TRAINING CAMP
AT A GLANCE
Schedule
All practices at Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center, unless noted:
■ Thursday — Practice, 7:30-9:30 a.m.
■ Friday — Off
■ Saturday — Preseason game vs. Seattle Seahawks, Allegiant Stadium, 6 p.m.
■ Sunday — Off
Monday — Practice 7:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m
Tuesday — Practice 7:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m. (Rosters reduced to 85)
Wednesday — Joint Practice with Rams in Irvine, Calif.
Quote of the Day
The “Spider 2 Y Banana” play call has become almost synonymous with Raiders coach Jon Gruden, largely through the enthusiastic way he has discussed it on television. It’s almost as beautiful in its simplicity as it is silly in its nomenclature.
The play essentially involves the fullback disguising a pass route to the flat as a blocking assignment, then popping open as the primary receiver.
Alec Ingold smiled when asked about the play on Wednesday.
“In layman’s terms, it’s like how we just had a bone thrown to us of not practicing. ‘Spider 2 Y Banana’ is my bone,” he said. “It’s just a play-action pass dump off to the fullback and see what happens on the sideline. It’s a great play call once or twice a game just to see if we can get some energy on the sideline. Shoot, that’s all it is.”
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New guy
The Raiders have added more depth on the defensive line with the signing of tackle Ethan Westbrooks.
The defensive tackle spent his first five seasons with the Rams and hasn’t played a regular-season game since 2018.
Westbrooks spent training camp with the Raiders in 2019 and briefly signed with the 49ers last offseason.
The 30-year-old Oakland native entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of West Texas A&M in 2014 and has nine career sacks.
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Will he or won’t he?
Carr said he has not been told whether or how much he will play in the team’s first preseason game against the Seahawks on Saturday at Allegiant Stadium.
“We never know,” he said. “You don’t try and guess. You try to see through the noise a little. … I think I’ve played one series in the preseason the last three years. It’s totally whatever Gruden wants. You always prepare as if you’re going to play.
“I’ll be ready to play, but I don’t know.”
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Getting better up front
Defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins is excited about the personnel improvements the Raiders have made around him on the defensive line.
“My first time playing with Solomon Thomas, I didn’t expect him to be that fast and explosive and strong,” Hankins said. “With Carl (Nassib) and Maxx (Crosby) and Yannick (Ngakoue), it’s just been great to see. And I didn’t expect (Darius) Philon to be as twitchy as he is. A lot of guys have improved their skills and taken their game to a new level, especially Clelin Ferrell.
“We’ve been bonding together, playing off each other and showing it’s a new defense.”
The objective is simple. The group knows it’s time to get better.
“Everybody’s growing up and I think everybody’s tired of losing, so we have to do something to change that,” he said. “But everybody’s approach has been great. We just have to continue to work every day.”
The Raiders have shown they aren’t going to just hope things have improved. Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock continue to look for ways to make the roster better and just last week brought in star defensive tackle Gerald McCoy to see what he still has left in the tank, then added Westbrooks on Wednesday
“Once I saw we signed him, I was just like, ‘Another dog,’” Hankins said of McCoy. “It just adds more value to our defensive line, more depth, more competitiveness. I’m excited about it.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
Derek Carr says he has not been informed by the coaching staff of whether or how much he will play in the preseason opener.