Brown arives at Raiders after balloon ride
NAPA, Calif. — Antonio Brown celebrated his first training camp with the Oakland Raiders by taking a hot air balloon ride over the Napa Valley.
Coach Jon Gruden thought it was tame by the flamboyant wide receiver’s standards.
“I expected a little bit more than a hot air balloon,” Gruden said Friday. “I thought he might jump out of an airplane and parachute here himself. He’s going to add a lot of life to this organization at a position where we need some explosive plays.”
Brown actually arrived late Thursday while the remaining veterans checked in Friday, three days after rookies showed up to get a head start on camp.
The Raiders will spend a little more than three weeks at the picturesque facility preparing for their final season in Oakland ahead of their move to Las Vegas, Nev., in 2020.
Entering the second year of his second stint with the Raiders, Gruden said his team has a lot to accomplish to improve upon a 4-12 finish in 2018.
“We are very confident that we’ve taken some really good steps in building our football team,” Gruden said. “We need some veterans to come through and we need some young guys to come through . ... We’ve got a lot to prove, that’s for sure.”
The Raiders are banking on a nucleus of veterans and a large group of younger players led by three firstround picks in this year’s draft: defensive end Clelin Ferrell, running back Josh Jacobs and safety Johnathan Abram.
“You see the fact that not only did they show up in shape, they also showed up [and] had their heads in the frikkin books,” general manager Mike Mayock said.
The Raiders have a list of issues to address in the coming weeks. Richie Incognito’s two-game suspension has left a void at left guard; there could be as many as three new starters in the secondary; and the team made a bevy of changes around quarterback Derek Carr.
“We’ve got a lot of change around him, hopefully for the better,” Gruden said. “He has done a great job not only with the system, he’s done a great job leading the group.”