--Two games, two sacks surrendered. Two pre-snap penalties.
This isn't what anyone had in mind for the second overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft, Robert Gallery included.
Coach Art Shell, a Hall of Fame left tackle himself, said during the Raiders mandatory minicamp he expected nothing less than a Pro Bowl from Gallery. He was finally moving to left tackle after two years at right tackle, the position he played at Iowa when he was considered a lineman in the mold of a Tony Boselli or Jonathan Ogden.
Gallery's promising rookie year was followed by a disappointing second season.
The first two pre-season games of 2006 have not been encouraging.
"I had some mistakes and haven't been myself the last couple of weeks," Gallery said. "But it is the preseason. I am going to get through this and be where I want to be and where everybody says I should be."
Shell said he has bigger problems than the play of Gallery.
"I'm not worried about Robert," Shell said. "Robert is going to be fine."
Part of Gallery's problem could be information overload.
Linemen claim going from the right to the left is like learning to be left-handed after being right-handed. Since joining the Raiders, Gallery's line coaches have been Aaron Kromer, Jim Colletto and now the tandem of co-coaches Irv Eatman and Jackie Slater.
You can throw Shell into that mix as well, as the Raiders coach has spent considerable time working with the linemen.
Shell said the Raiders have dramatically altered techniques in terms of footwork and aggression. Rather than block for a set period of time on a play, with the ball expected to be out with precision, the Raiders are blocking to the whistle and attempting to protect for deeper patterns and five- to seven-step drops.
"When you get into a game, you can sometimes revert to something you've known in the past," Gallery said.
And while Gallery himself said early on going back to left tackle was like riding a bike, he now concedes his comfort level isn't what it could be or should be.
"You just have to get back into it," Gallery said. "You are away for something for two years and it takes a little bit to get back to where I was. Easy as it may be to write and say how I should be able to get comfortable from Day 1, there are some things you've just got to do. It just takes time."
CAMP CALENDAR The Raiders completed double-day sessions on Thursday, Aug. 17. Training camp breaks at the Napa Marriott Wednesday, Aug. 23.
Copyright (C) 2006 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
Silver and Black legends have eye on young players David White, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 (07-06) 19:52 PDT -- Oakland rookie Mike Mitchell remembers well his first peek behind the eye patch at Raiders headquarters. The Lombardi Trophies shined, the team slogans resounded, the black-a
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So I was sitting on the sh*tter thinking about how good Heyward-Bey could potentially be considering his "attributes" and potential and got to thinking doesnt this guy represent every element of what you want in a first rounder.
I mean when you think of late rounders, these are guys that lack the measurables like size and speed or a nice combination of both and its all hit and
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I keep looking at the Raiders schedule for this upcoming season and I keep thinking we got screwed!. This upcoming season will be tough. I know Denver wont be strong after losing Cutler and Shannahan. The Chargers should improve with Merriman back, and the
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Afternoon fellas & Nis ( if your still out there ) as I sit in my office today, bored outta my mind Im thinking how nice it would be to just shut all the haters up this year, obviously. I was watching NFL live the other day and Mark "uber homer" schelerth was sputting off at the mouth claiming that he was on board with the moves that the donks made this offseason, and
More crap from the BSPN crew. You'd think they'd be able to find something else to discuss, but they continue to make it sound like such a huge deal that JaMarcus Russell wasn't at the last OTA day. I'm sorry, but didn't OTAs end a couple weeks ago. There's no story there. There could be a very good reason
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The Judge in the trial of confessed Killer Mohammed Haroon Ali, has ordered a retrial, claiming that the prosecuter was racist in dismising the only "two black potential" jurors. So lets see a proseuctur , who had nothing to do with selecting the jurors selected in the intial pool, dismisses some jurors, and now he/she has to consider that hey even though the juror
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NOT a fan of Sapp. Let's start there. The question came up to Sapp, "will Garcia see much playing time this year?" Sapps reply was he thinks he will start for the Raiders this year? He thinks he's got some type of in with them still. I don't think he's got too many fans on that team anymore. It sounds that the private workout w
By now, everyone on this board has got their taste of this idiot who pretends to be a fan of the Raiders! I for one am sick of him spewing his nonsense of how Russell won't be good, Heyward-Bay could of been gotten in the second round, Javon sux(well until he proves otherwise, this isn't 06, I'l agree), that Sapp is right bout everyth
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Afternoon from the beach nation. I just read several posts regarding our potentialy shopping terdel sands this 4th of july weekend. My proposal- package him and burgess and ship them out to NE for Vince Wilfork. The logic: its pretty clear that belicheck doesn't wanna pay wilfork and using a 2nd round-pick on a stud NT in
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i know this is a sore-subject to all of us, but i was watching america's game on NFLN the other night & they had on the snow-bowl game where we lost to NE on the BS tuck-rule. i just wanted to reflect on that game for a moment. every entity, be-it teams, nations, heritages, have history and while they all may not be positive, they do sculpt what is to come. when our country went thru pearl har
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This is more a question than anything else. Has anyone heard anything about the private workout between the QB's and WR's . When? where? How did it go? Was Garcia there ? Any news will help me get thru this waiting game. Thanks!
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i am bored out of my skull today @ work so i figured i'd make this poll up. if you had the opportunity to RIGHT NOW trade STRAIGHT-UP Darren McFadden & Michael Bush for
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