--Owner Al Davis talked up the play of second-year wide receiver Johnnie Lee Higgins and rookie Chaz Schilens at the end of the season and seemed to hint the Raiders wouldn't look for a receiver with their No. 7 overall pick.
"Someone the other day said we gotta go get a receiver," Davis said. "Who was it who said we should have drafted Calvin Johnson instead of JaMarcus Russell? (Detroit's) record was 0-16 last year with Calvin Johnson. Then they said we should have drafted Larry Fitzgerald but the year we didn't draft Fitzgerald we drafted a guy who was considered the best offensive lineman in the draft (Robert Gallery) and we had Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, Jerry Porter, who everyone had thought had greatness in his future."
--Quarterback JaMarcus Russell will need surgery to remove bone chips from an ankle which troubled him the second half of the season. Coach Tom Cable said Russell has already been present at the club's facility.
"JaMarcus has really embraced the responsibility of what his role is," Cable said.
Davis criticized predecessor Lane Kiffin's kid gloves treatment of Russell, saying his development was "too slow" and thinks Hackett, the new quarterbacks coach, can speed up his development.
Davis was also unconcerned about stories that have questioned Russell's work ethic.
"I think JaMarcus can be a great player. I'm not interested in what you're talking about," Davis said. "Let me tell you something. Go back to the '70s and the '80s I had a guy here by the name of Stabler. You talk about work ethic. But he could win."
--Cable didn't sound like a coach was too concerned about dealing with an owner with a reputation for "meddling" in his team's affairs.
"This is a partnership. I need his leadership, I need his wisdom, I need his experience. And that's something I told him right from the very beginning," Cable said. "There are some things that I asked him to teach me. And this is one of those things.
"At the same time we've had great discussions about personnel, whether it's on our team or other players outside our team. We've had agreements, we've had disagreements, it's been great. But the partnership in it to me has been exactly what I wanted it to be, was being able to be taught by a guy who probably knows more football than most anybody in the National Football League."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I tried to reason with the guy. I thought we could get something out of him. I guess it was my stubbornness too, but he was bad. He was a liar, flat-out. The players know it. He would lie to them about things and all he wanted to do was get out of here, get his money." -- Al Davis, who lit into former coach Lane Kiffin again, this time without an overhead projector.
