Big concerns in Oakland

The news out of Oakland on Wednesday that rookie first-round pick Darrius Heyward-Bey pulled up lame in practice — for the second time this offseason — is not a good sign for Raiders fans or for Heyward-Bey in his first season.

You see, rookie wide receivers are built like pieces of antique glass — they are fragile, you have to handle them with care, and when they break, they usually fall apart.

But we don’t pay much attention to this story because it’s only June — and training camp is still over a month away, plenty of time for a simple hamstring injury to heal, correct?

Maybe, if you play along the offensive line. Then, you might fully recover by the time camps opens to grind and work in about a 10-yard space that your position requires. But for a wide receiver, especially one like Heyward-Bey -- a player who was drafted in the top 10 based purely on his ability to stretch the field and run past defenders -- this casts a very dark shadow over the situation.

APIf Heyward-Bey wants to make an impact in 2009, he'll have to get healthy first.

Remember, this is the second time he’s injured his hamstring in practice running a simple route, in shorts, in a non-contact drill, and in an OTA where the speed pales in comparison to an actual Sunday in the NFL.

And because of this, because Heyward-Bey continues to break down, I think it’s time to worry in Oakland — and it might be time to start wondering what type of production they can expect from the rookie this fall.

Because right now, as I see it, he has already proven to be undependable when it comes to playing professional football.

What lies ahead?

The main issue here is the overall development of Heyward-Bey. This next month in the NFL is anything but the summer vacation we all had as kids when school let out.

Yes, each player retreats to his own city and his own workouts, but the last thing you want to do as a professional athlete is spend the next month in a training room rehabbing an injury.

Because when you’re stuck in the training room for the summer, you aren’t working on your technique, you’re limited in the weight room, in your speed training, in your lateral movement drills, your overall conditioning vanishes and maybe the most important thing for a rookie wide receiver — you’re not running routes.

And that — which seems to be the biggest issue rookies have at this level — needs to be perfected over the next month. We talk a lot about the reasons rookie receivers struggle: issues such as press coverage, the size of the playbooks, reading coverages and so on. But it’s a pretty simple fact at this level that if you can’t run routes -- and I’m talking about professional routes that need to be run on Sundays -- then you don’t make plays.

For Heyward-Bey, this is a major area of his game that has to be perfected, and the time over the next month that he would have had to work on his craft is now gone — spent laying on a table with ice and working to strengthen the muscle that’s affected by his latest downfall. He needs to develop into a route runner, because no matter what the stopwatch says when he runs a 40-yard dash, this isn’t the ACC anymore, and NFL cornerbacks will shut you down if you don’t learn to run polished routes.

APIt's no secret. Russell needs some weapons at the wide receiver position.

Plus, the time that could be lost working with QB JaMarcus Russell can’t be made up. Russell, like Heyward-Bey, is not a proven commodity yet in this league, but he did show signs at the end of the 2008 season when we could see him taking that next step. It’s going to hard to do that with his deep threat in the training room.

They need to spend as much time as possible working together because the great combos, such as Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, didn’t become great overnight.

Camp Concerns?

But what I would be most concerned about as a member of this offense, a member of the Raiders’ front office and the fans in the Black Hole, is the lasting effects another hamstring injury is going to have in training camp — because missing time as a rookie because of injury is no different than a holdout for money.

It’s essential for rookies to be on the field, not only to get adjusted to the speed of the game, but also to learn how to play at this level with pads, and to play in simulated game situations in preseason contests.

Add in the fact that Heyward-Bey — if he’s fully recovered by the time camp opens — will be highly prone to reinjuring his hamstring. Because once you experience a hamstring injury, the probability increases that you will experience multiple pulls to the same leg throughout your career. That’s just a fact.

And it’s not a good thing when your game is built on speed and the ability to play with explosive force, separating from the defender when the football is in the air.

We all have questions and doubts about every rookie in the NFL. It’s a huge jump in talent and commitment from the college game, and it doesn’t help when you’re in the training room — with ice on your body.

Follow me on Twitter: MattBowen41

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