Are the Oakland Raiders looking to their bad boy past for inspiration in 2016?
According to Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, prized free-agent acquisition Kelechi Osemele and defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. engaged in a brawl on Saturday that involved Edwards uncorking a few punches once the pair reached the ground. The Raiders kicked both out of practice and they were relegated to the exercise bike for the remainder of workouts.
From CSN Bay Area:
Edwards Jr. ended up in dominant position and threw some intense punches. The feature players were separated after that dust-up -- the Raiders were in full pads -- but started another one just a few minutes later.
As long as no one is hurt -- and that appears to be the case -- Raiders coaches probably will look at this as a teaching moment and move on. Many head coaches across the NFL hope for a little bit of camp brawling to ignite the intensity of practices that can become dense and boring to some players. The Raiders, however, likely dreaded the sight of their $58.5 million dollar man on the ground taking heat.
"It comes with training camp," nose tackle Justin Ellis said, via Silver and Black Pride. "There's never been a training camp that you see nobody get in a fight. Never in history. If you got competition out there, there's gonna be a fight, because you go against this guy every day, you're tired of him, he beating you, you beating him, it's hot, you're tired, you might shove a little bit. They'll get over it, I promise you."
Raiders coach Jack Del Rio wasn't scheduled to speak to reporters Saturday and hasn't spoken about the incident publicly yet.
The offensive line will be the life blood of Oakland's resurgence if it finally happens in 2016. Osemele will most certainly see Edwards again this camp, but hopefully the pair can get better together without getting tossed.
