Raiders to Pick Up Where They Left Off, With Turmoil

It’s time to tee it up once more for the Raiders, the team that has made turmoil its byword, and to show they haven’t lost their touch:

--They’re starting rookie camp today without their rookie.

He is Penn State guard Steve Wisniewski, the only player they got from the top five rounds of the draft. He is unsigned and becomes an official holdout if he doesn’t sign by today.

--They’re starting what is expected to be their last training camp in Oxnard.

--They might be starting their last season in Los Angeles.

Civic bodies in Oakland and Sacramento have approved $30 million-plus offers for “relocation expenses,” and the Raider answer has turned from “We’re tired of a new rumor each month,” to “We have to listen.”

A Raider source describes the recent meeting between Al Davis and members of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission as “a disaster.” Raider sources continue to insist that there is no way Davis will strike a new deal with Coliseum officials, and that a move to Irwindale will not occur. If they’re right, the only roads left lead north, and the team might be on one soon.

--Two players, Marcus Allen and Bill Lewis, who are in the option years, and thus under contract, seem set to hold out. Lewis has filed a grievance and might sue.

Both Lewis and Allen skipped the April mini-camp. When they tried to use the weightlifting room at El Segundo, Coach Mike Shanahan asked them to leave.

Shanahan says it is policy, and that he had to do it.

“Anybody who doesn’t come to mini-camp and has a contract, regardless of who he is and where he’s been, then you’re not allowed in the facility,” Shanahan said. “That was a mandatory mini-camp.”

Lewis didn’t seem to figure in Raider plans, because they wanted to move tackle Don Mosebar back to center. Allen, however, is a towering figure among team leaders.

But first holdouts first . . .

Wisniewski was here most of the summer, impressing the coaching staff with his work and study habits. Negotiations haven’t gone as well.

“There is still a significant disparity in the value we think Steve has to the Raiders and the value the Raiders have placed, to this point,” his agent, Bob Bennett, said from Washington, D.C.

The rest of the Raider rookie class is a mere handful, with none expected to make a major impact this season. They are: No. 6 picks Doug Lloyd, a halfback from North Dakota State, and Jeff Francis, a strong-armed quarterback from Tennessee; No. 8 pick Derrick Gainer, a halfback from Florida A&M;, and No. 10 pick Charles Jackson, a defensive tackle from Jackson State.

The team expects them to be signed by today’s 1 o’clock reporting time.

The Raiders used the rest of their draft picks in deals that got them Jay Schroeder and Willie Gault. In the off-season’s free-agent period, they loaded up on defensive players, especially linebackers, although nose tackle Bob Golic seems closest to making the starting lineup.

Here’s the way the depth chart looks going in:

--Quarterback: Schroeder.

--Tailback: Allen, Vance Mueller (until Bo Jackson arrives, when Allen will again be shifted to fullback.)

--Fullback: Steve Smith.

--Left tackle: Rory Graves, who started last season as a free agent and became the right tackle.

--Guards: Wisniewski will play one side. Dean Hellestrae and Newt Harrell figure to contend for the other.

--Center: Mosebar.

--Right tackle: Bruce Wilkerson, last season’s right guard.

--Tight end: Todd Christensen if he is healthy. Trey Junkin or Jimmie Giles if he is not.

--Wide receiver: Gault, Tim Brown.

On defense:

--Left end: Howie Long.

--Nose tackle: Golic or Bill Pickel. The early guess would be Golic in the three-man line, with Pickel coming in with Mike Wise on the four-man.

--Right end: Scott Davis.

--Outside linebackers: Greg Townsend and Linden King. So far the big move on this side of the ball is to take Townsend, an end, and stand him up in Rod Martin’s old spot. Otis Wilson is still considered a possibility there. None of the other newly signed linebackers, such as Jackie Shipp or Emmanuel King, figure to start.

--Inside linebackers: Matt Millen and Jerry Robinson, the incumbents.

--Secondary: Four old incumbents. Mike Haynes and Vann McElroy are back. Terry McDaniel is fit and once again No. 1 at the left corner. Strong safety Stacey Toran, who held out last season and lost his job to Russell Carter, is running first-string again.