Benching $38 million cornerback Sean Smith midway through the third quarter and sitting him for the remainder of the afternoon clearly stood out and raised eyebrows in Oakland’s locker room as well as around the NFL.
Advertisement
“I definitely have worked on it”, Carr said.
Linebacker Khalil Mack said he immediately went to Smith on the sideline.
“I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to own up to that, ‘” Del Rio said. “It was getting bad out there”. I was costing our team points and Coach (Del Rio) did what he had to do. Coach did what he had to do. “After that, I just put my head down and went”.
The Raiders expected Smith to bring stability to their secondary after almost a half-decade of constant changes. But the biggest issue was that the 29-year-old never regained his peak from in the Saints’ eyes after a summer 2015 knee injury.
Spiller struggled with injuries in his first season with the Saints, managing just 351 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns on 70 carries. In his first game with the team, Smith provided no return on the investment. Hayden was flagged for two pass interference penalties that helped sustain touchdown drives by the Saints after Smith was pulled from the game. The Patriots will also likely get Dion Lewis back healthy later in the season, so don’t expect the Pats to get into any sort of bidding war (not that they ever do) for a back like Spiller.
But they ultimately didn’t have enough roster space to keep six running backs, and they needed a spot after cornerback Delvin Breaux suffered an injury in Week 1.
“We’ve got to understand who we’re playing and what we’re trying to take away”, Payton said.
On Sunday, the Giants will once again square off with Drew Brees and the Saints, and once again they face the potential for a high-scoring game.
Despite a number of adequate additions over the offseason, the New Orleans Saints defense looked equally abysmal on Sunday as it did all last season, which isn’t a good sign for the Saints.
– Each Raiders player had a gift waiting at their locker following practice: a pair of Beats by Dre headphones from wide receiver Amari Cooper.
Crabtree said the winning play, on which he simply outjumped a defender for the ball, was second nature.
METAIRIE, La. – New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton explained that the New Orleans Saints waited to release C.J. Spiller, who appeared in the Pro Bowl with the Buffalo Bills in 2012, only started two games for the Saints and was inactive in their loss against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
After giving Spiller a four year contract worth $16 million, they chose to cut ties and cut their losses after only two seasons. He went to bed Tuesday night in need of a new National Football League home.
When New Orleans acquired Spiller, it hoped he could fill roles similar to those of ex-Saints Reggie Bush and Darren Sproles.
Advertisement
Spiller suffered a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery during training camp a year ago and sidelined him for about four weeks.
