Heyward-Bey not catching on

Actually, we should say Darrius Heyward-Bey is just not catching much of anything. In his attempt to wow the coaches at training camp, he might be pressing a little bit which is leading to a lot of footballs hitting the carpet. But, despite the hamstring injuries and dropped passes, Raiders head coach Tom Cable doesn’t seem all that concerned.

Photo Caption: Spoiler Alert!!! This ball hits the ground 1.2 seconds later.

“He understands his job is to catch footballs,” Cable said, “and for him it is just a process of gaining confidence and getting comfortable every day at this level. And he is doing that by leaps and bounds. I am really not worried about it. He is just pressing. He just wants to impress you.”

Heyward-Bey is a little frustrated, but thinks he’ll be fine.

“When you drop a ball, you get frustrated, you say, ‘Ah,’ but you got to shake it off, go on to the next one,” said Heyward-Bey, who dropped four passes on Monday. “I wouldn’t say I’m pressing. I’m just trying to work through the kinks. That’s football, it happens.”

It’s not that we are trying to be tough on Heyward-Bey or the Raiders, but there is a reason that no one else saw this guy as the #7-overall pick and worthy of $23.5 million in guaranteed money. He could be fine at some point and he could go on to light up the league. But as of right this second, he’s done nothing but make people think this is destined to turn out poorly.

So far, Heyward-Bey is Troy Williamson II.

UPDATE: Heyward-Bey dropped three more in Tuesday morning practices.