Raiders Should Not Be Content With Jared Veldheer

Why are some people already convinced that the Raiders are set at LT with Veldheer ?

In 2010 Jared Veldheer caused the most Raider penalties and he got beat too many times. Gradkowski got injured and taken out of the game because of a missed block by Jared Veldheer. The Raiders ranked 26th in sacks allowed in 2010 giving up 44 which is way too many.

At 6'8" Veldheer's center of gravity is too high and he can't keep defenders off of him and at a distance because of his short arms. He has a disadvantage on every play because of that. Being hella tall with short arms is a bad combination for an offensive tackle in football.

He's a good run blocker though and the only areas at the combine in 2010 that he performed better than Bruce Campbell were the vertical jump and the movement drills, the 3 cone drill and 20 yard shuttle which is why I think Veldheer is better suited as a pulling Guard and Campbell is better suited as a Left Tackle because of his long arms and lower center of gravity.

Arm Length
Bruce Campbell 36 1/4 inches
Jared Veldheer 33 inches

Bench Press
Bruce Campbell 34 Reps
Jared Veldheer 32 Reps

40 Yard Dash
Bruce Campbell 4.85 seconds
Jared Veldheer 5.09 seconds

Vertical Jump
Bruce Campbell 32 inches
Jared Veldheer 33.5 inches

3 Cone Drill
Bruce Campbell 7.58 seconds
Jared Veldheer 7.4 seconds

20 Yard Shuttle
Bruce Campbell 4.69 seconds
Jared Veldheer 4.51 seconds

See i'm the complete opposite to you Oakland. I'm confused by all the fuss that everyone makes about Bruce Campbell, what did he show us last year except for an exceptional combine? These numbers can be really deceiving, Veldheer was on the field for the majority of the season and he played fairly well. Lets not forgot that he was a rookie starting at LT. I was fairly happy with his performance and if he continues to improve as a player who cares about his measurables? I think that with time Bruce Campbell could be a very good player, however, at this moment in time Veldheer is worth a lot more to us.
This is just my opinion but i'm going to give Veldheer his shot because he has proved his worth on the field not just in the gym.

no-way dude. this kid is good. our offense was completely different once he stepped in. Jason Campbell did not trust Mario Henderson 1-bit and that showed up big time. our passing game and running game was cranked-up once the v-man stepped in and solidified that left side. yes, he was a rookie, but there is alot there to work with in my opinion. id give Bruce Campbell a shot on the right side (tackle), get a RG, hopefully re-sign gallery, draft wis's nephew and let him sit a year behind satele.

I'm with the others on this one, 89.  The kid came out and played well at one of the hardest positions in the NFL.  And that's in his rookie season.  He can still add 30 lbs. of muscle on his frame in addition to the experience.  After years of Mario and other fill-ins, I'll take this kid and run with him.

89 also remember he is only a rookie who cam out of a small college. I think he held his own for the most part with the Raiders considering his rookie status and playing the most difficult position on the offensive line. I am not saying he is Art Shell in his day or anything, but I think he is more than serviceable and with right coaching could have a solid 10-12 year career anchoring the line for us, and who knows throw in a few pro-bowls would be nice.

I say give it time with the kid, we have other glaring holes and needs and his postion isn't one of them for now.

LOL @ this thread. Veldheer was a rookie who outplayed everyone on the O-line we had on the roster and has tons of room to grow. I personally thought he played exceptionally well for having played at Hillsdale. The hilarity of people who are happy we have DHB mixed with Veldheer smacking is highly entertaining.

J.Veldheer's play was nothing short of spectacular when you consider all the things he had going against him. For starters, he was a small school prospect who never faced NFL caliber competition. Anytime you put a young player from that background into a starting position you're almost always going to have some struggles but he actually played surprisingly well against some top pass rushers. Sure he gave up some sacks, but every LT in the league gives up a few sacks each year, no matter how good they are. You're not going to line up vs people like D.Freeney or T.Hali and shut them out every game....unfortunately it doesnt work that way.

Lets also not forget that our crapface coach (T.Cable) felt the need to make this guy our starting center in his first NFL game, even though he never really played the position. The fact that J.Veldheer was able to overcome that set back is impressive as a lot of young guys might have lost some confidence while thrown into a horrible situation like that.

Going forward, J.Veldheer is almost certainly assured of a starting spot because he played well last year and he will almost certainly improve going into year #2. Having said that, we still need better competition at RT. L.Walker was slightly above average at best, so if we can find an upgrade through FA or the draft then we will certainly have to give it some thought. B.Campbell is another intriguing option but he's still too raw for us to consider him a lock to contribute next year.

darth - i am still really interested to see where Khalif Barnes is going to fit in the game plan for hue. i mean, i truely think this guy has been sold short. i can't imagine that he shouldn't be at least considered to help the right side of the line or as a LG should gallery walk. the guy has played well when ive seen him out there. good in the run-blocking game and holds up fairly well in pass protection. he is clearly a better option than Cooper Carlisle and i would challenge he get a chance at compteting against Langston Walker. to just pigeon-hole this guy as our 6th OT, eligible OT, TE, etc. is to sell him a bit short. again, just examining options that we have on the current roster, i think an OL of veldheer-gallery-satele-campbell-ba
rnes is not a bad upgrade. again, we need to continue to draft top talent as well as review whats available in F/A and any trades that may present themselves to us or inquiries that we can put in. rotating out some of the c r a p is definately in the cards as i simply cannot see a case where cooper carlise has a spot on hue jackson's line.

Keep Veldheer at LT. Cable kept him there for a reason, simply because he's the best that we have. All this talk of arm length and combine stuff.. they don't mean much anymore. It's what you put out on tape and this guy was pretty solid for us.


Cable gave a very, very sound reason for keeping him there: he's tall but it's made up by his long torso because he has short legs, already giving him an advantage because he's closer to the ground. At the same time, Cable also said Campbell is better suited as a guard because, in his words, ".. they're not comfortable in space outside or they don't handle the length of it, meaning they're long but they don't play long, there's no business putting them out there."


You like looking at those times? The times that really matter are the 3 cone drill and 20 yard shuttle. Campbell even said himself that he loves to run. Watch him pull and destroy guys!


With that said, V-Man was a rookie. Give him time. Our new oline coach is supposedly a drill sergeant but a great teacher along with Wiz helping out, give the fella some time.

To add to my post, look at all the good to great lines in the past and current. Look at how long they have been playing together. Good teams are good because they're 5 guys have so much continuity together. It takes more than a year of continuity just to get accustomed to each other's tendencies and etc.


Now look at our line. It already seems like we have a whole new unit. Robert Gallery is a free agent, center isn't a lock, Carlisle Cooper is likely out along with the ZBS, and Walker is barely starting material. So IMO we need to keep him where he is and lets see how far he can take it.

idiot.

To add to my post, look at all the good to great lines in the past and current. Look at how long they have been playing together. Good teams are good because they're 5 guys have so much continuity together. It takes more than a year of continuity just to get accustomed to each other's tendencies and etc.

This.  ^^^
Also:
I'd say most of our sacks are a product of not being on the same page RE: O-Linemen knowing their assignments.  Just as many were a product of those few games where we just didn't bring it.  I.E. Pittsburgh and Miami.  Man, we wimped out in those two!
We're not 'gonna get better by ditching the entire O-Line and starting from the ground up.  Stick with some of the people who are there and add to what we already have.  Otherwise, we're back at square 1.  
Again.    

LOL are u smoking dope today?  I bet u are

Whaaaa?  Is this a joke thread? 

No its another shot at the white players on the Raiders. In case you havent noticed 89 hates all the white Raider players like Nick Miller, Cooper Carlisle. He wanted Anthony Davis last year and hey I cant really say I blame him but Davis was recently blasted by the press for not being very stout in pass protection and really wasnt that great of a run blocker. Meanwhile Jared Veldheer a guy that was drafted 2 rounds later, did nothing but exceed expectations and as far as him getting Bruce Gradkowski hurt, when and who on the offensive line hasnt led to him being hurt?

Grad has the durability of a hamster.

So just because I think Cooper Carlisle and Nick Miller are wastes of roster spots means I hate all white Raider players ? How is it that am I a fan of Trevor Scott then ?

It's not like those 2 are good players.

Some people hate on Johnnie Lee Higgins and act like Nick Miller is better but realistically they averaged about the same on punt returns last year only a .1 difference, Higgins had a longer best return, Higgins never fumbled last year and Nick Miller fumbled 2 times. Higgins has returned 3 punts for Touchdowns in his career something Nick has never done once and Higgins also has accomplished a lot more than Miller as a WR.

I like Jared Veldheer as a run blocker I just don't like seeing him get beat in pass protection and cause a lot of penalties.

Cut a rookie from division III Hillsdale some slack. People hate on Cooper because he's older than Al and people hate on JLH because he's a sissy. Does that not look like a sissy to you?

Oakland 89 when are you gonna learn that football is played in pads not in shorts. Real football isn't madden. You can't just grab all the fast guys and ewxpect them to be good football players. Besides the 3 cone and the 20 yard shuttle are the ones designed to test short area quickness and Veldheer beat out campbell in those drills. Sometimes 89 your complete lack of logic makes me wonder why you even bother posting on boards with so many knowledgeable fans.

 You are right 89. Even though Jared came from a tiny school and did do some good things, I believe that Bruce Campbell should be given a shot at LT for I believe Cable had too many "favorites" on the OL. Al has the same problem in liking players too well to replace them. Hopefully Hue is looking out for the best interest of the team and if that means moving Veldeer back to C, RT or OG  and allowing him to flourish there while having Campbell at LT then so be it. Campbell was a LT and to be moved to OG is a huge step and I expect some to struggle there. If he stinks move him to RT or back to RG but at least give him a fair shot which he didn't get last yr. I think Cable just didn't like the guy for some reason or was afraid to play him for he wanted C.C. at OG and didn't even play Bruce in the season finale at K.C. despite Al's requests. I would have understood if it was a close game but we were up by 21 in the fourth quarter so there was really no excuse not to allow Campbell a few snaps just to get him some game experience. I wouldn't be content with really no position but we have to have someone to protect our QB's blindside whomever that may be.

 I'm with 89 on this. Granted J.V. did well for a D3 guy and has room to grow, competition should be at the LT position if only to keep Jared on his toes. I believe Bruce Campbell should be in competition with him, best man wins. I think 89 just wants the qb to stay healthy this season and to make things fair Super Mario got Campbell blasted in the opener at Tenn. Opinions differ but I know all of us want the players that give us the best chance to win out there every game and that is what is important. $$ has spoken.