OFFICIAL OAKLAND RAIDERS 2008 SEASON THREAD
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Gallery is positioned to succeed
By Steve Corkran
Staff writer
Article Launched: 10/23/2008 07:20:47 PM PDT
Raiderswide receiver Javon Walker celebrates with Robert Gallery after pulling in a pass for a...
By Steve Corkran
ALAMEDA — Robert Gallery is past the point of trying to please everybody. He no longer is consumed by trying to be what others envision. It took too much effort for him to get to where he is today.
Gallery is having too much fun right now as the Raiders' starting left guard. He is a man at peace with his lot in the NFL.
For that, Gallery credits the teachings of coach Tom Cable, the stability that comes with knowing his role and not worrying about learning a new blocking scheme every season.
"He's a really fine, fine player now," Cable said. "You look at him, consistently, and he's grading out at a much higher level. "... He really is becoming what everyone wanted him to be when he was picked."
That is where Gallery's strange odyssey began. He was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2004 NFL draft out of Iowa and projected as a fixture at left offensive tackle for years to come.
The consensus among draft experts was that Gallery was the safest pick in his class, someone who might not be flashy but will be a cornerstone of the franchise for a decade or more.
Things never quite worked out that way. He spent his first two NFL seasons at right offensive tackle, where he struggled with his pass-blocking and the use of his hands against defenders.
The widespread criticism followed. Gallery persevered.
"I'm sure it bothers everybody, but he did a good job
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blocking that stuff out," center Jake Grove said. "That's a real tribute to him and why he's having success now."
Gallery is playing under his fourth head coach but the same offensive line coach in consecutive seasons for the first time in his NFL career.
The arrival of Pro Football Hall of Famers Art Shell as coach and Jackie Slater as the offensive line coach in 2006 brought about renewed promise. Finally, everyone thought, Gallery would realize his potential and validate Oakland's selection of him.
"When Art and Jackie and those guys came in, they said, 'Do it like Jackie Slater,'" Gallery said. "Well, I'm not Jackie Slater. And we all know how that worked out."
Shell and Slater moved Gallery to left offensive tackle, implemented a new blocking scheme and expected dominant play.
It wasn't until Cable arrived in 2007 as offensive line coach that Gallery harnessed his talent and settled into a comfort zone, of sorts.
Cable moved Gallery to left guard, pointed out the things Gallery does best and turned him loose.
OK, so teams don't use the No. 2 pick with the intent of drafting a left guard. That doesn't mean Gallery is a bust, by any means, Cable said.
Far from it. Gallery has matured into a dominant player, even if it took a few years longer than most expected.
"It comes with the territory," Gallery said of the criticism heaped upon him over the years. "Being the No. 2, I take a lot of pride in what I do. "... But when people aren't here, they don't know what's going on or what goes on in here.
"It's easy for them to sit on TV and say you're a bust and you're this or you're that or you're terrible. That doesn't really affect me. But I would be lying if (I said) it wasn't motivation."
In the end, Gallery's NFL career might not measure up in the eyes of those who projected him to be the next Tony Boselli, but he is far from a Tony Mandarich-like bust.
"Once he ... goes to the Pro Bowl, people will evaluate him for who he is, what he has become," Cable said.
Contact Steve Corkran at [email protected].
By Steve Corkran
Staff writer
Article Launched: 10/23/2008 07:20:47 PM PDT
Raiderswide receiver Javon Walker celebrates with Robert Gallery after pulling in a pass for a...
By Steve Corkran
ALAMEDA — Robert Gallery is past the point of trying to please everybody. He no longer is consumed by trying to be what others envision. It took too much effort for him to get to where he is today.
Gallery is having too much fun right now as the Raiders' starting left guard. He is a man at peace with his lot in the NFL.
For that, Gallery credits the teachings of coach Tom Cable, the stability that comes with knowing his role and not worrying about learning a new blocking scheme every season.
"He's a really fine, fine player now," Cable said. "You look at him, consistently, and he's grading out at a much higher level. "... He really is becoming what everyone wanted him to be when he was picked."
That is where Gallery's strange odyssey began. He was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2004 NFL draft out of Iowa and projected as a fixture at left offensive tackle for years to come.
The consensus among draft experts was that Gallery was the safest pick in his class, someone who might not be flashy but will be a cornerstone of the franchise for a decade or more.
Things never quite worked out that way. He spent his first two NFL seasons at right offensive tackle, where he struggled with his pass-blocking and the use of his hands against defenders.
The widespread criticism followed. Gallery persevered.
"I'm sure it bothers everybody, but he did a good job
Advertisement
blocking that stuff out," center Jake Grove said. "That's a real tribute to him and why he's having success now."
Gallery is playing under his fourth head coach but the same offensive line coach in consecutive seasons for the first time in his NFL career.
The arrival of Pro Football Hall of Famers Art Shell as coach and Jackie Slater as the offensive line coach in 2006 brought about renewed promise. Finally, everyone thought, Gallery would realize his potential and validate Oakland's selection of him.
"When Art and Jackie and those guys came in, they said, 'Do it like Jackie Slater,'" Gallery said. "Well, I'm not Jackie Slater. And we all know how that worked out."
Shell and Slater moved Gallery to left offensive tackle, implemented a new blocking scheme and expected dominant play.
It wasn't until Cable arrived in 2007 as offensive line coach that Gallery harnessed his talent and settled into a comfort zone, of sorts.
Cable moved Gallery to left guard, pointed out the things Gallery does best and turned him loose.
OK, so teams don't use the No. 2 pick with the intent of drafting a left guard. That doesn't mean Gallery is a bust, by any means, Cable said.
Far from it. Gallery has matured into a dominant player, even if it took a few years longer than most expected.
"It comes with the territory," Gallery said of the criticism heaped upon him over the years. "Being the No. 2, I take a lot of pride in what I do. "... But when people aren't here, they don't know what's going on or what goes on in here.
"It's easy for them to sit on TV and say you're a bust and you're this or you're that or you're terrible. That doesn't really affect me. But I would be lying if (I said) it wasn't motivation."
In the end, Gallery's NFL career might not measure up in the eyes of those who projected him to be the next Tony Boselli, but he is far from a Tony Mandarich-like bust.
"Once he ... goes to the Pro Bowl, people will evaluate him for who he is, what he has become," Cable said.
Contact Steve Corkran at [email protected].
He's a bust. An average lineman picked that high and paid that much? There is no 'in-between' when it comes to that high of a draft pick. You either live up to the expectations, or you don't.
I'll take a ''good'' Robert Gallery, though...he's never been close to that before. More like horrible Robert Gallery, so if he can be good or solid, I'll take it.
I'll take a ''good'' Robert Gallery, though...he's never been close to that before. More like horrible Robert Gallery, so if he can be good or solid, I'll take it.
Gallery is not a bust in my opinion. It's not his fault he was picked number 2 overall... obviously Al saw something in him that he liked. Gallery has been criticized a lot througout his career. He's been switching positions a lot through out his career and he's been through different coaches (as we all know). Cut the dude some slack for hanging tough and sticking it out. His improved play is a big reason why our running game is working now. Gallery has cut down on the penalties too. Big ups to Robert Gallery he is not a bust in my opinion. He's living up to the expectations now... you don't hear about him often and that's a good thing. Linemen hardly ever get credit. You see Cable is talking "Gallery/Pro-Bowl" right?
I got no beef wit gallery now. He finally got stability. And once our players get sum stability within the staff the sky is the limit. Look when we had a normal staff for 4 seasons wit gruden. We new a few player upgrades within the dline and receiving core and maybe a safety and we should be good to go...
FROM ESPN INSIDER:
Russell deserving of Davis' praise
By KC Joyner
ESPN Insider
One of the things I pay close attention to when grading the development of young quarterbacks is the bad-decision metric.
Inexperienced passers often make errors in reading coverages or have costly habits such as staring at receivers. This often causes their bad-decision percentages to be high, but because both of those errors are correctable with practice and good coaching, it would stand to reason that they should drop over time.
That has certainly been the case with the Redskins' Jason Campbell. Because the Jim Zorn offense is very different from the Joe Gibbs offense in which Campbell had operated for three years, it was thought by many (including myself) that Campbell might struggle with his reads early on. Campbell has proved his doubters wrong by having zero bad decisions in his first four games in the West Coast offense. What makes this even more impressive is that two of the Redskins' opponents, the Cardinals and Saints, are in the top 10 in forced bad-decision percentage through Week 4.
JaMarcus Russell has thrown for 668 yards with four TD passes and one interception this season.
Buffalo's Trent Edwards is another passer whose bad decision rates have improved dramatically. Last season, his first as a starter, Edwards committed a bad decision 2.5 percent of the time, meaning he made an error on one out of 40 passes. In 2008, he has made only one bad decision in 125 passes, meaning he has lowered his bad-decision percentage to 0.8.
When the metrics said Campbell and Edwards were performing well in this area, it didn't come as much of a surprise to me because their teams are a combined 7-1. I do have to admit, however, that when I saw JaMarcus Russell's name among those quarterbacks with zero bad decisions, I initially did a double take. Because the Raiders have scored only 78 points this year, I also immediately thought Russell was benefiting from a preponderance of safe, short passes, but that actually isn't the case.
According to my game charts, this year Russell has thrown 39 medium/deep/bomb passes (11-plus yards) in 101 total attempts (which include pass-penalty plays). That means Russell is going vertical 38.6 percent of the time and yet still hasn't had any bad decisions. To put that into perspective, consider that Campbell has 28 vertical throws in 126 total attempts (22.2%
and Edwards has 36 vertical passes in 123 attempts (29.3%). This goes to show that when Al Davis showered Russell with repeated compliments in Tuesday's press conference, he was on the money with his comments.
The bad-decision metric can also be illustrative of a quarterback who isn't progressing as he should. For example, Jacksonville's David Garrard's showing in this metric explains why his passer rating has fallen off from 102.2 in 2007 to 77.7 this year. Garrard had nine bad decisions in 2007 and yet only suffered two interceptions on those passes. In 2008, Garrard has four bad decisions thus far and two of those tosses have been picked. Basically, Garrard was the beneficiary of luck last year and that luck hasn't carried over to this season.
The team that could be hurt the most in this metric is the Patriots. Tom Brady is the only quarterback in the four years I have been tracking this metric to post a bad-decision percentage less than 1 and he always ranked in the top five at year's end.
Thus far, Matt Cassel has a 4.1 bad-decision percentage -- despite throwing vertical passes a mere 17.8 percent of the time. To give you a better idea of what that vertical pass percentage total means, consider that the lowest vertical showing in this metric among qualifying quarterbacks in 2007 was 19.9 percent.
Cassel is making mistakes despite not throwing the ball vertically, and that almost certainly means New England is going to have to lean on the run a whole lot more this year.
Russell deserving of Davis' praise
By KC Joyner
ESPN Insider
One of the things I pay close attention to when grading the development of young quarterbacks is the bad-decision metric.
Inexperienced passers often make errors in reading coverages or have costly habits such as staring at receivers. This often causes their bad-decision percentages to be high, but because both of those errors are correctable with practice and good coaching, it would stand to reason that they should drop over time.
That has certainly been the case with the Redskins' Jason Campbell. Because the Jim Zorn offense is very different from the Joe Gibbs offense in which Campbell had operated for three years, it was thought by many (including myself) that Campbell might struggle with his reads early on. Campbell has proved his doubters wrong by having zero bad decisions in his first four games in the West Coast offense. What makes this even more impressive is that two of the Redskins' opponents, the Cardinals and Saints, are in the top 10 in forced bad-decision percentage through Week 4.
JaMarcus Russell has thrown for 668 yards with four TD passes and one interception this season.
Buffalo's Trent Edwards is another passer whose bad decision rates have improved dramatically. Last season, his first as a starter, Edwards committed a bad decision 2.5 percent of the time, meaning he made an error on one out of 40 passes. In 2008, he has made only one bad decision in 125 passes, meaning he has lowered his bad-decision percentage to 0.8.
When the metrics said Campbell and Edwards were performing well in this area, it didn't come as much of a surprise to me because their teams are a combined 7-1. I do have to admit, however, that when I saw JaMarcus Russell's name among those quarterbacks with zero bad decisions, I initially did a double take. Because the Raiders have scored only 78 points this year, I also immediately thought Russell was benefiting from a preponderance of safe, short passes, but that actually isn't the case.
According to my game charts, this year Russell has thrown 39 medium/deep/bomb passes (11-plus yards) in 101 total attempts (which include pass-penalty plays). That means Russell is going vertical 38.6 percent of the time and yet still hasn't had any bad decisions. To put that into perspective, consider that Campbell has 28 vertical throws in 126 total attempts (22.2%
and Edwards has 36 vertical passes in 123 attempts (29.3%). This goes to show that when Al Davis showered Russell with repeated compliments in Tuesday's press conference, he was on the money with his comments. The bad-decision metric can also be illustrative of a quarterback who isn't progressing as he should. For example, Jacksonville's David Garrard's showing in this metric explains why his passer rating has fallen off from 102.2 in 2007 to 77.7 this year. Garrard had nine bad decisions in 2007 and yet only suffered two interceptions on those passes. In 2008, Garrard has four bad decisions thus far and two of those tosses have been picked. Basically, Garrard was the beneficiary of luck last year and that luck hasn't carried over to this season.
The team that could be hurt the most in this metric is the Patriots. Tom Brady is the only quarterback in the four years I have been tracking this metric to post a bad-decision percentage less than 1 and he always ranked in the top five at year's end.
Thus far, Matt Cassel has a 4.1 bad-decision percentage -- despite throwing vertical passes a mere 17.8 percent of the time. To give you a better idea of what that vertical pass percentage total means, consider that the lowest vertical showing in this metric among qualifying quarterbacks in 2007 was 19.9 percent.
Cassel is making mistakes despite not throwing the ball vertically, and that almost certainly means New England is going to have to lean on the run a whole lot more this year.
yall havent seen this?
Sat, Oct 25 Bill Williamson, of ESPN.com, reports former Denver Broncos QB John Elway wrote in a column for the Sporting News that Oakland Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell's best chance to succeed in the NFL is to get out of Oakland. "JaMarcus Russell's only chance at NFL success is to get out of Oakland. OK, maybe that's harsh. But we all know it's his best chance at success," Elway said. Elway went on to criticize managing general partner Al Davis. "The fastest way to ruin a quarterback is to put him on a bad team, with a bad line, with no weapons, with no continuity in the coaching staff. That pretty much describes the current Raiders. The game has passed Al Davis by, and he's the only one who doesn't know it. Every time the Raiders get a good coach - Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Norv Turner, etc. - who doesn't buy into Al's outdated program, he fires him."
Sat, Oct 25 Bill Williamson, of ESPN.com, reports former Denver Broncos QB John Elway wrote in a column for the Sporting News that Oakland Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell's best chance to succeed in the NFL is to get out of Oakland. "JaMarcus Russell's only chance at NFL success is to get out of Oakland. OK, maybe that's harsh. But we all know it's his best chance at success," Elway said. Elway went on to criticize managing general partner Al Davis. "The fastest way to ruin a quarterback is to put him on a bad team, with a bad line, with no weapons, with no continuity in the coaching staff. That pretty much describes the current Raiders. The game has passed Al Davis by, and he's the only one who doesn't know it. Every time the Raiders get a good coach - Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Norv Turner, etc. - who doesn't buy into Al's outdated program, he fires him."
DARREN MCFADDEN WILL SIT
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 26, 2008, 12:14 p.m.
Oakland Raiders rookie running back Darren McFadden is inactive for today’s game against the Baltimore Ravens with a toe injury.
The toe has bothered McFadden for most of the season. Since carrying 21 times for 164 yards in Week 2 against the Chiefs, McFadden has consistently been held in check. He has 37 carries for 131 yards in four games since then.
With McFadden out, running backs Justin Fargas and Michael Bush are expected to get more work for the Raiders today.
Per Michael Fabiano of NFL.com, the full list of inactives for today’s Ravens-Raiders game is:
Raiders inactives: QB Marques Tuiasosopo (3rd), WR Todd Watkins, RB Darren McFadden, DB Rashad Baker, LB John Alston, DE Derrick Burgess, T James Marten, C John Wade.
Ravens inactives: QB Todd Bouman, WR Yamon Figurs, CB Chris McAlister, CB Samari Rolle, S Dawan Landry, T Adam Terry, WR Marcus Smith, DT Lamar Divens.
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 26, 2008, 12:14 p.m.
Oakland Raiders rookie running back Darren McFadden is inactive for today’s game against the Baltimore Ravens with a toe injury.
The toe has bothered McFadden for most of the season. Since carrying 21 times for 164 yards in Week 2 against the Chiefs, McFadden has consistently been held in check. He has 37 carries for 131 yards in four games since then.
With McFadden out, running backs Justin Fargas and Michael Bush are expected to get more work for the Raiders today.
Per Michael Fabiano of NFL.com, the full list of inactives for today’s Ravens-Raiders game is:
Raiders inactives: QB Marques Tuiasosopo (3rd), WR Todd Watkins, RB Darren McFadden, DB Rashad Baker, LB John Alston, DE Derrick Burgess, T James Marten, C John Wade.
Ravens inactives: QB Todd Bouman, WR Yamon Figurs, CB Chris McAlister, CB Samari Rolle, S Dawan Landry, T Adam Terry, WR Marcus Smith, DT Lamar Divens.