The Las Vegas Raiders had their ninth day at training camp, but it wasn’t without a little drama. The story of the day was that Kirk Cousins and Maxx Crosby were both held out of practice because of their incident on Friday.
While they were held out of team sessions such as 11-on-11, both players didn’t participate in drills and other parts of practice. The rest day allowed Fernando Mendoza to get first-team reps throughout the morning.
Mendoza responded well by having his best day of camp. He was
sharp in the red zone period, throwing three touchdowns, with his best throw being to Tre Tucker with great anticipation. The former Heisman Trophy winner ended the day strong during the two-minute drill, completing five passes in a row and helping lead the team to a field goal before time expired.
While the trade rumors will fly because of the issues with Crosby and Cousins, it allowed Mendoza to creep up on the starting QB position for Week 1. Mendoza displayed he can work well with the ones and could give Cousins a bigger push for the starting job.
Other Camp Notes.
-Quay Walker caught my eye today was great against the run but froze in coverage on Bowers’ touchdown
-Malik Benson was with the 1’s during the 2-minute drill over Nailor. Nailor had a drop earlier in practice
-Mike Washington and Ashton Jeanty are going to be an effective 1-2 punch. Washington showed plenty of explosive runs and is hard to take down at the second level.
-Porter looked good in coverage, had a few pass breakups during the day
-The offensive line looks improved in the run game, but Malcolm Koonce had a good day against the right tackles. DJ Glaze and Trey Zuhn seem to be in a battle for the spot.
-Rogers and JPJ continue to alternate, but Rogers had an injury at the end of practice and didn’t return.
-Tonka Hemingway keeps winning day after day; it looks like he is ready to leap.
-Stukes was running with 1s and 2s switching with Isaiah Pola-Mao.
-Jermod McCoy was with 2s at times and had one of his best days at practice
