Tackle’s practice reps raise Gruden’s hopes

Team has familiarity with Vikings’ defense

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Raiders right tackle Trent Brown was back on the field Friday after missing the first two practices of the week. The together for years, the Raiders and Vikings defenses have a lot in common.

Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther worked under Vikings coach Mike Zimmer from 20082013 with the Cincinnati Bengals. Guenther took over as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator in 2014, when Zimmer was hired as the Vikings’ head coach.

“Zim’s a good coach,” Guenther said this week. “I learned a lot from him.”

In their shared time in Cincinnati, the Bengals ranked in the top 10 in defense four times, including 2013 when the team went 11-5 to win the AFC North.

While Zimmer and Guenther both have their own wrinkles to their defenses, Guenther says the foundation of the system comes from Zimmer. And that has helped the Raiders in their preparation for this week’s game.

Quarterback Derek Carr said it’s probably easier for the scout-team defense to get lined up when they’re running the Vikings’ scheme than it is for most other weeks.

“There’s other things that coach Zimmer’s doing and their defensive coordinator that’s a little bit different, and we have to prepare for and all those kinds of things,” Carr said. “But it does help to have at least some base of knowledge that you’ve seen some of it.”

Zimmer said this week he has noticed the Raiders’ defense is much improved in 2019, particularly with Burfict calling the signals as the team’s middle linebacker.

“He understands the system so well,” Zimmer said. “But they’ve got good players up front — much, much improved in the back end as well. So, yeah, I think they’re going to continue to get better.”

Zimmer said he and Guenther remain friends and talk “from time to time.”

“I’m friends with his family and his wife and his kids,” Zimmer said.

But they won’t be too friendly on Sunday.

“We had really good times. He’s a good friend,” Guenther said. “I owe him a lot of gratitude for working with him — I learned a lot from him. But I’m gonna try to kick his ass on Sunday.”

Contact Myles Simmons at msimmons@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @Mylesasimmons on Twitter.

Heidi Fang Las Vegas Review-journal @Heidifang Raiders right tackle Trent Brown is listed as questionable for Sunday’s matchup against the Vikingswith his knee injury but was a full participant in Friday’s session.