My NFL Forums | NFL Forums & Blogs

When the Raiders drafted DHB, I was concerned that he may not be a good fit with Russell. Russell throws a very hard ball to catch and DHB was not known to have phenomenal hands - this does not mean however, that he does not have good or even very good hands; only that his hands were not attuned to Russell's high velocity darts which were too often off target as well.

In contrast, from the videos posted of Campbell, he seems to throw a much more catchable ball and I think this may be why there seems to be so much improvement with DHB. Therefore, it is not so much that DHB is doing anything differently per se, but that his hands can better catch a ball from Campbell than Russell.

If this is true, then I expect better performances from all the Raiders' receivers. Which of course should open up some running holes. However, the play calling needs to adjust in order to take advantage of the new strengths. I would like to see the Raiders open up the passing game which will in turn free up the running game.

Now, the question seems to be more about the defense. I really like what I have read about Houston and Heard. However, McClain's health still concerns me, but his passion and dedication to the game seems undeniable. Also, I am wondering how the Raiders will do against the pass with the loss of Morrison.

__________________

WHAT ABOUT THE BALLS HE DROPPED FROM GRADOWSKI? I GUESS WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE THIS YEAR.

Let's hope Russell was the common factor in most of our offensive struggles. I'd like to see the Raiders as an offensive threat and I think with Campbell and Hue Jackson we should be much better than last season. Sometimes attitude can really affect a team, hard to have a positive attitude when your QB is obviously in way over his head. DHB may surprise us I still think it's a bad pick when you grab the 1st receiver in the draft and he doesn't catch everything in sight. Let's hope it was more about timing and the catchability of Russell's passes.

Defensively we will have new pieces hopefully they gel together the results may not be seen until mid season though, time will tell. At least they finally addressed some issues with our front seven when you can't stop the run and you don't upgrade your front seven you could have say 7 losing seasons.

gotta agree with clos bro... too easy to blame everything on russell.... dont get me wrong hes a bum and im VERY happy hes gone. but u cant blame DHB's hands on russell... dude couldnt catch grad's, fryes, losmans, or even russells ball. one drop that stands out the most to me is the one where grad threw it straight into his chest and he caught it against his chest and then like shoved it upwards. then mike brown (chiefs safety) caught it and int'd it. with like 30 seconds remaining at like the 10yard line ready to score or something along those lines... bottom line is it seems he turned it around... but dont forget when we drafted him. we drafted him as a project... now its starting to HOPEFULLY pan out...

__________________
once a fan, always a fan,
always in the thoughts.
raidacane!

I don't know about that...Russell can't hit his target and if he throws the ball that hard...who can catch it? It's possible that DHB worked his ass off during the off season. We'll see when the season starts won't we?

__________________
PEACE RAIDER NATION!

I think DHB wants to prove his critics wrong. Hopefully with a better QB in place he can do it. Let's see what he does this season before dropping the axe on him.

__________________

DHB was not ready for this level last year lets hope he grew up cause the kid has SKILLS

__________________
8-8 Again Really

I somewhat agree too, that was why I stated that this was a theory. However, I think that confidence, or more specifically, lack of confidence could have really hurt DHB last season so much so that he lost confidence in himself which bled into his work with other QB's - recall that there was a lot of pressure on him last season with everyone questioning whether he should have been drafted so early and then to have to struggle with Russell may have been too much for him. Again this is just a theory.

__________________

The man's name is Clank until such time as he proves otherwise on the field.

brett favre was known to hurt receivers out of colleges' hands. he threw the ball so hard early in his career that kids fresh from college used to have to learn to recatch his ball. read that once. and he would give some wr's blisters on their hands because the ball would come in so fast it would rip their hands apart.

if that is all true than i find it hard to believe that DHB couldnt catch a ball simply from zip...

__________________
once a fan, always a fan,
always in the thoughts.
raidacane!