You will see a very focused group of Oakland Raiders' rookies and backups Thursday night, as the "roster bubble" players get their last chance to impress the coaches when the Raiders face the Seattle Seahawks at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Coliseum.
You will see it at 10 p.m. if you're watching from home. The game will be broadcast on tape delay on KICU Action 36 in a telecast beginning at 10.
Expect to see zero Jason Campbell, except looking suave on the sidelines in street clothes. Other healthy Raiders starters will get one series, tops.
The fourth preseason game is the coaches' last chance to evaluate the backups fighting for roster positions. Raiders coach Tom Cable has indicated the top two-thirds of the roster is already set. But the competition on the bottom third is coming to a head tonight.
"This is a tough cut," Cable told the San Jose Mercury News. "It's not like in years past, when it was fairly simple to (glean) who that 53 would be. I don't think it's as easy to do that this year. And that's a good problem, really."
Highly educated guesses of who stays and goes can be found at Jerry McDonald's Oakland Tribune Raiders blog and the Thoughts From the Dark Side blog.
The Raiders need to cut the roster to 53 by Saturday. There are currently 75 guys on the roster.
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Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who hopes Tom Cable welcomes Pete Carroll back to the NFL by going for a two-point conversion with a 27-point lead.
