At this time of the year, offseason workouts are typically lower key compared to training camp. That wasn’t the case for the Oakland Raiders, as three fights erupted during Organized Team Activites.
According to reports, skirmishes erupted between six players at seperate intervals throughout OTAs:
Offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele and defensive end Jihad Ward threw punches at one point. Separately, guard Jon Feliciano and defensive lineman Leon Orr exchanged shoves. Guard Vadal Alexander and defensive end Damontre Moore got into it late in the session.
Head coach Jack Del Rio stated that while the cause of the fights is unclear, he sees this as a teaching moment for players to understand the consequences of their actions.
“I think it was great opportunity to teach,” Del Rio said. “Today there some of spats going on, which really aren’t a part of what we do. That’s not how we work or how we have respect for each other. In most every case it was a new guy. I take it upon myself there to let guys who weren’t here know what the Raider way looks like.”
“Hopefully we won’t waste time doing things like that. We want to play hard, but [while] being respectful. Real toughness is playing hard without hurting the team. We wanted disciplined players, and we expect those things to occur at a real minimum moving forward.”
His franchise signal caller in quarterback Derek Carr echoed his coach’s sentiments in the Raiders better channeling their emotions and being aware of the culture of their team.
“Guys are fighting to earn a job or roster spot so it’ll be intense, but we have to have the culture around here that we’re not about scuffles like that,” Carr said.
“You never want to see guys fighting, but everybody here is competitive and we’ve all gotten to that point where you wanted to punch somebody in the face on the football field.”
Little skirmishes like these are going to happen from time to time during offseason workouts. That’s the nature of the game when 90 guys are fighting for 53 roster spots. What’s interesting about this, however, is the fact that these fights happened during OTA’s, when there isn’t any contact allowed. Offseason fights usually occur when initiated through contact at practice. Several years ago, a similar situation occurred with the Seattle Seahawks, and an NFLPA investigation that found the team included contact in their practice session, resulting in fines and loss of OTA time.
While it is always possible that these skirmishes are just the result of over aggressive players going too far, having three seperate OTA fights like this in one session might warrant someone looking into them.
[Pro Football Talk/CSN Bay Area]
