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ALAMEDA — Five things we learned Wednesday as the Raiders began serious preparations to face the Denver Broncos in Week 1 of the regular season:
1. It’s a mystery meeting
The Raiders and Denver Broncos have played 119 regular- and post-season games since 1960 and they may never be more of a mystery to each other than when they kickoff off on Monday night.
The Broncos have a new coach in Vic Fangio, a new quarterback in Joe Flacco and have overhauled their systems of offense, defense and special teams. The Raiders have their systems of football in place, but only 19 players (including seven starters) who faced Denver last Dec. 26 — a game won by the Raiders 27-14.
“If you want to watch a guy on a pass rush or man-to-man coverage you can take a look,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. “But they’re playing a different scheme, being taught different techniques. Obviously they’re not showing anything in preseason. Same with us. We have different players that are going to allow us to play differently.”
Denver linebacker Von Miller told Bay Area reporters by conference call the controversial trades which sent Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper away for draft picks has paid dividends for the Raiders’ talent level.
“They saved a lot of money letting Khalil and Amari go, and they are reaping the benefits from having all that money and having those draft picks,” Miller said. “They drafted four good rookies, they got Trent Brown, one of the best right tackles in the league.”
Raiders coach Jon Gruden, when speaking to the media Monday, said, “When you watch Denver play in the preseason, you don’t see some of their players very much. When they watch our preseason they probably aren’t going to see some of the guys that are going to play against them very much. It’l be a real fun, interesting Monday night game.”
Fangio acknowledged Gruden’s offensive system may not have changed, but the new cast of characters makes it harder to know what’s coming.
“We don’t have tape of those guys in a Raider uniform, so that adds a little bit more of a challenge to it,” Fangio said by conference call.
2. Carr believes he’s in sync with new receivers
The only receiver on the 53-man roster from a year ago is Dwayne Harris, and is predominantly a special teams player. The others against Denver will be Antonio Brown, Tyrell Williams, Hunter Renfrow, Ryan Grant and J.J. Nelson. Brown arrived by trade, the rest were free agents.
Carr played only one series during the exhibition season, completing one pass to tight end Darren Waller and another to Grant for a touchdown.
“We’ve gotten a lot of time on task,” Carr said. “A lot of time outside the building and in the building. And in the last two weeks when we weren’t playing in the preseason games we were grinding like crazy. We probably worked harder than in training camp because we had less bodies but were doing the same amount of work.”
It won’t be perfect.
“Obviously we don’t have the game experience, which is always different, there will be minor tweaks and growing pains that we need to adjust and fix — hopefully with completions I’m very confident where we’re at right now, but we just need to go play some live games and get it going.”
Check back Thursday for more detail on how Carr and Brown are coming along after the wide receiver missed almost the entire portion of the Napa training camp due to frostbite and issues with his helmet.
3. Von Miller is a member of the Trent Brown fan club
Trent Brown, The Raiders $66 million man at right tackle, has attended two pass rush summits organized by Miller. It’s a chance in the off-season for pass rushers and pass blockers to talk shop and discuss techniques on how to get better.
“He’s one of the best tackles in the game, doesn’t matter if it’s right or left. I’ve been a huge fan of Trent for a long time. I love the guy. He knows how much I love him. It’s going to be a tough challenge. He’s one of the best. He’s tall, big, he’s quick. They definitely got better on the offensive line with Trent Brown over there.”
Miller said he and Brown haven’t necessarily gone into detail about how to attack each other — “we’re friends but we’re competitors” — but have learned from each other in terms of working on their craft.
“I just wanted his input on how he sees the game,” Miller said. “He definitely gave me helpful information on what to look for when facing other offensive tackles and I definitely gave him information on what it’s like facing good pass rushers.”
4. Vic’s tricks
Fangio, long one of the most respected defensive coordinators in the game, is getting his first shot at being a head coach at age 61.
He may not be as telegenic as Gruden, but Fangio has long known how to get his point across as a coordinator and Miller believes it’s carried over as a head coach.
“He’s a teacher. He knows how to teach grown men and get guys to pick up the info and techniques we’re trying to learn,” Miller said. “You’ve got young guys that think they know football but haven’t played in the NFL. Coach Fangio makes sure to round all those edges off and get the teaching in first.”
Carr doesn’t know exactly what Fangio has in store, but he’ll make an educated guess.
“I’m sure he’ll let Chris Harris cover some people and let Von and (Bradley) Chubb rush the passer,” Carr said. “I’m sure he’ll let those guys do a fair amount of that.”
5. Back to normal
Besides having considerably fewer players on the field, there was something missing at Raiders practice. No cameras, no booms, no cameramen on the ground within a few feet of wide receiver Antonio Brown and filming every move.
The “Hard Knocks” crew from NFL Films has officially moved on.
It turned out to be a pretty good deal for the Raiders. The four weeks won’t be a critical success because the Raiders and general manager Mike Mayock effectively controlled the message. There was only one scene where a player was cut, and that came courtesy of linebacker Jason Cabinda, who was given the news by defensive coordinator Paul Guenther.
Nor was there ever a shot of Gruden in the quarterback room or any other coach with their position group while discussing strategy.
“The `Hard Knocks’ cameras weren’t in our meeting room — I think for good reason — but they would have seen how much fun we have in the quarterback room and how hard he pushes us,” Carr said.
