Oakland Raiders Playing Musical Chairs With Defensive Line

The Oakland Raiders will put on the pads tomorrow (Monday) and that's when we will be able to tell how much better the Raiders are in the trenches.  Both sides of the ball have had poor play in the last few seasons. 

Jon Marshall has started to shuffle the defensive linemen around.  We all knew that Lamarr Houston would be switched to defensive end, that was made clear by Tom Cable after Houston was drafted.

But so far in training camp, the Raiders defense has had different looks on their line.  On their four man front, they lined up Lamarr Houston and Matt Shaugnessy on the ends with Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly inside. 

There is no sign of the Raiders switching to a 3-4 defense, and so it looks like John Henderson is the odd man out.  He might be used in rotations for running plays and then Richard Seymour can move outside to defensive end. 

Wimbley was expected to be starting at outside linebacker, but in the nickel package, he was lined up at end opposite Richard Seymour. 

It is training camp, not an actual game so it is possible that the Raiders won't stick with some of these new looks but it is interesting to wonder if the Raiders have a trick up their sleeves. 

A lot of our questions will be answered when the Raiders visit the Dallas Cowboys on August 12.

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