Oakland Raiders Notes, Quotes
by Sports Xchange
As it happened, Janikowski missed, and Kiffin watched closely. What he said he saw was a team that simply trotted off to work on their drills and get through the day. No moaning, no groaning, no griping.
"There have been a number of circumstances that I've set up, whether it's practicing longer than they thought were going to, or other things, where they had a chance to go back to being the way they used to be," Kiffin said. "I don't see very much of it ... I know we've improved our mindset and our ability to not make excuses. When we got here, there was such a feeling that the expectation was to lose."
--Napoleon Kaufman, a first-round draft pick in 1995 who retired following the 2001 season to become a minister, visited the Raiders mandatory camp and liked what he saw from McFadden.
McFadden is the fastest Raiders back since Kaufman. Kaufman said the comparison ends there.
"It's interesting talk, but we're different kinds of backs," Kaufman said. "We're really different in a lot of ways. He's a little bit more physical than I probably was. He's a bigger guy."
Kaufman, is the senior pastor at "The Well," in Dublin, Calif., and said he doesn't miss football, even though he stops in to see his old team on occasion.
"I hate to say it was easy, but it was a great transition for me," Kaufman said. "I'm enjoying what I'm doing right now more than I can really express."
--Defensive end Jay Richardson has been one of the few Raiders defenders who has been drawn offside, in part because he is anxious to get to the quarterback. Richardson ended up starting at right end much of the season, and while he was stout on occasion at the point of attack, he recorded just one sack.
"I think Jay's developing a pass rush," Kiffin said. "That's what he lacked last year. He played the run very well for us and has continued to improve on it. We're not going to rotate just to rotate. If we can find a guy we can leave out that does both, we'll do that. Jay knows what he needs to do to improve."
--Agent Ian Greengross has assembled "Team McFadden" to help the 20-year-old running back deal with being a sudden millionaire.
Greengross is his NFL agent, former Olympian and Arkansas native Mike Conley does his marketing and is a business advisor, and he has two attorneys _ David Cornwell and Frank Shaw.
But what about when McFadden wants to write a check?
"His financial guy, I swear to God this is his name, is Mike Vick," Greengross said.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "The main thing is taking care of my family. They always supported me growing up. Now the tables have turned. I'll be able to support them and I'm very happy about it." -- First-round draft pick Darren McFadden.
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