The A's and Giants are sinking like anchors, but never fear - football is just around the corner. I'm back from a week of vacation (mostly camping, including a trip to Sequoia that brought me face to snout with the most aggressive bears this side of Urlacher and Tommie Harris) and ready to catch up with the Raiders.

Training camp is eight days away, and despite four consecutive losing seasons, the Nation is excited. Lane Kiffin has brought youthful energy to the organization (despite some minor knuckle-rapping by the players' union and the NFL Management Council), rookie QB JaMarcus Russell brings the strongest arm to Oakland since Jeff George left in 1999 and the Raiders have nowhere to go but up.

Here's a look at where we stand, eight days from Napa:

* The Raiders signed Colin Branch on June 7 and Donovin Darius on July 10. They have strangely similar bios - physical safeties who were at the top of their game in 2004, suffered season-wrecking knee injuries in 2005 and had trouble getting back on track in 2006. Branch started only four games for the Panthers last year, while Darius started 10 in Jacksonville before getting hurt again.

Both seem like solid pickups. Branch, a Stanford grad whose brother Calvin is a sometimes-safety, sometimes-scout for the Raiders, is only 27. Darius is older - he'll be 32 on Aug. 12 - but brings an impressive track record to Oakland. He has started more games and made more tackles than any defensive player in Jaguars history, and was twice voted a Pro Bowl alternate.

The presence of Branch and Darius is further pressure on Stuart Schweigert to produce at safety. Michael Huff, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2006 draft, is a sure bet at one of the positions as long as he stays healthy. But Schweigert, while gradually becoming more consistent, has yet to demonstrate much big-play ability. The competition in the deep secondary could be one of the more interesting aspects of camp.

* The Raiders signed third-round draft choice Mario Henderson, an offensive tackle from Florida State, last Friday. He joins cornerback John Bowie, defensive end Jay Richardson and fullback Oren O'Neal as the rookies who have inked contracts thus far. The big issue, of course, is whether the Raiders will have difficulty signing Russell, who is expected to land a signing bonus in the $25 million range as the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft.

* It didn't long for the Raiders to sever ties to Bryant McNeal, the young defensive end who spent last year on the team's practice squad and was recently arrested on a fraud charge in Florida. McNeal was arrested July 5 and cut July 11. His jailing took me by surprise; he seemed like an affable and polite young man. Who knows, maybe some honest mistake was involved.

* Finally, if you haven't seen it already, check out the exchange between Raiders senior executive Amy Trask and NFL vice president in charge of officiating Mike Pereira at a seemingly friendly sports panel in Los Angeles last week. As if the Tuck Rule and that weird in-and-out-of-bounds call against Chris Carr last season weren't enough to get the blood of Raiders fans boiling, now the officials' official is taking jabs at Al Davis' right-hand woman.