Raiders rookies receiving difficult lessons

ALAMEDA — Darrius Heyward-Bey and Louis Murphy could have careers filled with memorable days. Wednesday won’t be one of them.

The two rookie wide receivers are learning that development can come slowly in the NFL. Heyward-Bey, the Raiders’ first-round draft choice, came to the practice field in uniform, but did practically nothing as he rested the right hamstring that first flared up at the team’s minicamp in May. Murphy, a fourth-round pick, was healthy. But the play that stood out most was a fly route down the center of the field on which he got wide open, waited for Bruce Gradkowski’s underthrown pass, then dropped the ball as it settled in his chest.

“Yesterday I caught one the same way,” Murphy said after practice. “Today, I guess I lost my focus on it. That’s what I’m here for.”

Meaning he’s here to become more consistent, not that he’s here to lose focus.

As for Heyward-Bey, he said he ran at about 95-percent speed Wednesday, and coach Tom Cable expects him to return to practice next week.

“You want to be out there with the quarterback all the time,” Heyward-Bey said. “But you got to understand, we got two more weeks of OTAs (organized team activities), we got training camp, we got preseason. It’s a lot of time. But you don’t want to be too relaxed.”

Heyward-Bey and Murphy are likely to get their chances this season, because while the Raiders’ receivers are not always wide open, their competition is. The two rookies join a crew that includes the enigmatic Javon Walker, the swift-but-inconsistent Johnnie Lee Higgins, the still-raw Chaz Schilens and the yet-rawer Todd Watkins.

Anyone could emerge from the pack as JaMarcus Russell’s favorite receiver. And so far, the battle seems friendly. Receivers coach Sanjay Lal is working hard to foster that feeling. He rearranged the chairs in his position meetings, from classic classroom rows to a roundtable style.

“I like that approach,” Heyward-Bey said. “We can all comment, and we can all look at each other. Coach Sanjay lets us comment on whether that’s a catch or if it was a good play or not. If guys are staggered around, its like you are all just kind of looking around and back and you can’t get into it. At a round table, it’s more like a conference, everyone’s into it.”

As Murphy said: “Our whole goal and purpose for this offseason was to come out and get unity, become more as a group. No individualism, because that’s going to stop the team from going forward.”

Besides Lal, another unexpected source of wisdom has emerged — Walker, who is currently rehabbing after undergoing unannounced surgery on his knee. Walker, whose off-field escapades have ranged from public bickering with Brett Favre to getting beaten and robbed on a Las Vegas sidewalk, has been called immature and off the wall. But he does have two 1,000-yard NFL seasons and a career total of 267 catches, so he qualifies as the Raiders’ voice of experience.

“He knows the offense like the back of his hand,” Murphy said. “He comes back and says, ‘Ya know, Murph, on this play, this, that, you should do it this way.’ That’s what I wanted to have. My biggest thing was to come to a team with a veteran receiver that could really help me out.”

If the season started today, Higgins and Schilens would probably be the Raiders’ starters, just as they were in Week 16 of last season. (Oakland opened with two tight ends in the Week 17 finale at Tampa Bay.) Heyward-Bey and Walker need to get their legs healthy. Murphy said Cable’s playbook is surprisingly similar to Urban Meyer’s at Florida, but that the terminology is challenging him.

Oh, and Heyward-Bey has one more issue to address — a contract. DHB would like to emulate Darren McFadden, who signed on June 6 last year, rather than Russell, who sat out in a lengthy and bitter standoff in 2007.

“As soon as possible,” Heyward-Bey said of his contract. “I want to be out here in training camp ready to go, because that’s the only way our offense can move is if everybody is out there practicing.”

EXTRA POINTS

Among the many Raiders missing practice Wednesday were McFadden, CB Nnamdi Asomugha, QBs Jeff Garcia and Andrew Walter, DEs Derrick Burgess and Jay Richardson (knee), DTs Tommy Kelly, Gerard Warren (pectoral) and Ryan Boschetti (pectoral), S Mike Mitchell, WR Arman Shields (knee), FB Oren O’Neal (knee), O-linemen Paul McQuistan (knee) and Mark Wilson (back), P Shane Lechler and K Sebastian Janikowski.

According to Cable, Kelly has “personal issues,” McFadden’s “got some responsibilities that he committed to before,” and Garcia has “some issues that he’s dealing with at home.” Mitchell couldn’t practice because Ohio University’s spring courses had yet to end. Asomugha, Walter, Burgess and the kickers simply chose not to attend the voluntary practice.

TE Zach Miller (hernia) and LG Robert Gallery (calf) both returned to practice, and C Samson Satele (shoulder) suited up for the first time with the Raiders.

For more Raiders coverage, read Phil Barber’s Instant Raiders blog at raiders.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.