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Nearly 10 months after the infamous "chicken marsala" quote, ex-offensive coordinator Tom Walsh finally said something Oakland Raider fans wholeheartedly believe.
"[Randy Moss] lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career," Walsh said on Sunday.
After a sub-one-year tenure as Oakland's play-caller, fans of the Raiders wanted nothing more than for Walsh to simply disappear. After momentarily vanishing to his ranch in Idaho for five months, though, Walsh was called upon by the Boston Globe to put in his two cents on Moss, the ex-Raiders' wideout.
Moss, who was shipped to New England during the 2007 draft for a fourth-round pick, turned out to be a rather touchy issue for the controversial former coordinator.
"He told me last year, 'I'm too old to practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but I'm not too old to play on Sunday,'" Walsh recalled. "Did they start a senior league?"
Last season, as a part of the NFL's worst offense, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Moss started in 13 contests, but he caught just 42 passes for 553 yards and three touchdowns.
"He looked like a world-beater in a preseason game against the Lions," Walsh added. "I never thought he was difficult to coach, but we expected him to be a complete receiver and he wasn't."
Despite running routes for an offense that threw just seven touchdown passes all season, sympathy for the 30-year-old is hard to come by.
Perhaps it was because Moss doesn't actually run the routes mapped out.
Walsh specifically recollected one such incident that occurred in Week 3 of the regular season.
"He runs a 9-[deep go]-route; Andrew Walter was at quarterback. [Walter] makes the play-fake and a huge hole opens up for Randy in the middle of the field, but he's running down the sideline. Walter nearly threw his arm out pulling the ball back. When Randy gets to the sidelines, Freddie Biletnikoff says, 'What were you doing?' Randy told Fred, 'I didn't feel like running the 6-route on the dirt part of the infield.' That's the Randy I coached."
Walsh, who was demoted to tight ends coach on Nov. 28 before his imminent release, became the scapegoat in Oakland from the beginning. Of course, most detractors were proven correct; the Walsh-Art Shell offense was old-fashioned, poorly designed and 100 percent ineffective. Yet, 77-year-old owner Al Davis saw enough from Moss to realize that he wasn't a part of the solution.
"His whole game in Minnesota was outside the numbers," Walsh added to the criticism. "For him to run shallow crosses and in-routes was new for him. Initially, he showed all the interest but later on...I don't know."
I know. He gave up.
"There were some games where out of 28 plays he'd have 13 or 14 busts. Wrong routes. Wrong reads. Dogging it. Whatever."
In the end, the Raiders didn't lose Randy Moss to New England.
They lost 50 percent of Randy Moss to New England.
http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/a...oss150507.html
"[Randy Moss] lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career," Walsh said on Sunday.
After a sub-one-year tenure as Oakland's play-caller, fans of the Raiders wanted nothing more than for Walsh to simply disappear. After momentarily vanishing to his ranch in Idaho for five months, though, Walsh was called upon by the Boston Globe to put in his two cents on Moss, the ex-Raiders' wideout.
Moss, who was shipped to New England during the 2007 draft for a fourth-round pick, turned out to be a rather touchy issue for the controversial former coordinator.
"He told me last year, 'I'm too old to practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but I'm not too old to play on Sunday,'" Walsh recalled. "Did they start a senior league?"
Last season, as a part of the NFL's worst offense, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Moss started in 13 contests, but he caught just 42 passes for 553 yards and three touchdowns.
"He looked like a world-beater in a preseason game against the Lions," Walsh added. "I never thought he was difficult to coach, but we expected him to be a complete receiver and he wasn't."
Despite running routes for an offense that threw just seven touchdown passes all season, sympathy for the 30-year-old is hard to come by.
Perhaps it was because Moss doesn't actually run the routes mapped out.
Walsh specifically recollected one such incident that occurred in Week 3 of the regular season.
"He runs a 9-[deep go]-route; Andrew Walter was at quarterback. [Walter] makes the play-fake and a huge hole opens up for Randy in the middle of the field, but he's running down the sideline. Walter nearly threw his arm out pulling the ball back. When Randy gets to the sidelines, Freddie Biletnikoff says, 'What were you doing?' Randy told Fred, 'I didn't feel like running the 6-route on the dirt part of the infield.' That's the Randy I coached."
Walsh, who was demoted to tight ends coach on Nov. 28 before his imminent release, became the scapegoat in Oakland from the beginning. Of course, most detractors were proven correct; the Walsh-Art Shell offense was old-fashioned, poorly designed and 100 percent ineffective. Yet, 77-year-old owner Al Davis saw enough from Moss to realize that he wasn't a part of the solution.
"His whole game in Minnesota was outside the numbers," Walsh added to the criticism. "For him to run shallow crosses and in-routes was new for him. Initially, he showed all the interest but later on...I don't know."
I know. He gave up.
"There were some games where out of 28 plays he'd have 13 or 14 busts. Wrong routes. Wrong reads. Dogging it. Whatever."
In the end, the Raiders didn't lose Randy Moss to New England.
They lost 50 percent of Randy Moss to New England.
http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/a...oss150507.html
He wouldn't have the guts to tell Belichick he's going to take a couple of practices off a week to save his legs.He knew what he was getting into when he signed with NE,so I expect he's going to work his butt off to be in the best shape of his career.He gave up like 5 million just this year to play for them,which is nuts for anyone.
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