It's only May, which means that there is still a lot of offseason left before the 2025 NFL season starts. But, fans will still oftentimes find themselves overreacting this time of year based on things we see or hear at OTAs.
And that's a normal fan thing. But, you have to remember what's going on right now in the Raiders and every team, offseason programming. These teams, especially the ones with new schemes and coaches, are getting everything installed and integrated. So, yes, when there is a bad practice in May, it's okay.
It's not the end of the world when there is one -- even the Kansas City Chiefs during their dynasty, the New England Patriots during theirs, all have bad practices, some even during the season or during the postseason. Now, it's easy to understand why fans are upset -- they just heard from beat writers and reporters on-site at practice on Wednesday that the offense threw four interceptions, and the defense dominated.
We have to remember, this defense is closer to being the same unit than the offense is. The scheme is pretty much the same, with Patrick Graham still running things, and the core players are still the same. On the offensive side of the ball, the scheme is completely different with a new quarterback, running back, some offensive line pieces, etc.
And, the coverage unit is just really, really good.
"The defense in general, the coverage group, did a really nice job today," Carroll said. "We stepped a couple of things up from Monday and it showed. The offense saw some things they hadn't seen on Monday, so it was a little bit more difficult for them. But it was good to see us make the plays, and hard lessons for the offense when the defense is getting the ball. But it is all about the football for us, and the defense kind of hawking it today was emblematic of this day, so that was good stuff."
On Wednesday, Geno Smith, the former Seattle Seahawks quarterback that the Raiders traded for, threw three of those interceptions. One was to Chris Smith II, who has been a practice squad player for the last few years. Aidan O'Connell threw the other interception. It was said that the second-team defense was punishing the first-team offense.
Anytime that's the case, it is not a good day of practice. But, hey, it's a good thing it's May. The Raiders will work relentlessly because that's what teams led by Pete Carroll do. This is still the beginning of it all.
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