The Oakland Raiders announced that their players will be expected to arrive in Napa for the start of 2011 training camp on Wednesday July 27. Players began arriving Tuesday at the team's facility in Alameda with plans to head up to Napa with the team or on their own. The Raiders will provide players under contract with a bus to Napa Wednesday morning. Once the players arrive they'll spend the day undergoing physicals, receiving playbooks, meeting with their position coaches, and settling into their home for the next month.
The team has scheduled its first practice for 3:30pm on Thursday, with afternoon practices apparently being the norm through next Monday. What will be interesting for the Raiders is the fact that their free agents cannot practice with the team until August 4 when the CBA is likely to be officially ratified. Until then, even if players have agreed to terms they will be unable to engage in physical workouts. Although the Raiders expect to lose Nnamdi Asomugha when free agency opens on Friday, they also have guys like Zach Miller and Michael Bush who won't be in attendance early on. One would imagine the Raiders are working furiously to get deals worked out with Miller and Bush.
We'll be here over the course of Raiders training camp with news updates, injuries and of course, roster cuts. We'll have individual game streams for each preseason game, but otherwise training camp will be covered right here. For more in-depth coverage of the Raiders, swing by Silver and Black Pride.