Oakland Raiders

Tuesday practice notes

Raiders coach Tom Cable said there's enough depth at wide receiver to survive without emerging go-to guy Chaz Schilens. That may be, but the drop off was considerable as soon as Schilens left practice with a broken left foot (4-6 weeks, by the way).

In 7-on-7 and team drills, quarterback JaMarcus Russell struggled to find an open receiver or flat-out missed what receivers were open. When in doubt, Schilens was becoming Russell's primary target. Now, it looks like tight end Zach Miller is hired again.

More to the point, next week's return of Javon Walker becomes paramount to the passing game getting anywhere when the season starts.

His return was considered a bonus before Monday. Now, September's success is depending on the enigmatic receiver being great coming off another knee surgery.

Maybe Walker is the Javon of old. But do you really want to put all your eggs in his basket?

As for Tuesday morning's joint practice with the 49ers ...

** Going through notes, trying to find something -- anything -- nice to say, and there's fullback Lorenzo Neal showing he can still take out a blitzer after 16 NFL seasons.

** Tight end Tony Stewart made two dynamic catches as he continues a strong camp.

Once considered a blocker with special teams skill, he is showing the hands to be a perfect complement to Zach Miller. The more Stewart does this, the more expendable sixth-round draft pick Brandon Myers becomes.

Myers' can make it as a special teams guy, too. In punt drills, he put two players on the ground.

** Otherwise, there was a lot of bad going on, especially in blocking drills.

49ers running back Frank Gore just blasted Raiders middle linebackers Ricky Brown and Kirk Morrison, per other reporters (I was watching the offense, but our 49ers writer told me all about it).

I did see Manny Lawson work Raiders left tackle Mario Henderson on consecutive plays, using a nasty inside spin on the second.

On one drill, 49ers end Justin Smith got his hands under Miller's pads and drove him like a blocking sled for a good 5 yards.

The Raiders running backs got beat to the ground by the Niners linebackers, with the exception of Neal and an occasional Justin Fargas. I kept looking for a positive sign. I'll keep looking.

It was that kind of day.

** Darrius Heyward-Bey dropped two passes early, but he's got nothing on Will Franklin, who was seen dropping four balls -- and that's just when I was paying attention.

DHB looked best on the last play of practice, when he ran down a Russell pass and got his feet inbounds with 14 seconds left in the 2-minute drill. That set up a winning field goal.

** Russell saved his worst decisions for plays that never would have happened.

Tapped for a sack, Russell threw anyway and had an interception dropped. Tagged again on a corner blitz, Russell promptly threw into double coverage and was intercepted.

** In a buried lead, the NFL confirmed they are looking into the Randy Hanson incident. Raiders coach Tom Cable said "nothing happened" when reporters kept asking Tuesday. This won't go away so easily.

** It's impossible to see everything at once in these joint practices with the Raiders offense/Niners defense on one field and the Raiders defense/Niners offense on the other.

This morning, I watched the Raiders offense. At the 4:20 p.m. practice, it'll be the defense.