Up until now, new Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio has been watching his players run around doing conditioning drills.
But on Tuesday, he’ll finally get a chance to start watching them play a little football.
The voluntary minicamp begins Tuesday, and Del Rio told Bay Area radio station 95.7 The Game on Monday that he expects “100 percent participation.”
“Tomorrow we get on the grass,” Del Rio said. “We get to roll the footballs out and begin to implement some of the schemes and actually interact with the players and the coaches on the field getter after it.”
It’s an especially important time for teams with new coaching staffs because new schemes can be introduced on the field and coordinators and their assistants can start some hands-on teaching.
New offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave is expected to introduce more no-huddle and some elements of the spread offense used by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was quarterbacks coach in 2014.
It’s a style that second-year quarterback Derek Carr says he is eager to play.
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“We’re looking for every position to be better going forward and we’re going to demand more,” Del Rio told radio hosts Greg Papa and John Lund. “It will start with the conditioning aspect of it, the mental preparation of it. Regardless, you’ve got to be able to play fast and you’ve got to be able to put consecutive plays together to be any good at this game.”
This voluntary minicamp will run through Thursday. The next dates coming up for the team before training camp opens in mid-July:
Rookie minicamp just after the draft, May 15-18; three weeks of OTAs (organized team activities, May 19-June 4); and mandatory minicamp (June 9-11).
