While he is adamant his contract will need work, Oakland Raiders left tackle Donald Penn worked diligently to hone his fundamentals while he was away from the team.
The 6-foot-4, 315-pound is set to earn $5.8 million in the final year of his pact with Oakland and ended his holdout Wednesday afternoon, returning to the team.
As his teammates went through the grind in Napa, Penn was in Texas working with Offensive Line and Development Consultant Duke Manyweather. In a two-minute video of a 90-minute workout, Manyweather put Penn through the paces.
“That particular workout was a dynamic effort leg day, and I’m big on pairing classical strength and strength-related exercises with movement that directly transfer to offensive line play,” Manyweather said. “Whether it be with pass sets using a medicine ball, sleds or offensive line movements using bands as accommodating resistance.There is always a method to the madness.
“The beautiful thing about social media is that you can post what you want people to see, without giving away too much that may be proprietary. Left tackles make their money as pass protectors, so I choose to show a little of that.”
Protecting quarterback Derek Carr is where Penn excelled last season as the 34-year-old veteran gave up only one sack and 28 total pressures in 621 snaps. The stalwart tackle remained out though he has since reported to the team as Raider Nation has drawn a collective sigh of relief. It also seems that Penn did his due diligence and is in shape.
Game shape is a whole different animal, however, but Manyweather knows the work they did together in Texas will help Penn get there.
“It will always be an adjustment to get into football shape, but many of the methods I use absolutely helps to build overall work capacity,” he said. “Especially when you push the pull sleds, or have me leaning on you with a leverage bar and you have to lift and drive me down the field and reset and do it again for sets of three with 90-seconds of rest between sets.”
Manyweather is no stranger to Raider linemen. He worked with the team’s newest addition Marshall Newhouse in the spring and structured the tackle’s summer workouts. And Manyweather also worked with Kelechi Osemele in the past.
“I’ve gotten to the point now where players directly contact me and want to work with me,” Manyweather noted, adding he learned from the renowned Drew Petersen at Humboldt State University and LeCharles Bentley at Offensive Line Performance and other coaches and professionals in the business.
“My focus is mastery,” Manyweather continued, “I pour everything into getting better and better as an Offensive Line Scouting and Development Consultant. I’ve been blessed enough to build quite the following, based on a body of work, quality of work and credibility.”
And it’s that nature where Manyweather and Penn are thoroughly alike.
“Donald Penn has a tremendous story, his story is almost an anomaly,” Manyweather began, “He isn’t the biggest, longest or most athletic, but everything he is not, makes him everything he is. Penn is a pro and understands what he needs to do to stay elite.
“We always here “trust the process” and that may be true, but it seems as if Donald Penn has “Attacked the Process” which fits who he is!”
Check back soon for Manyweather’s thoughts on the Raiders line overall and the current state of offensive line play in the NFL.