense.

Despite a change in role, Kelly put in the work to trim down and has taken the position change in stride saying, “I’m strong enough and tough enough to play the nose, so I’m not even worried about it.’’

Fans were immediately excited when Lamarr Houston was drafted and when John Henderson signed, hoping that the moves would put an end to Tommy Kelly starting. Yet Kelly remains, trimmer and leaner starting along-side Richard Seymour and the young defensive end Matt Shaughnessy.

If the Raiders are more successful stopping the run in 2010, much of the success will be given to first-round draft selection Rolando McClain. If it is unimproved or worse, all that blame will be placed upon Tommy Kelly. Neither characterizations are accurate.

An improved run defense should be attributed to the entirely new front seven. Kelly and Seymour remain, but playing different positions. Shaughnessy and Trevor Scott ascended up the depth charts last season to end the year as starters. The remaining four were additions.

Don’t forget Kelly when distributing credit when the Raiders run defense is improved. Although he may never justify the contract, he might just turn a few critics into believers in 2010.

Step Up Your Game: Desmond Bryant

 Posted by at 8:31 PM  2 Responses »
Aug 052010
 

Fifth in a series analyzing players that need to step up their game in 2010 for the Raiders to be a playoff team.

Keeping Everyone Fresh

Desmond Bryant is the 290 pound defensive tackle who played 28% of the snaps in 2009. He is a Harvard graduate.
By comparison, Tommy Kelly played 69% of the snaps, Gerard Warren played 70% of the snaps and Richard Seymour played 23% of the snaps at defensive tackle.

This offseason, Warren was released, Seymour was given the exclusive franchise tag, Lamarr Houston was drafted, and John Henderson was signed. Kelly is still playing on his huge contract and Bryant was penciled in as the team’s new starting defensive tackle with Seymour slated to start at end. In a surprise move, it was announced Houston would play end as well.

As it turns out, Houston would play end because Seymour will play more inside. At least this has been the case in training camp to this point.

Where does that leave Bryant?

Bryant has gone from the potential starter opposite Kelly early in the offseason to the fourth or even fifth option. Seymour, Henderson and Houston will likely steal his snaps. There just isn’t enough to go around.

The coaches have done a good job of talking up Bryant, but it hasn’t been showing. His role is dwindling and he hasn’t made enough camp plays to be noticed.

It is still early, but Bryant needs to step up his game to even have a role in 2010 and beyond.

Unlike the previous players in this series, Bryant’s role isn’t clearly important to the Raiders making the playoffs in 2010. If Bryant was cut or didn’t see the field, few would likely point to him as the reason why the Raiders were or were not successful.

Perhaps Bryant’s importance is best pushed out one year. This will be the final year Tommy Kelly will receive a large sum of guaranteed money, which means the Raiders aren’t likely going to keep Kelly without a restructured contract in 2011. Seymour and Henderson are playing on one year contacts.

Bryant needs to prove to the Raiders he is ready for a starting role in 2011, if he doesn’t the Raiders will likely look elsewhere.

The Raiders’ Ferocious Front Four

 Posted by at 9:05 PM  No Responses »
Jun 082010
 

If football games are won in the trenches, it only seems appropriate to take a closer look at the Raiders’ defensive line.

The Raiders released Gerard Warren this winter and drafted Lamarr Houston from the University of Texas to solidify the defensive line.

Warren was inconsistent, showing flashes the past couple seasons. The former first-round selection has never played to his talent level. The Raiders were the third team to give up on him. Of course, he was also due a sizable salary in 2010 and that money can be put to better use.

The Raiders have surprising decided to put Houston at defensive end, instead of his college position of defensive tackle. What on the surface seems like an odd move is actually a very logical one.

Houston’s talents would be wasted playing the one-technique tackle position and the three-technique tackle position is still being occupied by Tommy Kelly.

Kelly has been much criticized due to the large contract he received in 2007. While Kelly may never live up to the money he was paid, he hasn’t been a horrible player.

In 2009, Kelly totaled 14 quarterback pressures and five quarterback hits, with one sack. He was routinely good in pass rush. Obviously his weakness is still defending the run, but the Raiders have never asked the three-technique tackle to support the run on a regular basis.

The job of supporting the run has been placed in the lap of the other defensive tackle. The Raiders hope Desmond Bryant, the second year player out of Harvard, is ready succeed where Warren failed.

Tom Cable has routinely talked about Bryant as a player the Raiders are excited about. One quarterback pressure and one forced fumble in 2009 is enough to get excited about? It is, because Bryant is the primary run defender on the defensive line. He will need to improve upon his solid rookie campaign and keep bodies off of rookie middle linebacker Rolando McClain.

What about the ends? How do the Raiders plan to use Houston, Seymour and Matt Shaughnessy?

Seymour is unique; he is able to play tackle in obvious passing situations and end. This will allow the Raiders to keep Kelly, Houston and Shaughnessy on the field. There is no need to worry about Richard Seymour, unless he holds out of training camp.

This pass rush centric grouping should be able to bring a solid pass rush from just the front four, but would expose the Raiders up the middle to the run. The Raiders drafted McClain to solve this obvious problem. Don’t expect McClain to come off the field in anything but third and very long situations.

In down and short situations, Houston, Seymour, Kelly and Bryant would be the run stopping group. It isn’t that Shaughnessy is bad at defending the run, but Houston should be more effective clogging gaps.

The Raiders have bet heavily that McClain is going to be able to deter teams from running up the gut, forcing ball carriers outside where the line can be more effective.

The Raiders will not have a ton of speed along the defensive line, but all the players are quick, agile and strong with a good first step.

The logical conclusion, however hard to believe, is that the Raiders will blitz outside linebackers more frequently in 2010 when extra pressure is needed.

Kamerion Wimbley has never played the SAM linebacker position. He has played as a rush end and rush linebacker. He knows how to rush the passer. The Raiders would be unwise to waste his best attribute.

Trevor Scott’s best attribute as a WILL linebacker is also pass rushing. Thomas Howard would be the primary coverage linebacker.

Quentin Groves is also seen as a pass rushing type linebacker. All signs point to the Raiders bringing a fifth or sixth guy to put pressure on the quarterback.

The Raiders have logically built the defensive line to be both improved against the run and pass.

If the Raiders defensive line can improve along with the linebackers, the Raiders have the potential to be one of the better defensive teams in the league.

Pre-Season Game 1: Battle of the Bay

 Posted by at 5:33 PM  1 Response »
Aug 092008
 

I was at the game, so this is from a live perspective this time around. I should attend a number of games this season, although I don’t forsee another pre-season game in me.

I got to see the rotations and I paid very careful attention to the RB rotation.

Fargas played only against the starters, and struggled a little bit, but he ran hard and it wasn’t as if we were tipping our hand as far as running plays go. Solid. He had a couple nice gains. I find it hard to believe Fargas isn’t going to get banged up and hurt again the way he runs, but at least we have some nice young backs to back him up this season.

McFadden got a few carries against the starters and looked really good. It wasn’t flashy, but he only got one outside run the whole game and never lined up as a WR nor was he thrown a screen pass. He runs hard and fast and its only a matter of time until he breaks some big ones. McFadden also got rotated with Bush against the second string defense (With second string offensive line) and did just as good. We should probably take it easy on him the rest of the preseason, we need to keep this backfield as healthy as possible.

Bush was a pleasant sight to see, he runs hard and breaks a few tackles. It was against second and third string guys (With our second and third string offensive line) so take that for what it is worth. He looked good and I think he was happy to get some real contact for the first time in two years.

With all of that said, Fargas contract only pays him like a starter for this season, after that he gets paid like a backup and has a contract we could easily get rid of. The plan is the use this year to get the young backs feet wet and turn them loose together next season. Fargas could stay on as backup or get traded/released.

The offensive line looked suspect in pass protection again. Russell had a number of plays where the pocket collapsed around him. It was terrible, but a young QB is going to need as much time as possible to make his reads. Russell undershot the long pass in the first series, had he really air mailed it he may have had a very long touchdown. Overall, he looked poised, and I was glad Kiffin didn’t leave him in there with the second stringers, too much injury risk. The timeout on the second play of the game is hopefully just a preseason hiccup.

Tommy Kelly looked good early, he ran out of gas a little in the second series, but I think as he works into shape that will be a thing of the past. J-Rich also looked like he was getting pressure off the end, maybe he will be an everydown player I think he can be this season as opposed to next.

The backups at virtually every position on the defense looked weak. Routt actually looked solid even though the INT was easy he blanketed WR well and the offense picked on the safties and other corners before they even considered going after Routt. His mistake was running laterally after getting the INT. IF he runs north-south he gets to the 10-15 area instead he doesn’t go anywhere and fumbles on the three.

Nice to see Terdell Sands run across the field and recover the fumble. When he landed on the ball it disappeared into his abdomen, the refs are still looking for it.

Higgins was my highlight of the night. Punt returns aren’t easy and both returns were good with the block in the back not even effecting the first return. The only thing is he didn’t beat the kicker on the first one, I could run over Andy Lee. Still if his fumble problems are behind him, it looks like the return game could be much improved.

Mario Henderson had another bad game, looks to me like we might have to write this guy off as a bust of a pick. IF Tom Cable can’t get the guy to play better (Like he has every other lineman) then who can?

Walter had a nice game and although not smooth did well at the rollouts and bootlegs. Tui was okay, but unimpressive. Walter appears to be the front runner for the backup job at this point.

Walker failed to go up and get the ball and it slipped through his hands. ON another play he failed to turn on any extra bust to catch up to a well thrown fade route. Not inspiring. He needs a fire lit under him. Would be nice to see Russell call him out, but I know that is wishful thinking.

Was disappointed not to see Curry out there, with his job threatened you’d think a slightly tight hammy would keep him from two series worth of plays.

Tony Stewart had one really nice catch through the middle. Madsen was again absent from Kiffin’s plans, something I still don’t understand when you have so few options in the passing game. Then again Miller didn’t really see any balls his way either.

Rankin had that long run and looked quick, but when touched lightly he went down without much of a fight. Auditioning for practice squad or another team. I don’t expect him to make the roster unless someone gets hurt, then he still would have to beat out Adimchinobe Won Konobi.

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