The Las Vegas Raiders completed their second and final practice of the team’s mandatory minicamp Wednesday. The team won’t practice until training camp starts in late July. Raiders’ head coach Klint Kubiak will wrap up the offseason with a media briefing Thursday morning.
It was a fairly quiet day as many veterans were held out of most of team drills, including quarterback Kirk Cousins. That meant current No. 2 quarterback Aidan O”Connell and current No. 3 quarterback Fernando Mendoza got most of the
first-team work. That was was the most work Mendoza, the No. 1 overall draft pick, got with the first ream.
Expect him to get more first-team action in training camp as he works his way toward the playing field in the regular season.
In other Raiders’ minicamp news:
- Like Tuesday, linebacker Nakobe Dean, rookie cornerback Jermod McCoy and star pass-rusher Maxx Crosby all didn’t practice, which was no surprise. Dean has been out during all offseason sessions attended by media members. Tuesday, assistant head coach Mike McCoy said Dean was been working in the building and there is no concern. He said the goal is to have everyone ready for the season. So, that suggests Dean may be working through something health wise, but it doesn’t sound too serious. Dean signed a three-year, $36 million contract with the Raiders with $20 million in guaranteed money in March. McCoy was not on the field for the past four sessions attended by the media. He had been previously doing some things on the practice field. He is working through a knee injury with hopes of playing this season. Once again, Crosby was on the field for stretching but didn’t practice because he is recovering from knee surgery. The plan is for Crosby to practice when training camp starts late next month.
- Guard Jackson Powers-Johnson was back in team drills on Wednesday after being out Tuesday. Second-year player Caleb Rogers worked with the first team in his place, but Powers-Johnson was with the first team.
- Rookie fifth-round pick Hezekiah Masses continued to get more work rotated with the first unit opposite Eric Stokes. He will be someone to watch in training camp.
- Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis said the kicking battle between veteran Matt Gay and undrafted rookie Kansei Matsuzawa is going well. It will likely go down to the wire this summer, in my opinion.
