The Sports Xchange

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Quarterback Derek Carr was back at practice after taking a break from throwing for what he estimates was between 30 to 40 days as he rehabbed a reported injury to the ring finger on his throwing hand.

Carr conceded he was rusty and eased into the practice, throwing deep passes with touch and never appearing to unleash passes at full velocity. But Carr got better as he went along and took all his reps with the first team after missing all three organized team activity sessions.

“I am 100 percent,” Carr said. “If you could be more than 100, that’s where I am at.”

Neither Carr nor coach Jack Del Rio ever divulged the specific nature of the injury and that didn’t change with Carr back at practice.

“It’s a non-issue,” Del Rio said. “We haven’t talked a lot about it to this point and we’re not going to start now.”

The secrecy, plus an initial ESPN report which mentioned surgery as a possibility, led to a lot of speculation.

“Like coach Del Rio said, we weren’t going to get into it too much,” Carr said. “Obviously everyone wants to know what was going on. It was minor. There was really nothing big to it. I just had to go through a little rehab and stretching and that kind of stuff. I felt great. I felt ready to rock a long time ago.”‘

–Free safety Charles Woodson was not only at the team’s mandatory minicamp, but also had perfect attendance through weight training as well as three organized team activity sessions, eschewing the veteran’s prerogative to miss an occasional voluntary workout.

“I think this is the first time in my 18-year career that I’ve been to every practice,” Woodson said. “I sat down with Jack before it all started and we talked about the importance and what he wanted from this team and him wanting me here. I honestly didn’t plan on being here at every practice, but I’m here. I understood completely what he was talking about.”

–Second-year cornerback Keith McGill, a fourth-round pick a year ago, was getting work with the first team at cornerback along with TJ Carrie while DJ Hayden worked with the second team.

In each of the last two seasons, the Raiders signed veteran free agents (Ron Bartell and Shawntae Spencer in 2012, Tracy Porter and Mike Jenkins in 2013 and Tarell Brown and Carlos Rogers last season) but all ended up being injured.

“A lot of times when you bring in older guys that may be safer Week 1, they’re not able to hold up in Weeks 15 and 16 and they’re not really changing the makeup of the team,” Del Rio said. “We feel like it’s time to develop these guys, bring these guys along.”

Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. called the corners “young, fast, long” and said, “most of the cornerbacks I was involved with in Seattle, they were young. You just have to coach them up. I believe we have really good teachers here to coach the guys up and put them in positions to win.”

–Starting weak side linebacker Sio Moore, who had hip surgery following the season, was on the field in a limited fashion and appears on track to be full-go for training camp.

Also on the field after missing OTAs while rehabbing an undisclosed injury, was free agent defensive tackle Dan Williams.