Raiders mandatory minicamp day 2: Notes, observations, attendance
· Yahoo Sports
With no practice on Thursday, this was the last time they took the field of this year's minicamp. Here's a few takeaways from today for me.
Mendoza mania meets mundane
For all the excitement surrounding Fernando Mendoza off the field, there hasn't been much to see from practice. There appears to be a couple things happening here. One is the Raiders are not putting too much on his plate early on. They are bringing him along slowly because they can. So, Mendoza not only has been lining up with the third team behind Kirk Cousins and Aidan O'Connell, but when he is in there, he isn't asked to do too much. The possible two is simply that the team could be saving that kind of work for when the media isn't there to see it. Which makes sense. You don't want the media picking apart everything he does, especially his mistakes, which he is bound to make this early.
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What we actually see from Mendoza is a lot of short passes, quick slants, dumps, and passes into the flat. Dink and dunk, if you will. With the longer passes and tight window throws being made by Cousins and O'Connell.
On that note...
Offensive play of the day
The best looking play on the day was Tre Tucker getting behind rookie Hezekiah Masses deep and Kirk Cousins launching a perfect strike for the touchdowns. That's exactly what the Raiders hope to see from both Cousins and Tucker this season.
Defensive play of the day
Aidan O'Connell dropped back to throw a deep pass for the end zone on a corner route. The pass was short and Dalton Johnson had position and picked it off.
Attendance
The first day, the only players not in attendance were LB Nakobe Dean and CB Jermod McCoy. They were still not there for day two.
The others who were there, but not practicing were EDGE Maxx Crosby and G Jackson Powers-Johnson. Crosby has had a target for a training camp return, so he was not expected to practice. As before, he participated in warm-ups, but never had a helmet and didn't go through drills.
It was Caleb Rogers who stepped in at right guard for JPJ on Tuesday. JPJ was back to practicing full after doing only warmups on Tuesday. He came in at right guard with the first team and they were pumping in crowd noise, causing him to jump early and be called for a false start.
That's a wrap
Minicamp will close out on Thursday with head coach Klint Kubiak addressing the media at 8:15am. That starts the six-week break, with the next time we see the team being training camp in late July.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders mandatory minicamp day 2: Notes, observations, attendance