Oakland Raiders

There you have it: Raiders rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey put together the best practice of his extremely young career, catching 14 of 16 passes Tuesday afternoon in Napa.

One non-catch was a pass too low to reach, the other not held on to with Chris Johnson on his case. Three catches came in team drills, one came in 7 on 7s, the others came with no defense on the field ... and some thought I only said the negative.

Injury-wise, linebacker Isaiah Ekejiuba and center Samson Satele sat out for an undisclosed reasons. Also, left tackle Khalif Barnes (ankle), defensive end Greg Ellis (undisclosed) and quarterback Jeff Garcia were out.

The Raiders have a 3:30 p.m. practice Wednesday. Until then, here are some quotes from today's camp.

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"He's getting better and better, day by day. I think he's a bit jittery. He'd like to do so good to a point where he's making himself nervous. The best thing for him to do is relax. He knows what to do. He just has to keep going in the right direction." -- quarterback JaMarcus Russell, on rookie wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey.

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"There's only 1,500 people that play this sport, you know what I'm saying? I'm just one of them. And I'm just going to go out there and just work. Can't worry about what people say. Not at all. I've got enough pressure on myself to worry about what other people say." -- Heyward-Bey on his critics.

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"You know, he's a real confident guy and he's talking a lot of trash lately... Not to me, but you know to the DB's. So guys are, guys are expecting a little bit more out of him right now so that he can back up what he's saying. You know I guess -- I don't know if he's struggling, but he's still trying to get into a groove." -- cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha on Heyward-Bey.

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Absolutely, the biggest thing is accountability right now, we know where we have to fit. We have had two practices in pads, and it was not perfect but there was one thing was there was this almost silent thing where everyone knew that if I did not get it right they need to know why I did not get it right. That is something that is definitely new and needed and welcome." -- linebacker Ricky Brown on what's different on defense.

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"Extremely disappointing. My teammates are out here working their tails off and I can’t join in the activity. It's not something that you ever want to have happen. Fortunately it comes at a time at the beginning of training camp where I can recover in a short period of time and be back out there and be able to get as much work as I need to get. But what's frustrating is that I came into camp in what I felt was great shape and have done plenty of drills that were more intense than what I was going through in the first few days here out at camp, and to have that happen, it'S just bad timing, it's just bad luck, but I think I'll overcome it." -- quarterback Jeff Garcia on his strained right calf injury.

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"I'm not going to say it was too harsh. I'm going to take the blame. Maybe I wasn't doing what they were expecting of me but of course, yeah, I took that as motivation. I would come out here every day and if I didn't play here I was going to show them that one day they would be able to count on me and just show them that I can play in the league. Maybe not then but I can play." -- left tackle Mario Henderson on criticism from former Raiders coach Lane Kiffin.

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"That's what I do. Today I just wanted to get in there and get a little thud going. I think I did a good job of doing that. Once we start getting live and everything I definitely want to start taking my shots because that's what I'm known for that's why I'm here. I want to show people why I was drafted. Obviously Coach Cable told us these are our own teammates, we're not going to lay out anybody, so right now that's about the most you're going to get out of me, a couple thuds. But when it gets live, can't wait for that 13th next Thursday. That's when no one is going to be holding me back so I'm going to be fine." -- safety Mike Mitchell on bringing the wood, so to speak.






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