Now three years into his NFL career, DJ Hayden has shown little to be excited about on NFL weekends and a new report seems to suggest Hayden’s commitment to excellence hasn’t been any better through the week.
According to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, Hayden was “ripped” by the Raider coaching staff for not practicing hard – a report that may stand on it’s own or could be a reference to Ken Norton Jr.’s comments in December:
“It’s competition and we just want to keep stressing you practice hard, you perform, you’ll play and the same thing on the adverse side of it. If you don’t practice hard and you don’t perform, you won’t play. We have a competitive group and it’s week to week. You play hard, you perform, you’ll play and that’s what practices are for. You can’t waste your time in practice. It’s a time to get better. The only place we have to get better, that players have to get better, is practice, so use your practice time to get better and then you’ll play.”
While Norton Jr. didn’t use Hayden’s name, it appears his message applied to Hayden at one point or another.
Hayden will become a free agent in 2017 if the Raiders don’t pick up his 5th-year option after the season – an $8 million idea that probably couldn’t be farther from Reggie McKenzie’s mind at this point.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Interesting. He can get released, realize you need to work to make it in the NFL, and maybe restart his career somewhere else … like Rolando McClain.
Very annoying that he hasn’t lived up to the expectations, but I still have some hope, if it doesn’t happen this season, bye Felicia. Make it happen kid, turn your **** head around and make some plays!!!
Yea but if we cut him it’s only gonna save 1.1 mill. He’ll stay for depth and knows the playbook. But after this yr he gone
Sometimes guys are satisfied with collecting their rookie contract and being done. It’s possible Hayden is just happy to be alive and football isn’t as big to him any longer. But yeah he does need to turn his head around and watch the ball. I hope I’m wrong because Hayden is one of Reggie’s iffy choices and I’d like to see it work out. One more season to show he’s for real.
I knew tht buster didn’t want it. Oakland let him go now!!!!!
I don’t think he’s a bust, I like for him to move to safety, and see if a new position works for him, if no Reggie let’s cut our loses and move on, we have and AFC championship to win. Raiders for life.